USAR: Team RBR news 2004-04-07

Carter Takes Rookie of the Year Points Lead
Goodson Teams Back Up With RBR

Cerro Gordo, NC. - In only his 3rd rookie start, Matt Carter battled with the veterans Saturday night. Carter showed his patience and came home with a solid 4th -place finish at Peach State Speedway in Jefferson, GA.

After qualifying 7th, less than 1/10th of a second off the pole speed, Carter had worked his way up to 4th by lap 100. When a yellow sent the field into caution at lap 114, the heavytruckdealers.com / Blacks Tire driver dove into the pits for fresh tires and fuel. Coming out the pits 1st, Carter lined up on the restart behind the cars that pitted the previous caution. Carter successfully maneuvered his ride running in the top 5 the rest of the night. Carter worked his way up 3rd by lap 230 and on lap 243 the No. 84 and No. 44 cars got together thus handing over the lead to Carter.

After leading several green-white-checkered restarts, Carter finally took the green flag for good on lap 261. Shane Huffman went side-by-side with Carter into the final turn, but Joe Gaita, driver of the No. 06 Ford, beat both Carter and Huffman to the finish line. Huffman and Carter made contact in Turn 4, thus allowing Gaita to get a run on the inside. The contact pushed Carter back to 4th place in the final race results.

Carter was the highest finishing rookie for the event and the heavytruckdealers.com team is now leading the Rookie of the Year standings and are seventh in the overall Southern Series points standings.

The Miller Lite 250 will be aired on Speed Channel this Thursday evening at 8 p.m. (EST). The next event Southern event will be at the Concord Motorsports Park on Saturday, April 24th. Matt Carter and the No. 22 heavytruckdealers.com / Black's Tire show car will be on display at Black's Tire Service in Monroe, NC on Friday, April 23rd. Black's Tire will be having their Customer Day festivities from 11am - 2pm. The Customer Day event is part of Black's Tire's company-wide 75th Anniversary celebration. RBR will also be entering a second car at Concord with veteran, Hal Goodson at the wheel. Black's Tire will feature a special BTS 75th Anniversary Car at selected events throughout the season with Hal Goodson at the wheel of the No. 2 Black's Tire Chevrolets. For more information visit, www.blackstire.com.

-rbr-