NASCAR Truck
Setzer Gateway preview
St. Louis, MO - After nearly four weeks of down time, you can bet the drivers in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series are ready to race their way into the Gateway International Raceway. Dennis Setzer driver of the ...
Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM
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St. Louis, MO - After nearly four weeks of down time, you can bet the drivers in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series are ready to race their way into the Gateway International Raceway. Dennis Setzer driver of the #46 Acxiom/Computer Associates Chevrolet is betting that St. Louis is the place his luck will turn around.
"I hope Gateway is the place to prove how good this team really is," said Setzer. "We have had a great year, have been victims of some bad luck. We ran third in Daytona, second for most of the day in Bakersfield and had the fastest truck on the racetrack at Martinsville but broke a gear. Lady luck is not exactly with us right now."
The Oklahoma-based Morgan/Dollar Motorsports team thought they had the championship combination in 2001 as they hired Setzer and switched manufactures to General Motors. Things have not progressed as quickly as the team had hoped. The team currently sits 18th in points with a 17th-place finish as their best of the year.
"We started off with high hopes for a championship run, I still feel like we can get accomplish that," Setzer explained. "This team was under the gun from the start, they had to build new Chevrolets Silverado's in only six weeks time. In that time we came to Daytona qualified up-front and ran among the top-six for most of the day until a motor problem sidelined us. I look at these guys and I am proud to be a part of Morgan/Dollar Motorsports, I can honestly say I don't think anyone is working as hard to be successful as these guys are."
Setzer has showed he has what it takes to be successful at the 1.25 mile Gateway oval. In three starts at the track Setzer has two top-ten qualifying runs and a second-place finish to Greg Biffle in 1999.
"Gateway has been a good track for me, I finished second there in 99'. It's a flat track, you have to have a good handling truck to get around the place fast and be able to power it off the corners," he stated.
Gateway also marks a first for the Morgan/Dollar Motorsports as Danny Gill joins the team as new crew chief. Gill, who worked for Joe Ruttman last season, helped Ruttman finish fifth after starting in 30th position at Gateway. Gill served as crew chief for Ruttman in the truck series before moving on to work with Bobby Hamilton and Joe Nemechek in Winston Cup.
"I'm really excited about joining the Morgan/Dollar Motorsports team and getting the chance to work with an experienced driver like Dennis Setzer," Gill stated. "This team has already shown that they can run in the front, if it was not for some bad luck this season they would be right in the run for the championship. I think that Dennis and I will work well together and I looking forward to what's to come for Morgan/Dollar Motorsports."
The journey to St. Louis could be just what the Morgan/Dollar Motorsports team and Dennis Setzer need. After four weeks off, Setzer feels like the bad luck may have been left somewhere else.
"Well I went to Las Vegas for a few days during the time off and I didn't have any luck there either. But, I am hoping that maybe I left it all laying on the tables out there and shook off what ever has been holding us back," He said. "I do know that you can only hold this team down so long before our luck changes and were running in the front, and I promise you that's one bet you won't lose."
From the way Setzer has run in the past at Gateway and the dedication that the Morgan/Dollar Motorsports team possesses that is a bet you might just want to run to the track and take.
Green Flag coverage of the Ram Tough 200 presented by Pepsi will begin at 3:00 P.M. on ESPN, Sunday May 6th. Live radio coverage can also be found on MRN affiliates nationwide.
-M/DM
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