Martinsville II: John King race report

John King Scores Top-Twenty at Martinsville

Martinsville, VA -- October 23, 2010. John King showed poise beyond his limited experience on Saturday afternoon at the Martinsville Speedway. In only his third NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start, the young late-model driver finished an impressive nineteenth driving the No. 07 Courtesy Chevrolet in the Kroger 200 at the Martinsville Speedway.

The solid finish is King's second top-twenty in three starts in the NCWTS and the first lead lap finish of his young Truck Series career.

King qualified the No. 07 Courtesy Chevrolet Silverado twenty-seventh quick on Friday afternoon with a competitive lap of 20.33 seconds at over 93 mph. John could have had a much quicker time on his second lap but the truck pushed up out of the grove costing valuable time.

"I just overdrove it into one and two on the second lap. I guess I thought I was on a dirt-track," joked King. "It cost a couple tenths and a pretty good starting position."

Mired in traffic on the flat half-mile oval, Crew Chief Butch Miller took advantage of an early caution to pit for fuel and make a chassis adjustment to try to overcome a tight condition in the center of the corner. The move worked perfectly to gain John track position when a majority of the trucks pit under the next caution on lap forty moving John up into the top-ten.

John restarted strong but was soon trapped on the outside behind the slower truck of Angela Cope and lost several positions. John kept his composure and eventually worked his way into the preferred lower line keeping the No. 07 in the top-twenty.

Miller brought King to the attention of the SS Green Light crew under the races sixth caution just before the three-quarter mark of the 200-lap race for fresh Goodyear's, Sunoco fuel and another chassis adjustment.

Five caution flags would keep the racing close with lots of contact throughout the field over the final fifty laps and through all the side-by-side action and beating and banging, John was able to keep his truck in the mix with the truck series regulars.

At the end of the race, John was "up on the wheel" during the green, white, checker finish; passing two trucks on the final lap giving the No. 07 Courtesy Chevrolet a nineteenth place behind winner Ron Hornaday.

Miller was very pleased with his understudy. "John kept the truck out of trouble, he showed a lot of poise when things were pretty heated-up in traffic. We got it to handle better as we went on, but we never did get the truck to turn as good in the center of the corner as we would have liked."

"I think it was a very successful race for John and we accomplished what was needed in getting him to the finish without a major incident. He was never even threatened to loose the lead lap throughout the race," Miller added. "He's a good kid, very polite and we all enjoyed working with him."

"I'm extremely happy. We rolled off twenty-seventh, ended up nineteenth on the lead lap! I had a really good weekend. The numbers may not show how good things really went," commented King. "We stayed out of trouble, didn't get run over and I didn't run anyone over. It was a little rough out there but my spotter did a great job keeping me informed and out of trouble."

"A huge thanks to the entire SS Green Light Racing team, I had a great truck and crew! It's the hardest working bunch I've ever worked with, they gave me everything I needed all weekend."

-source: ssglr