Homestead: David Starr race report

David Starr Eleventh at Homestead

Homestead, FL -- November 19, 2010. The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season came to an end on Friday evening at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, David Starr's 2010 season ended on a positive note with the Texas native finishing eleventh in the Ford 200 and ninth in the drivers standings for the second straight season.

On Friday afternoon, David qualified the Zachry Toyota eighteenth a lap of 32.36 seconds at 166.8 mph. David's time would place him on the outside of the ninth row for the start of the 134-lap race.

Starr would settle into eighteenth at the drop of the green flag but would soon begin working his way toward the front of the field, reaching the top-fifteen before lap twenty and up to fourteenth when the first caution flew on lap thirty. He radioed to the Jason Miller-led crew that he was tight from the center-off and the SS Green Light team made air pressure adjustments to assist in the handling of the No. 81 Zachry Toyota.

David restarted fifteenth and as the air pressures came up he again started working his way toward the front reaching the twelfth spot on lap sixty. David battled hard and as the green flag run went on his Tundra would continue to improve moving into the top-ten and reaching as high as eighth when the third caution flew on lap 105.

The race was halted by a nineteen minute red flag while track crews repaired the safety barriers on lap 113 when John Jackson spun in turn four and slammed into the sand barrels protecting the end of the pit wall. Jackson was not injured in the scary wreck. Following the stoppage, many of the lead lap trucks came to pit road for gas and tires. Miller elected to just take a splash of Sunoco fuel and was the first truck off of pit road lining up seventh on the restart.

Starr was trapped behind a couple of slower trucks that had stayed on the track and several trucks with fresh tires worked their way around the No. 81 dropping David back to eleventh place. David worked his way back to ninth when the final caution flew with seven laps to go. It was bad news for Starr, whose truck was much stronger on the longer runs. David lost two spots on the restart and finished eleventh at the checkers behind Kyle Busch.

"Our Zachry Toyota Tundra was pretty awesome tonight, man we just kept getting it better and better, right there with forty or fifty laps to go we were up in that lead pack, we were making it better and better, but we didn't get the finish result we were looking for. I thought we had a top-five truck." Starr said. "And right there with thirty to go the leaders took tires and that hurt us on the short runs at the end. We were better on the longer runs and then there were all those cautions at the end. The leaders had newer tires and that hurt us at the end of the race. But it is what it is. All in all it was a good job by everybody."

"All in all it was not bad, it was a great season, a good race. I was excited because I thought we had a chance to do something really special tonight but it wasn't to be. Everybody did a good job and I'm honored to be a part of this team, SS Green Light Racing; Bobby Dotter and Ken Smith gave us the opportunity and for me to come over here in mid-season and to finish in the top-ten in the points is very special."

Crew Chief Jason Miller was hoping for a better result at the finish. "We needed about two seconds of gas and we had a set of scuffs we could have put on, but two laps before the caution we ran our fastest lap of the race and I wasn't sure what that set of scuffs would do. In hindsight, maybe we should have taken two. We were better on longer runs. If the race had gone green, we would have had had a solid top-ten finish."

In the nine races David raced with the SS Green Light team to finish out the 2010 NCWTS season he finished in the top-fifteen in all nine events including three top-tens and completed all but two of 1357 laps.

Next up for David Starr is the 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series/NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Awards Banquet on Monday, Nov. 22 at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel.

-source: ssglr