NASCAR Trucks: Ribbs ready for Kentucky coming off second best finish

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

July 12, 2001

Willy T. Ribbs and the No. 8 Bobby Hamilton Racing Dodge Motorsports Team enter this weekend's race at Kentucky Speedway feeling good about their second best finish of the season.

Last week at Kansas Speedway, Ribbs recorded a 15th place finish in the heat of the Midwest for the team's second top 15 finish of the 2001 season. So hopefully, he and the team will be able to back that finish up this week at a similar type of racetrack.

"We had a pretty solid finish after a rocky start to last week's race," said Ribbs. "I sure wish we could've had a better finish, but we'll take it and move on down the road. Maybe this week will be a breakthrough week at Kentucky Speedway.

Thus far in the 2001 campaign, Ribbs and the team have been able to finish every race they have run. This is a great accomplishment for a rookie team and rookie driver.

Kentucky Was the First Race for What Is Now the No. 8 Team: Last year, Bobby Hamilton Racing put together a group of crewmembers to compete in the NASCAR All Pro event that was running in conjunction with the NASCAR Truck Series event at Kentucky. The plan was to start a second team from that group of guys. Now, one year later, that group of guys has become the No. 8 Dodge Motorsports Team.

The team has come a long way in the last 12 months, but even in their first race together, they looked strong. At that time, Donny Morelock was the driver and if it had not been for an engine failure, the team may have won the NASCAR All Pro race their first time out.

This Week's Truck: The No. 8 Team will race "Rocket" this week at Kentucky Speedway. This will be Rocket's eighth appearance this season and second in a row.

"I feel pretty good about the first half of the season. But we can definitely improve. I know I'm not going to give up, and neither are the guys on this team."

Text provided by H. K. Stoddard

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