Robert Richardson took to the Texas Motor Speedway for only his second career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start Friday night in the Silverado 350k only 45 minutes from his hometown of McKinney, Texas.  Richardson was one of 11 drivers forced to qualify their way into the field of 36 trucks for the event.  With only two hours of practice in the race truck on the 1.5-mile speedway, Richardson would put faith in his Billy Ballew Motorsports-prepared race truck for qualifying.  Turning an impressive lap time of 29.962 seconds, Richardson would be forced to sit and wait until qualifying was complete to determine whether he would get to compete in Friday night's event.  After all 41 cars had turned qualifying laps, Richardson would be able to relax as he earned the 28th fastest time of the 41 trucks attempting to make the show.  Based on provisional starters in the field, Richardson would have to line up his No. 82 Benchmark Mortgage Chevrolet in the 36th position for the start of the race.

"Qualifying for this race at Texas was probably one of the most stressful things I have ever had to face in a race car," said Richardson.  "We did not get a chance to test at Texas in the truck before the race so the two hours of practice was all I had to learn the truck and how I needed to drive it on this race track.  We kept picking up time in practice, but I know that if we would have been able to test we would have been way ahead of the game.  I really can't say enough about all the guys on the Billy Ballew Motorsports team and the CLR Racing team.  They gave me incredible equipment and confidence to be able to go out and hold the throttle down for my qualifying laps.  It was a pretty cool moment when we knew that we were locked in the field, I think it meant a lot to everyone on this race team, maybe even as much as it meant to me."

Richardson would start the race with the sole intention of seeing the checkered flag and gaining valuable experience for the 2006 season.  Richardson immediately showed that he could run consistent lap times and make passes on other trucks.  But being conservative was still on the forefront of his mind throughout the event.  Richardson would go a lap down to the lead trucks halfway through the event, but remain in position to receive the 'lucky dog' award if a caution flag would fly.  But as the truck remained on the race track, the grip in his tires would start to weaken costing him another lap to the leaders before a late race caution flag would fly.  Richardson took the checkered flag in the event in the 28th position.

"This race was all about experience," said Richardson.  "We knew that the primary hurdle was to make the race and then run clean and conservative while under NASCAR observation.  This was just an incredible experience for me to get to race at this level of competition in front of my friends and family here in Texas.  I had a great race truck and the guys made the right adjustments to make the truck neutral in the corners for me most of the night.  To come to Texas, make the race on time and then run a solid race was everything we were hoping for when we came to the track.  I learned so much about the trucks this weekend and I know that will only help moving forward into the 2006 season."

Richardson and his team will travel to Homestead-Miami Speedway immediately following the Texas weekend for testing on Monday in preparation for the November 18 event.  Richardson plans to compete in the final NCTS event of 2005 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.