Phoenix: David Starr race report

Top-Ten for David Starr at Phoenix

Avondale, AZ -- November 12, 2010. David Starr fought his way from the back of the field into the top-ten Friday night in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Lucas Oil 150 at the Phoenix International Raceway. At the finish he was battling hard for the sixth position with another driver before being trapped in traffic on the last lap settling for an eighth place finish.

David qualified the ASI Limited/Zachry Toyota twelfth on Friday afternoon with a lap of 27.50 seconds at nearly 131 mph. David's time would place him on the outside of the sixth row for the start of the race, but unfortunately he was late for the morning drivers meeting and was forced to drop to the rear of the thirty-six truck field.

Starr wasted no time working his way back towards the front of the field. Only ten laps in to the 150-lap race he had passed fourteen trucks and had passed three more trucks when the first caution flew on lap eighteen. None of the front running trucks pit during the first caution and David restarted nineteenth right behind teammate Jason White.

David powered to the top-fifteen at the restart and up to twelfth when the race hit its one-third mark. The powerplant expired in White's Toyota causing the second caution on lap fifty-four allowing the trucks to come to the attention of their crews for tires and fuel. The SS Green Light team did a great job getting Starr out in eleventh place. Mired in traffic, David dropped back a couple positions before beginning to work his way back towards the top-ten.

On lap ninety, the fourth caution flew and Crew Chief Jason Miller made a bold call to change only right side tires and that catapulted the ASI Limited/Zachry Toyota up to seventh place. Two tires were not as quick as four and David dropped back to ninth shortly after the restart before he began catching back up to the leaders moving past Justin Lofton on lap 132 for eighth.

By the end of the race Starr was turning laps nearly as fast as the leaders, David caught polesitter Austin Dillon on lap 140 and was able to move inside on lap 142 and was able to clear him for seventh less than a lap later. David then set his sights on Mike Skinner for sixth catching him with two laps to go.

On the last lap, David worked his way inside of Skinner's Toyota and the two raced side-by side for sixth place. The pair was quickly approaching the slow truck on Norm Benning who was seven laps down to the leaders and the veteran Skinner used Benning's slow moving truck as a pick to force David to back off and give up the advantage he had gained on the inside. It also allowed Dillon to get outside of David who was trapped behind Benning for the seventh spot.

Starr holds ninth in the NCWTS point standings behind Todd Bodine who has already clinched the drivers Championship. David is now 74 points behind Skinner for eighth and 160 points ahead of teammate Jason White in tenth.

Starr and the SS Green Light Racing team will finish the 2010 NCWTS season Friday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the Ford 200.

-source: ssglr