Daytona: Chris Fontaine preview

CHRIS FONTAINE TO MAKE FIRST DAYTONA START OF HIS NCWTS CAREER IN

The Lakeland, Florida native will be making his 25th NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start at Daytona International Speedway this Friday.

This will be Fontaine's first NCWTS race at Daytona. In 2004, he drove in the i-Power DASH race at Daytona, starting 17th and finishing 15th.

Fontaine will be driving a Toyota Tundra truck named "Freak". The truck was driven to three wins by Bobby Hamilton.

The last NCWTS race Fontaine ran was at Talledega in October and he led three times for a total of 15 laps.

How he feels about his first Daytona NCWTS start and what he expects:

"I can't wait to get on the track. It is every racer's dream to win there. Just to compete there is a great honor. I can't wait to get through qualifying and take the green flag. We completely expect to run in the top ten all day and show them what we've got. Hopefully, it is enough and we can position ourselves to be in the top three or five at the end, and we will just see what happens coming off turn four."

On what he learned at Talledega that he can bring to Daytona: "I learned a lot about drafting, a lot about the side draft, who I can work with, who will work with me and when to go to the outside. I learned a lot about the restarts and a lot about coming to pit road at those speedways," Fontaine said, adding, "So, a lot of the things I didn't know and was nervous about, I don't have to be this time so I can concentrate on doing the best that I can do, and concentrate on what is going on instead of worrying. I feel a lot of confidence going into the race and I am really, really looking forward to it."

When asked if running the DASH race in 2004 will help him at the speedway: "Not really, the car was completely different than a truck and had maybe one third of the horsepower. That was back on the old track. The track is smooth now, and I have a very competitive truck."

About his and the teams plans for running the full NCWTS schedule of races this year: "We are going to take it one race at a time."

-source: chrisfontaine.com