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09-10-2008
SCOTT: Returns to Racing Roots at Loudon
Brian Scott returns to the track where he made his first NASCAR Craftsman
Truck Series start one year ago. Scott started 29th and finished 21st in the
2007 New Hampshire 200 on the flat one mile oval tucked into the New England
landscape. It was an inauspicious start for the 20 year-old Idaho native. In
between his first truck series start and his New Hampshire return have been many
highs and lows ranging from an impressive run at Daytona to start the 2008
season to the depths of being punted just a few laps into the race at Charlotte.
Now with 24 races under his belt Scott can start to see the light and focus on
the task at hand.
"New Hampshire will always be a special track for me just because I made my
first start there," Scott said. "But it will be refreshing to go back there and
to be able to compete. Last year we were just focusing on getting approval from
NASCAR to race on the bigger tracks. It was hard to restrain myself, I wanted to
race. We were really fast in practice somewhere around 6th or 7th and I knew we
had a good truck. During the race I just focused on staying out of trouble,
staying in line and not doing anything that would cause any problems. It was a
good steady race for us. This time we know we can go racing, we got a new truck
and all the guys on this Xpress Motorsports team are fired up after a good
weekend last week at Gateway."
Scott is very optimistic heading into this weekend's Camping World RV Rental 200
at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for a variety of reasons. Not the least of which
is the team's positive surge over the past few weeks with Dave McCarty serving
as an interim crew chief.
"Dave has done a great job in difficult circumstances over the past few weeks,"
Scott said. "Our trucks have improved tremendously here recently. I don't think
there is any doubt that he has served notice that he is ready to return as a
crew chief in this series. He will make someone a great crew chief going
forward. We are really optimistic going into this weekend at New Hampshire.
Especially coming off of the weekend we had at Gateway with a third place
qualifying run and running in the top ten for most of the day. We are taking a
brand new truck to New Hampshire and we think that with what we learned at
Gateway we should be pretty competitive. All the guys on this team have pitched
in and contributed heavily here recently and it is showing on our performance."
Having run at least one race at New Hampshire will be an advantage that Scott
has not had for the rest of his NCTS career. From now on he will at least have
had some experience at the venues he competes on. New Hampshire he says is a
great place to race and to return to.
"New Hampshire is a track where it is vitally important to be able to get on the
gas early coming off of the turns," Scott said. "It has long flat straight-aways
and two long flat corners. You drive the truck hard into the corners and then
you have a long free roll in the center. You have to get it to rotate in the
center and then get on the gas. Like any racetrack the sooner you can get on the
gas the better off you will be."
Scott will be making his last start for Chevrolet in this week's event at New
Hampshire, switching to Toyotas for the remainder of the 2008 season and then
switching to Bill Davis Racing in 2009. He says it is a bittersweet moment for
him.
"Chevrolet has been great to us," Scott says. "I can't thank Dayne Pierantoni,
the Chevrolet20Program Manager for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and all the
people who have worked on this team's behalf enough. They have been really,
really great to work with and we want to get the best finish for them as we can
with this No. 16 Albertsons Chevrolet Silverado."
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