NASCAR Trucks: A top-10 'Star'ting Position at Texas

11 June 1999

DALLAS/FORTWORTH, TX: For the second time in the past three Craftsman Truck Series races David Starr has found himself starting in the top-10. For the PRONTO AUTO PARTS 400, his tenth-place qualifying run was the more satisfying of the two.

"I haven't had a lot of great qualifying runs this season so to start tenth is very exciting. Texas Motor Speedway is my home track. I live less than an hour away and the Sonntag Redi-Mix team and all the crew guys are locals as well. Texans really support their own so we are bound to have a lot of additional fans in the stands tomorrow night because of this run," Starr said. "Hopefully one of those new fans is someone who might like to have their company on the truck. We sure could use some sponsorship help so we can keep racing and stay competitive."

Starr was the ninth truck to make a qualifying run on the 1.5-mile superspeedway. He ran a speed of 177.072-mph, the fastest qualifying lap of his career. Then he had the long wait so see how the competition would fare. Finally, after all 38 trucks completed their qualifying runs, the scoreboard showed that Starr's time had held up as the tenth quickest and the fastest rookie in the field.

"This is a big step up from what we had run in practice earlier this afternoon," Starr explained. Of the two practice sessions held prior to qualifying, Starr's fastest lap was 175.307-mph, the 16th quickest in the session. Starr attributed the increase in speed to some changes to the truck as well as a cooling of the track.

"Texas is a very fast track," Starr said. "The race tomorrow should be exciting because this track lends itself to a lot of passing like a short track yet you also need to draft like on the bigger tracks.

"Our Chevrolet truck just got back from North Carolina where we had the new Silverado body hung on it. I've got to say that this is a very fast truck and I can't wait to get it in the draft tomorrow night," said Starr. "I'm planning on having a great race and giving all my friends and family something to talk about."

The PRONTO AUTO PARTS 400 is the tenth race of the season and will be broadcast live on espn2 and MRN radio on Friday, June 11 at 7:30 p.m. EST. This will be the second time that the NCTS will run an event in conjunction with the Indy Racing league.

Starr currently stands 23rd in the overall points standings and third in the USG SHEETROCK Brand Rookie-of-the-Year standings. He also races a limited Winston West schedule in the #35 Chevrolet Monte Carlo.