The NCWTS EnjoyIllinois.com 225 didn't start very well for Tony Jackson Jr. and the SS Green Light Racing No. 07 team, which brought a new truck they had just completed to the Chicagoland Speedway just south of the Windy City.
During Thursday's practice session, the team experienced those "new car blues." So the Jason Miller-led team went to work Thursday night and made numerous changes to the truck and Jackson picked up a second and a half by in time for Friday afternoon's qualifying session.
"We were dragging the nose pretty bad on Thursday," Miller said. "We had to make several adjustments and we also found a shock problem so we were able to help Tony out a lot for Friday."
Jackson had a solid qualifying run, posting a solid lap of 31.85 seconds and giving the Missouri rookie the 22nd starting spot.
At the start of the race, Jackson struggled with a loose race truck and was unable to move up in the standings, eventually loosing a lap to the leader Kyle Busch who was setting a blistering pace on lap 27.
Fortunately, the caution came out on lap 29 giving Jackson the "Lucky Dog" award, which returned the ASI Limited No. 07 to the lead lap.
Miller gave Jackson a chassis adjustment, fresh tires and fuel during the caution and Jackson returned at the tail of the lead lap. Jackson began to settle in and his lap time improved throughout the race as he gained experience on the mile and a half track moving up to 19th when the second caution flew on lap 79. Busch again put Jackson a lap down just before the second caution flag.
Jackson restarted as the first truck one lap down and the team was hoping for another caution to put the ASI Limited No. 07 Chevy back on the lead lap. Unfortunately, Jackson had a tire problem on lap 124, resulting in a green-flag stop. The caution flew only one lap after Jackson returned to the track and that put Jackson three laps down to the leaders.
"I'm really not sure what happen to the tire. It grew a bulge in the sidewall. We don't normally have issues like that with the Goodyear tires," said Miller. "I didn't want us to take a chance and loose this race truck with a blown tire."
Jackson held on for a 17th-place finish, but felt he would have finished higher without the tire problem.
"If we could have caught that lucky dog and got back on the lead lap, I think we could have finished in the top 15," he said.
"I've only been on tracks larger than a half-mile on three other occasions so this is still all new to me," Jackson added. "We gained a lot from the first practice and it was good until we had the tire problem. I'm happy with the progress we made."
"All three trucks are in one piece," Miller added. "It should be a good week for the guys back in the shop getting ready for Kentucky."
The next scheduled race for Jackson in the SS Green Light No. 07 is Sept. 25 in the Las Vegas 350 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
