Aaron Fike in the No. 1 RFMS/Red Horse Racing Toyota was the Raybestos Rookie of the Race at Dover. Fike scored a 10th-place finish in today's race, his third top-10 finish of the 2007 season. Fike took Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the fifth time in eight races.
Unofficially Fike holds a 26-point edge over Willie Allen in the Raybestos Rookie standings. Fike is the first Raybestos Rookie to score a top-10 finish at Dover since 2005. The others:
2000: Kurt Busch, first
2000: Jamie McMurray, sixth
2000: Carlos Contreras, 10th
2001: Ricky Hendrick, third
2001: Matt Crafton, ninth
2001: Travis Kvapil, 10th
2002: Brendan Gaughan, seventh
2005: Timothy Peters, sixth
Aaron Fike, No. 1 RFMS/Red Horse Racing Toyota:
"I was happy with the truck. We ran well all day. I got a lap down but we still finished 10th. We got back on the lead lap but we needed a caution to get the track position back that we lost. We're just trying to build consistency. We had a good day overall. This was a good points day and we're starting to pull away in the Raybestos Rookie standings. To run as well as we did in my first Craftsman Truck Series race at Dover is pretty awesome. From the time we unloaded the truck yesterday until we put it on the trailer today, I'm real happy with it. I'm getting more and more experience in this series. I think my best finish that I had here before was like 17th in a Busch race. It was just a good day."
Tom Deloach, Truck Owner, No. 1 RFMS/Red Horse Racing Toyota:
"The whole idea behind the race team is top 10, top 10, top 10. And what we're trying to do with Aaron is get that consistency and Aaron today drove one heck of a race to get back on that lead lap. We were just a little bit from recycling and then we had another set of tires and we were going to go for the front."
Willie Allen, No. 13 National Pork Board Association Chevrolet:
"This team keeps rebounding back each week and keeps getting better and better. At Mansfield we had a good truck. We had a good truck and we had a good truck today. We got really free off there at the end after we came in. We had a good truck on that long run but Danny Gill, my crew chief, told me not to push it very good because he was scared the tire was going to go because we had a little bit of a cord issue on the right front. We had a lot left on that run but then we tried to free it up to help the cord problem and just got it too loose off. Every time I come out of one it wanted to snap around. But I'm super-happy. This is what this team needs. We just need to keep getting better each week for my confidence, the team's confidence and just keep moving up in points."
You haven't torn up a lot of truck this season. "I'm excited for the guys not to have to work on it . We can work on making it faster at the shop instead of building race trucks. I want to thank Pork for coming on board with us, Chevrolet, and hopefully we'll get better next week at Texas."
Blake Bjorklund, No. 8 MRD Motorsports Chevrolet:
"We obviously made a big mistake at the beginning. We should have come in. We were a little loose to begin with but we thought we were going to ride it out. The thing got so loose on me on that first long run that I ended up getting behind two laps there. I came in, made some adjustments and the truck was pretty good at the end. We were running lap times with the top-10. Just kind of up and down but 16th-place is pretty solid for us. We'll take it."
Tim Sauter, No. 07 Lester Buildings Chevrolet:
"I thought we could have been a little better. I'm still chasing these trucks trying to figure out what I'm looking for, I guess. But I really needed to keep this truck in one piece because it's got to go to Texas. We'll take it. It was a good day for us. We were loose, loose, loose all weekend. I thought it would come to us but it's a lot different than the cars. I just kind of chased it all day."
Jason White, No. 7 Hooters Energy Drink Chevrolet:
You spun early in the race but didn't hit anything. "We had to go a backup because we got in oil in practice. The guys did an awesome job in getting it prepared. We had the power steering go out the first couple of laps and basically ran the race with no power steering so I thought that was a pretty good finish for what we had. We limped it home and ended up pretty decent."
Are you tired? "Ah man, with no power steering, heck yeah . But it's not too bad."