Atlanta: Brian Scott preview

SCOTT AIMING FOR FIRST WIN AT ATLANTA;TOYOTA DRIVER LOOKING FOR BREAKOUT VICTORY

MOORESVILLE, NC (March 2, 2009) -- With 34 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races under his belt, second year driver Brian Scott is champing at the bit to capture his first truck series win. At the end of the 2008 season it appeared Scott's first checkered flag was just around the corner for him and his No. 16 Albertsons Toyota Tundra. Scott posted an average finish of 8.5 in the circuit's final eight events. He recorded five top-10s capped by a fourth place finish at Phoenix International Raceway and a second-place run in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. 2009 has not been as kind. Scott clearly had one of the fastest trucks on the track at California but was sent careening head on into the wall near the start-finish line by the senescent Mike Skinner. The crash eliminated Scott's chances for the win but did not diminish his desire as he turns his attention to one of the fastest tracks on the circuit, Atlanta Motor Speedway and this Saturday's American Commercial Lines 200.

"Atlanta would be a great place to get our first win," Scott said. "It is a really cool racetrack with a lot of history and ev eryone in NASCAR has a lot of respect for the track and the drivers who are successful on it. It is one of the fastest tracks we race on. If you can win at Atlanta it shows that you can be really competitive on all the intermediate tracks that we run like Kansas, Texas, Charlotte and Las Vegas. With the NASCAR Camping World Truck series schedule being dominated by that type of track it is important to demonstrate an ability to be a factor in those races and at those kind of tracks early on in the season, and we have a good chance to do that this weekend at Atlanta." Scott knows that adversity is just a part of NCWTS racing and that overcoming racing's setbacks is what helps separate the good teams from the bad. The 21-year-old Boise, ID native has reason to be optimistic as his Xpress Motorsports team heads to Atlanta for the third NCWTS race of the season.

"The only way you can get over something like what happened to us at California is just to put it behind you," Scott said. "You can't think about the past when you are out there running as fast as we are. I feel like with crew chief Jeff Hensley on board and with the team that we have we will have as good a hold on Atlanta as anybody. I have more experience at Atlanta than at any other track we run and we will have a really good truck for down there. The thing I like about Atlanta is it is such a fast racetrack and there are so many different lines you can run depending on how your truck is handling. You have to get your truck to handle on long runs because the racetrack eats tires. If we can get the truck to handle on long runs and we can find a line that works for us then I think we can be successful there."

This will be Scott's fourth start at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He posted a top ten there in his most recent start in the fall of 2008. Scott's crew chief, veteran Jeff Hensley, has a lot of experience at Atlanta. He won there as a crew chief at Bill Davis Racing in 2007 and is looking forward to going back there with Scott behind the wheel.

"We learned a lot the last time we were there last fall with Brian," Hensley said from the team's shop in Mooresville, NC. "We tried some things that I as a crew chief had wanted to try but hadn't been able to because I didn't have a driver that was willing to buy into it. Brian, he didn't care, he just want to run good. So we were able to try some stuff there last fall gearing up for 2009 and I swear I think we probably had the best race truck I have ever had there for the long run. We only had a 10th place finish to show for it, but the longer we ran the better we were competition-wise. I am really looking forward to this race. We are20taking a new truck there and we took it to the wind tunnel last week and it showed some extraordinary down force numbers and that is something you definitely have to have at Atlanta. You have to have a good down force truck because the tires get slick and the track gets greasy and you have no grip. You have to have good down force so that the truck will stay under you."

Chassis for Atlanta: Brian Scott will be driving Xpress Motorsports chassis number 127 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. This Triad Racing Technologies chassis was originally built as a Dodge by Xpress Motorsports crew chief Jeff Hensley when he worked for BHR-VA in 2008. It placed second at Homestead and fourth at Loudon last year with Dennis Setzer behind the wheel. Xpress Motorsports purchased the chassis during the off-season and converted it to a Toyota Tundra. This will be Scott's first event in the truck.

The American Commercial Lines 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, GA is slated for Saturday March 7th.

-credit: xm