Stacy Compton is always eager to get behind the wheel, but he was even more excited when he rolled in to Daytona International Speedway for the NextEra Energy Resources 250 on Friday night. Compton, who has taken the green flag at the historic high-banked oval 21 times throughout his career, returned to Daytona Beach, Florida this year driving for a new team, in a new truck, with support from a new manufacturer.
Compton and his Wyler Racing team brought a brand new Toyota Tundra to the season-opener and qualified outside row five in the 10th starting position for the 100-lap duel. Compton's first lap was strong at a speed of 51.313 seconds at a speed of 175.394 miles per hour, but he was forced to shut it down after only one lap. "We got a little hot for some reason on that one lap," he explained. "We were hoping to run another lap, but got a little too warm." Since speeds normally pick up on the second lap, and it was likely that Compton would have qualified in the top-five.
When the race got underway, Compton's Toyota was loose. On the first pit stop, the crew dropped the track bar and took on fuel. The adjustments helped a bit, but the No. 60 Wyler.com Toyota Tundra had no side grip and was sliding the nose on the next green flag run. On the next pit stop on lap 33, the crew made chassis adjustment to their Toyota while filling the fuel cell full of fuel, and they returned to pit road again for four tires and an air pressure adjustment adhering to NASCAR's new pit road policy. The 60 returned to the track, taking the green flag on lap 38. Just 11 laps later, Compton was hit from behind and forced to pit road for repairs. The Wyler.com crew made multiple stops under the yellow flag to fix the damage, but their hard work enabled Compton to stay on the lead lap. Compton battled back to 11th with less than 10 laps to go
"Obviously we were a little disappointed with the finish," said Compton. "We knew we had a really good truck. I'm real proud of all the guys. It was a brand new truck and the first time that I worked with the guys, and I thought that the weekend went really well. We got caught up in an accident about half-way through the race and feel like it hurt our truck a little; we could never really suck up like we had. Then, at the end of the race, the driver made a little mistake and got in the wrong line and I feel like that cost us four or five positions. But all in all, it was a good weekend. It was our first outing, the guys all worked really well together, I thought the communication was really good, and we knew that we had a really good - top-ten truck. I think that's a great sign of things to come for the year."
Compton finished the race in 14th position and currently sits 14th in the 2009 championship title chase.
