Darlington: Lance Fenton race report

LANCE FENTON TAMES THE "LADY IN BLACK"

Darlington, SC, August 17th, 2010: Lance Fenton, driver of the Rick Ware Racing truck in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series topped his teammates and captured a 19th place finish at Darlington Raceway on Saturday night.

FuelDoctor.com was the primary sponsor along with Eagles Bluff Country Club, and Dillon Motor Speedway as the associate sponsors. The Tyler, Texas native came to the checkered flag without a Darlington Stripein his debut start at the notoriously difficult track. It was only his second Camping World Truck Series start this year, and his first with Rick Ware Racing. Lance Fenton beat some huge names in the series. Fenton beat Mike Skinner, Brian Ickler, Ricky Carmichael, and Donny Lia.

Owner, Rick Ware said, "The weekend went really good. We took a rookie, the first time here at Darlington, and he did everything we asked of him. He stayed out of trouble in practice, qualifying, and the race. We had a "top 20" finish, and I don't think you can ask much more of that out of anybody. "

The first objective of the week was to feel out and practice the truck. Fenton kept his right side clean throughout the entire practice. Many drivers have fallen victim to the "Lady In Black," but Fenton did not let Darlington Raceway bite him. Lance Fenton was 28th in the first practice, with a time of 32.254 and 27th in the final practice, with a time of 32.974.

Fenton qualified 33rd with a time of 32.287 at 152.309mph in the #47 FuelDoctor.com Chevrolet. His teammate, Brett Butler qualified 25th, but came back to the garage with a red stripe on the right side as he scraped the outside wall. The third Rick Ware Racing truck driven by Justin Hobgood qualified 35th.

Lance Fenton said "Nobody enjoys showing up to a race not necessarily to win the race, but we showed up to finish the race, and we accomplished that effort, and we accomplished it inside the "top 20". So, that was a victory for us. That's what we came to do, and that was the equipment we brought. We didn't have equipment that was capable of running inside the "top 10" anyway. So, we had "top 20" equipment, and that's what we did. Mission accomplished! It was a good victory with all of the chaos."

Lance Fenton entered the race so he could be qualified to race at some of the future mile and a half tracks. The objective of the night was to bring the truck home in one piece and get a "top 20" finish. Fenton finished 19th with only a small dent in the right corner panel as Todd Bodine clipped Fenton as he was passing him.

Fenton said, "I started getting comfortable about probably, I remember someone saying that there was 90 laps to go, and at one point I picked up a vibration in my front left tire, and once we got that changed, and once we got tires. The truck felt good. I started getting comfortable, and I started following some lines from different people around the track. I started picking up speed, so I was faster at the end of the race than anytime at the beginning of it."

Lance Fenton carried the Rick Ware Racing banner as his teammates finished 29th and 34th. The Rick Ware Racing team achieved every goal that they set for the weekend. Fenton is not sure when he will race again, but he left Darlington Raceway with a big smile on his face.

-source: rick ware racing