The Silverado 350 was a bewildering race for the No. 22 Crown Royal Toyota Tundra team at Texas Motor Speedway. The team pictured the evening starting off with a loose-handling truck that would probably evolve into a slightly tighter machine by race end, but the truck actually did just the opposite and eventually landed Bill Lester and crew in 11th place by the end of the night.

It was a weekend of ups and downs for the No. 22 Bill Davis Racing truck team. The first practice session on Thursday concluded with the BDR team listed as only the 17th-fastest truck on the track, but by final practice the truck had improved considerably and had moved up the speed chart. The Crown Royal crew had definitely picked up the pace, lapping the 1.5-mile speedway in 29.7 seconds at 181.8 miles per hour, listing it as the 11th-fastest truck on the track.

Come qualifying time, later that same day, the team's weekend started looking up even more. Lester was the 29th driver to make his trial laps and by the time he was finished, he was on the outside pole right behind his teammate Mike Skinner. Lester's qualifying effort was clocked at 182.6 miles per hour, which meant he had lapped the Texas track in 29.58 seconds.

The entire Bill Davis Racing organization was looking forward to racing under the lights Friday in the Lone Star State. There sat Skinner and Lester in the first- and second-starting positions, with their other teammates Johnny Benson in the sixth-starting spot and Steve Park in 13th.

As the race got underway at 8:30 p.m. CT, it was pure BDR Toyota Racing domination the entire first quarter of the competition. Skinner led the way with Lester right behind him in second. Then, following their lead, Benson had moved up to third to make a BDR freight train that led the rest of the pack for more than 35 laps.

The strong teammate run was interrupted when Lester's truck developed a very tight-handling condition, especially coming out of turn two. He fell back to fourth place and worked to stay inside the top five.

Much to Lester's relief, the second yellow flag of the night waved on lap 39. This gave him and his Crown Royal team the time they needed to stop to address the tight-handling problem. Lester brought his truck down pit road on lap 40 for four tires and fuel, along with a track bar adjustment.
Unfortunately, after some trouble in the pits, Lester was not able to get back on track as fast as he had hoped and when racing returned to green on lap 44 he was 11th. The driver and team didn't let the minor setback hold them back, and Lester started working to better his track position.

Another yellow waved over the field on lap 60. Lester was still working against a tough-handling race truck, so the team called him to pit road. He pitted on lap 61 for four tires and fuel, and an air pressure adjustment. As he left pit road, it was realized not all of the lug nuts were tight. Lester had to return to pit road to have them tightened, giving up even more valuable track position. As racing returned to green on lap 67, he was 24th.

Once again, the No. 22 driver and team didn't give up. By lap 68, the No. 22 truck was 22nd and continuing to move forward. By lap 84, Lester was knocking on the door of the top 15 in the 16th position. The Toyota team's track position was improving, but its truck's handling was not. In fact, it was now a pretty loose machine that had Lester working the wheel to keep it underneath him.

The team made its third and final attempt to better the truck's handling on lap 86. Lester retreated to pit road under the fourth caution of the night. The team gave him four tires and fuel, along with air pressure and chassis adjustments. As racing returned to green on lap 90, the No. 22 BDR Tundra was 18th. Less than 10 laps later, Lester had maneuvered his way up to 15th.

With 47 laps left, the No. 22 Toyota driver held on to his top-15 run and tried to turn it into a top-10 finish, but was just one spot short as the checkered flag waved. It was definitely a hard-earned 11th-place finish for Lester and his Crown Royal team.