Dana Racing Team Has Been Quite Busy

Lebanon, Tennessee. (March 10th, 2000)--Joe Ruttman and the Dana Racing team has been hard at work over the two-week break in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule. The hard work began the moment the checked flag fell in Homestead, Florida. NASCAR impounded one of each manufacturer's trucks after the event, and the No. 18 Dana truck was chosen for the trip to the wind tunnel after a solid fourth place finish. This meant the team did not get their truck back until the Tuesday following the race. On that Tuesday, the team went to work immediately preparing the truck for a Thursday and Friday test at Greenville Pickens Speedway in Greenville, South Carolina. This past week, Ruttman and Crew Chief Danny Gill joined team owner Bobby Hamilton and Larry McClure's Kodak Winston Cup team at a test session at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. They were trying to pick up ideas for the Dover truck race later this year. "We've been pretty busy over the two week break," said Ruttman. "We took our truck to Greenville Pickens last week to try a few things. This week Danny and myself went with Bobby (Hamilton) to see what we could learn from his Winston Cup team's test at Bristol. We're like everyone else, we're just using every resource at our disposal to try and win races and maybe even the series title." Ruttman went on to say, "We've picked up a few new ideas on things that may help us at Dover later in the year. Both of the tracks are highbanked concrete, one is just bigger than the other. It was a learning experience and I think we'll have a few tricks up our sleeve when the Dover truck race comes around." The trip also gave Ruttman a chance to visit Larry McClure's race shop and talk to him about how things have changed since 1985. That was the year Ruttman piloted McClure's Folgers Chevrolets in 16 races. During that year, the two of them recorded one top five and four top 10 finishes. "It was pretty neat to see how far Larry's team had come over the years," said Ruttman. "When I went to drive for Larry in 1985, the whole shop was the size of a two car garage. Now he has one of the largest state of the art complexes around. It's just impressive to see what he has done." Ruttman and the Dana Racing team will arrive in Phoenix, Arizona on Thursday afternoon, with qualifying set for Friday and the race to be run on Saturday. Ruttman is currently sixth in points with two poles, one top five finish, and one top 10 finish this season. The Chevy Trucks NASCAR 150 will be televised live on ESPN at 3:00PM Eastern Time and broadcast on MRN radio live at 2:45 PM Eastern Time.