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| Lester, No. 22 Toyota Review: Indianapolis
08-07-2006 | TruckSeries.com Report
Bill Lester's Allstate Toyota Tundra was plagued with a tight-handling condition in Friday night's event at O'Reilly Raceway Park. Changes made during the course of the event improved the truck and resulted in a 14th-place finish for Lester and the Allstate team. Lester was the 24th of 37 competitors to make a qualifying attempt Friday evening. He posted a speed of 108.036 mph during his two-lap run around the .686-mile speedway, which was fast enough to earn him the 21st spot on the starting grid for that evening's event. Lester moved into the top 20 before the first caution flag of the race waved on lap 28. Lester reported to crew chief Doug Wolcott that the Allstate Toyota handled loose in and tight off the corners. But it was too early in the event to make a pit stop. Wolcott suggested that Lester dial in additional front brakes to help the handling until the team could make more substantial changes in the pits. Lester held the 19th spot when another caution occurred on lap 60 of the 200-lap event. The truck was a tick better going into the corners, but the tight condition off the turns remained. Wolcott called for wedge and air pressure adjustments, as well as four tires and fuel, when Lester drove into the pits for his first scheduled stop of the night. The Allstate Toyota Tundra stood 24th when the green flag waved again several laps later. Unfortunately, Lester communicated to his crew that the changes made to the truck during the pit stop didn't make much of a difference to the handling of the machine. The No. 22 truck went one lap down to leader Rick Crawford on lap 124. Lester asked his crew to continue to work on freeing up the truck off the corners during the next stop. The crew prepared to make track bar and wedge adjustments and performed those changes under caution on lap 129. Lester lined up as the first truck one lap down during the ensuing restart on lap 135. When the yellow flag waved again four laps later, the crew was ecstatic to learn it would be awarded the lucky dog pass, thus returning the team to the lead lap. The team received more good news: Lester stated that the changes made during the last stop were exactly what he needed. Lester stood 16th with 30 laps to go and said the truck was "a pleasure to drive." He continued to battle for position and broke into the top 15 on lap 173. When the caution flag waved with 14 laps remaining, Lester expressed his plans to get past several competitors in front of him in the remaining laps. Unfortunately, making those plans was easier than executing them on the tight oval, but Lester was still able to cross the finish line in 14th when the checkered flag waved. Unofficially, the team picked up one spot in the owners' point standings and moved into 29th place.
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