Blake Feese in his first return to the Top-Tier NASCAR Touring Series since 2005 posted a12th-place finish at Nashville Superspeedway Saturday, August 1st in the No. 15 Phoenix Construction NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Billy Ballew Motorsports Toyota Tundra.
Feese found driving these race trucks was like riding a bike and from the first laps of practice on Friday the driver made outstanding gains. He posted the No. 15 Billy Ballew Motorsports entry in the 18th-place position on the starting grid for the 150 lap race.
From the beginning of the event Feese advanced driving three wide for position picking up the 15th-place spot by lap 13. Soon after Feese reported the truck was tight and came into the pits on the competition caution on lap 35 for tires and track bar adjustments.
Feese returned to the track for the restart on lap 41 in the 14th-place position and was working his way forward when on lap 52 when another truck got into the Phoenix Construction Tundra bringing out the caution. Feese came to pit road for right side repairs on the Toyota Tundra and with diligent work by the pit crew led by Richie Wauters, Feese returned to the track in the 18th-place position.
Despite losing the right side splitter on the truck Feese persevered advancing to the 17th-place position running times comparable to the leader.
Feese returned for pit road under caution on lap 86 for tires, fuel and further adjustments to free the race truck up but with the splitter missing on the front the teams hands were tied on the amount of options that would help the race truck.
Despite the challenges Feese showed his natural driving ability running two and three wide picking up positions on the race track. Feese advanced to the 15th-place position when caution for precipitation came on lap 100.The race restarted on lap 105 with Feese in the 14th-place position.
Feese, continued not to give up, battled with teammate Travis Kvapil in the No. 51 Billy Ballew Motorsports NASCAR Camping World Truck for the 12th-place position running side by side all the way around the 1.33-mile superspeedway. The two traded positions but with the damage from the earlier incident Feese was unable to hold the spot settling for a 12th-place finish at Nashville Superspeedway.
"Really, I want to make sure thank Donnie Graves and his partners along with Fader Higher Productions and NCompass and Billy Ballew and this whole team for the opportunity drive their equipment," Blake Feese said. "Richie (Wauters) and I have a good chemistry and it didn't take long for him and me to gain so much from the feedback on the truck. We were really moving forward in the race and can't help we got caught up by a lapped car.
It felt great to be racing again. I thought we were in great shape until we were tagged by a lapped car getting into the wall. The guys on this Billy Ballew Motorsports crew did an excellent job to fix the truck and keep us competitive. To battle back missing a right front splitter to finish 12th all and all is a pretty successful night. We were able to pass some trucks with a wounded truck and we were able to have a solid finish. I learned a tremendous amount and I will take what I learned and hopefully have another opportunity to come back and utilize it and have a better run."
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series takes a break until Wednesday, August 18, 2009 where they will return at Bristol Motor Speedway.
