Posts tagged Raybestos Rookie Of The Year

Todd Bodine (No. 30 Germain.com Toyota) believes it’s coincidental that experience appears to be
the key at Gateway International Raceway, where a NASCAR
Camping World Truck Series-record seven champions
have won in 12 races at the 1.25-mile track in suburban St.
Louis.
“Anybody can hit on that (special) setup, haul the mail
and run up front,” said Bodine, the 2006 series champion
and current points leader.
Anybody can – but anybody doesn’t.
There have been no first-time winners at Gateway. No
Raybestos Rookie of the Year contender has won a race
there.
The only double winner is Ted Musgrave, who led a
whopping 158 of 160 laps of the 2006 event – the year he
and series pioneer-owner Jim Smith won the championship.
Often as not, the dominant truck hasn’t won at Gateway.
A year ago, Mike Skinner (No. 5 Exide Toyota) was a
surprised winner after some late-race fireworks that saw a succession of drivers abdicate the lead in a series
of bizarre, late-race incidents.
“We won with a fourth-place truck and at the end of the day, when the smoke cleared, the No. 5 was in
Victory Lane,” Skinner said. “I kept asking myself, ‘How did this happen?’ But I’ll take it.”
David Starr (No. 81 Randy Moss Motorsports Toyota) is another driver who won at Gateway when
other drivers’ ambitions overcame common sense. Starr led only the final lap in 2004 in the last of three
green-white-checker attempts.
“I was running fifth and I thought I’d finish third at best,” said Starr, who executed a bump-and-run maneuver
with less than a lap to go to claim the victory.
Gateway, with its tight turns and relatively flat configuration, requires a lot of braking over the course of
160 laps. By the time a driver is ready to make a final charge, those brakes may not be able to sufficiently
slow a 3,400-pound truck.
“It invites you to go deeper and deeper and makes for an exciting (end of the race) when the guy who
goes in too deep knocks out the guy who is running second,” Starr said.
Still, he agrees with Bodine – it’s a great feeling to have the perfect truck. It’s not something that happens
frequently. The Houston driver, who made his 250th start a week ago at Iowa Speedway, remembers
having that special setup when he won his first race in Las Vegas in 2002.
“It doesn’t happen often,” Starr said. “When it does, it’s a feeling you can’t describe. It’s just awesome.”