Texas: Jason White race report

Fort Worth, TX -- June 4, 2010. Jason White looked poised for a solid top-ten finish in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Winstar World Casino 400k on Friday night at the Texas Speedway. But White came-up one-lap short on fuel and was forced to the pit dropping him to thirteenth in the final rundown.

White was stellar in the Thursday practice sessions and qualified the GunBroker.com No.23 in the sixth position behind pole winner Austin Dillon.

At the drop of the green, Jason's SS Green Light Racing entry was strong and he settled into fifth place as soon as the green flag fell. The GunBroker.com sponsored truck was strong and stayed solidly in the fifth spot until the first caution on lap 20. Crew Chief Doug Howe elected for four tires and several trucks only took two, dropping Jason back to eleventh on the restart.

Mired in traffic, Jason was caught behind a slower truck several laps after the restart and dropped back to fifteenth in the order before working his way back-up toward the front, reaching the top-ten on lap 70.

White had just come to the attention of the SS Green Light crew under green when an untimely caution came out on lap seventy-seven, trapping White and several other trucks several laps down to a handful of trucks that had not yet come to the pits. Howe kept Jason on the mile and a half track, using the waive-around to put him only one lap behind the leaders on twelfth place.

Ricky Carmichael wrecked on lap 130 and Howe and SS Green Light General Manager Bobby Dotter made a bold move to stay out and use another waive-around to get back on the lead lap. They had a twenty four-lap window to hope for a caution to get fuel into the GunBroker.com truck. If the move would work out, it would all but guarantee a top-finish for White and the team.

The team calculated that they would need Sunoco gas on lap 154 so White was set to come to the attention of the SS Green Light crew on lap 153.

The plans turned sour coming out of turn-four on lap 152 as Whites truck sputtered and then coasted all the way around the Texas Motor Speedway, eventually causing the races fifth caution and dropping Jason three laps down to the leaders where he would finish in thirteenth place.

"We took a chance that would have resulted in a top-five," Dotter said after the race. "All we needed was a caution before lap 164. Doug and I figured even if we had to come and pit for gas under green we would have only gone down one lap and still had a top-ten finish."

"All our calculations and re-calculations said we should have had two more laps of gas, I'm not sure if we had a pick-up issue or what exactly happened," he continued. "It's the chances you need to take to get good finishes in these races. Luckily running out only cost us about three spots from where we would have been if we pit under green."

"We had a good truck and Jason did a good job tonight, I'm proud of the team, our qualifying effort was stellar."

White moved up one spot to eighth in NCWTS point standings, only fifty-nine points out of fifth in the standings as the season has reached it's one-third mark.

The next NCWTS race for Jason White and the GunBroker.com team is Saturday May 12th at the Michigan International Speedway.

-source: ssglr