Tayler Malsam and the No. 81 One Eighty team fought through adversity once
again to earn a top-10 finish in Friday's running of the AAA Insurance 200
presented by JD Byrider at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis, IN. Malsam
overcame a flat tire to finish seventh and maintain his top-10 spot in the
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) driver championship point standings.
Starting 10th in the 35-truck field, Malsam remained in the top-10 running
positions for most of the first half of the event running as high as the eighth
place. It was on lap 92 that the Raybestos Rookie of the Year (ROTY) candidate
had a right front tire go down. Fortunately for Malsam and the One Eighty Randy
Moss Motorsports (RMM) team, a caution came out on the same lap allowing them to
come to the pit lane to change the tire.
Malsam brought his No. 81 One Eighty Toyota down to the attention of his crew
for four tires, fuel and a track bar adjustments in two stops. Returning to the
track for the restart in the 16th position the Seattle, Washington native had
his work cut out for him to regain a spot in the top-10.
The long green-flag run saw the rookie work his way back into the top-10 before
the caution flag waved again on lap 160. Crew chief Doug Wolcott called his
driver back down the pit lane for the final time giving him right side tires for
the closing laps of the event. Malsam returned to the track for the restart in
the 10th position.
The final caution flag waved in the final laps setting up a 10-lap run to the
checkered flag. Malsam, who remained in the 10th position for the restart was
able to pick off a couple of positions and finish seventh earning his sixth
top-10 finish of the season.
"It's fun," commented Malsam. "It's just cool how you can run top and bottom on
a short track and go up and race like that. It's just awesome. It's like being
at a big track and a short track at the same time. It's cool."
"It was definitely tight out there," continued Malsam commenting on the
competition. "We were tight all day, but the Randy Moss Motorsports team did a
great job. I had a lot of fun, but it was tight, short track racing. Our truck
switched through the night. Sometimes we were better through turns one and two
and sometimes we were better through (turns) three and four. It just depended on
what tires we had or what Doug (Wolcott, crew chief) changed on the truck."
With his top-10 run, Malsam was able to maintain his seventh-place position in
the NCWTS point standings. In addition, the RMM driver remains the points leader
in the ROTY standings with an eight-point lead over second place Johnny Sauter.
