Mechanical Failure Stalls McCumbee at Talladega

10-09-2006 | TruckSeries.com Report

A late race mechanical failure turned Chad McCumbee's Saturday afternoon sour at Talladega Superspeedway.

McCumbee qualified his No. 08 The GPS Store/Garmin Chevrolet in the 28th position for the inaugural NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series John Deere 250, and had high hopes for a top-ten finish after a streak of three mediocre races. Maneuvering through the draft, the Green Light Racing driver pulled up to 20th place by lap 20, and cracked the top-15 after caution flag pit stops on lap 44. McCumbee spent most of the race quietly running in the top-20, riding safely in the pack and biding his time.

Unfortunately, that time would be cut short as the No. 08 Silverado slowed and stalled on lap 83, victim of a fuel pump failure. The second mechanical failure in two races for McCumbee left him with a 30th-place finish.

"We had a top 10 truck and we were just waiting for the last 20 laps to make our move towards the front", said McCumbee. Green Light Racing Co-owner Gene Christensen was disappointed with the end result but was excited about the on track performance of the truck. "We had the truck good enough for a top 5, top 10 finish but we were bitten by the faulty fuel pump, its nothing you can do about a part going bad", said Christensen.

McCumbee remains 18th in unofficial driver standings, 36 points behind 17th place Aric Almirola.

The Craftsman Truck Series will take its final off weekend before taking the track at Martinsville Speedway on October 21 for the Kroger 200, the first race in the final five-race streak to the championship.