Talladega: Tony Jackson Jr. race report

Disheartening Finish for Tony Jackson Jr.

Talladega, AL -- October 30, 2010. Tony When Tony Jackson Jr. and Bobby Dotter first met last winter the two planned a seven-race "training program" for the twenty-seven year old Missouri driver. With five top-twenty finishes in his first six races, expectations for Jackson's seventh and final race of the 2010 NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series with the SS Green Light team were high.

Jackson's 2010 NCWTS journey ended seventeen laps earlier than planned; behind the wall with an overheated truck resulting in an unfortunate twenty-sixth place finish in the Mountain Dew 250 at the Talladega Superspeedway.

For the second race this season Jackson was under the guidance of veteran Butch Miller and Tony took to the 2.66-mile track like a true veteran throughout practice running with and even running at the point of the draft. In Friday's qualifying session, Tony posted a lap of 54.12 seconds giving the rookie driver the twenty-fifth starting spot for the ninety-four lap race on NASCAR's longest track.

Miller's plan for his young driver making his first start on a superspeedway was simple, stay at the back of the lead pack out of trouble and gain experience for the last twenty laps of the race. Tony did a great job early in the race, following Miller's plan and keeping the ASI Limited/Akzo Noble Chevrolet away from trouble.

When teammate David Starr ran out of fuel during the first caution, Tony was in position to push Starr to the attention of the SS Green Light crew, protecting Starr from going down a lap.

Tony hung back through the middle portions of the 250-mile race drafting with Johnny Sauter and others, gaining experience and keeping his ASI Limited No. 07 out of out of harms way until it was time to move up into the lead draft. Following pit stops under caution on lap sixty-one, Jackson was set for the run to the checkers.

While running inside the top-twenty in the lead draft, Jackson got into the back of Craig Goess at Lap sixty-eight when James Buescher got bumped out of the draft directly in front of him forcing Goess to lift and that caused damage to the nose of his ASI Limited/Akzo Nobel Chevrolet. With reduced airflow to the radiator, Jackson's truck began to overheat eventually forcing him behind the wall after completing seventy-seven of the races scheduled ninety-four laps and was credited with twenty-sixth place behind Kyle Busch.

"The truck wasn't the fastest on it's own, but it worked really good in traffic," said Miller. "Tony did a good job for first time on a speedway, we were hanging back to keep out of trouble and we just got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"We have all enjoyed working with Tony this season," said SS Green Light General Manager Bobby Dotter. "I saw a lot of growth over the seven races he ran with our team. He has a lot of talent and a bright future."

Despite only running seven of the twenty-two races so far in 2010, Jackson is currently thirty-fourth in the driver point standings. The SS Green Light team hopes to run Jackson full time and compete for NCWTS rookie of the year in 2011.

-source: ssglr