McCUMBEE: Salvages Sixth at Atlanta
03-08-2009 9:20 am

Chad McCumbee used another brilliant call from crew chief Bobby Dotter to regain track position and record a sixth place in the SS Green Light Racing #07 at the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series American Commercial Lines 200 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

McCumbee started the 200-mile race from the 11th position after qualifying around the fast mile and a half oval in 31.71 seconds with an average speed of 174.78 mph. At the drop of the green flag, Chad took off like he was shot out of a cannon and moved into the top five by the end of the second lap. On the ninth lap, Chad moved the #07 SS Green Light Racing Chevy into the fourth position.

Chad ran strong in the top-five until the first caution flew on lap 29. Unfortunately, the team had troubles fueling the #07 so Chad had to make an additional stop to top off the truck and restarted the race from the 21st position. Once back to racing, Chad showed the strength of his SS Green Light Racing Chevy as he moved steadily towards the top-ten until the second caution fell on lap 64.

Another caution flew less that ten laps later when Colin Braun got into the back of Ricky Carmichael and the #4 spun directly in front of Chad who had to make a quick move to avoid the spinning truck. During the caution, all the trucks pitted twice for tires and gas, but Dotter called McCumbee back into the pits a third time right be-fore the green flag to top-off the #07 with Sunoco racing gas. While giving up several positions on the track, this move would allow McCumbee to make it to the end of the race without adding gas again.

A caution for debris on lap 114 allowed the SS Green Light team to take advantage of the additional fuel stop and moved up to the sixth position on the track. On the ensuing green flag, the trucks directly in front of McCumbee bunched up and Colin Braun got turned right in front of him. Chad did a great job of avoiding an-other wreck.

The SS Green Light Racing #07, running this week without a primary sponsor, lined up fourth for a seven-lap sprint to the finish. Kyle Busch restarted second, but had troubles with his transmission and Chad roared by into third as the green flag flew. As many as eight trucks bunched up three wide mixing it up for the top positions. When the field settled out, Chad emerged in fifth place before Terry Cook snuck by Chad dropping the #07 to sixth place.

"It's really cool that we can keep this momentum going. Bobby's once again the man on top of this pit box. We were really good in the early going, but we had a solid top-ten truck all day," McCumbee said following the race. "We had some troubles getting fuel in the truck and that put us back to about 20th place each time so it was tough for us to show we were still good. Bobby kept telling me we were running about fifth place times the whole time but we couldn't show it back in the pack. It actually helped us with the strategy to top off since we were back there anyway," McCumbee added.

The sixth place finish follows the team's third place at California and McCumbee now sits fifth in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series standings just 134 points behind Kyle Busch. "We knocked a hole in the nose going around Carmichael and that probably hurt us from going for the win at the end," McCumbee explained. "It's quite a turnaround this year for this SS Green Light team and if we could just get a little more support we can keep this deal going all season long."

At this time the SS Green Light team is actively seeking sponsorship to run the entire NCWTS season. Currently the team is pursuing marketing partners for the Martinsville race on March 28th. The race will be televised live on FOX TV at 2:00pm Eastern.