Friday night's AAA Insurance 200 at O'Reilly Raceway Park was a race where you had to fight for every square inch of real estate. In the end Brian Scott and his No. 16 Albertsons Toyota Tundra team fought for as much ground as they could get but were left with the feeling they would liked to have done better. Scott scratched out a 12th place finish on ORP's flat oddly shaped .686 mile oval and fell one spot, from fifth to sixth, in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series points battle.
"Tonight's race was simply all about track position," Scott said in the infield after the race. "We just could not get it when we needed it most. We tried pit strategy, two tire stops and racing as hard as we could and we could not get the break we needed to put us in position to capitalize. Sometimes things work out in your favor and tonight it didn't. This place is just a track where it is really hard to pass and tonight was a prime example of a lot of trucks struggling to get past the one in front of them. It doesn't matter if you happen to be faster overall, you just struggle to get grip trying to get around other trucks."
0AScott qualified his Toyota Tundra in the 11th position touring the Indiana short track in 22.701 seconds which translates into an average of 108.788 miles per hour. He was biding his time in heavy traffic at the start of the event and was still solidly in the top 15 when the race's first caution flag fell on lap 38. Scott radioed his crew chief Jeff Hensley to inform him that his truck was "a little loose in, tight in the center and needs more grip off." Scott stayed on the racetrack and restarted the event in the 9th spot. The event stayed in green flag status until lap 93 when Jason White's engine let loose on the frontstretch. Scott brought his Toyota down pit road for tires on lap 96 and fuel on lap 97. His Xpress Motorsports crew also made a track bar adjustment and an air pressure adjustment to aid his chassis. He restarted in the 14th position. Scott pitted again under caution on lap 163 for just two right side tires and was in 9th place on the lap 165 restart. Through the course of two more cautions and some hard fought short track racing, Scott held his own over the last 30 laps of the event to claim 12th place.
"This was not exactly the finish any of us wanted but we came out of it in one piece," Scott added. "I can't say enough about how hard these guys on this Xpress team fight every single time we come to the racetrack and that was evident again in ton ight's race. Jeff Hensley and all these guys do a great job. We will take what we got and head to Nashville. I love that racetrack, it fits my driving style. Jeff Hensley has had great success there so I know we will all have a lot of confidence going in to that race."
