NASCAR Trucks: Joe Ruttman/Dana Racing Notes, Las Vegas
24 September 1999
Viva Las Vegas: In November 1997, Joe Ruttman stood tall in the western skies of Nevada when he went to victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Ruttman and his Dana racing teammates are seeking that same good fortune as they look to repeat that performance.
Hopefully, lady luck will shine on Ruttman and the Dana team, considering how disappointing the last race for the team was. A good finish would mean the team could put the untimely events that occurred at Richmond behind them.
At Richmond International Raceway the team had two chances for victory. One ended in a crash and the other with a broken rearend. Fortunately the team can take comfort in the fact that one of their trucks won the pole, and led the most laps.
* 99 in 99: When the #18 Dana Dodge takes the green flag for the running of the Orleans 250 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway it will mark the 99 start for a truck with the Dana Corporation sponsorship.
The Dana Corporation began their sponsorship in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at the first race of the 1996 season. Since then they have been in every race the truck series has run over the past four years.
* Testing: Joe Ruttman and the Dana Racing team will be running two trucks at the open test at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Wednesday the 22nd. One of the trucks is the speedway truck that the team ran at Michigan and Texas, finishing fifth and eleventh respectively.
The other is the truck that Bobby Hamilton drives during the season. Each truck is vastly different, so the team can see how they can improve their speedway program in the future.
* Moving In: The Dana team spent much of the time between this race and the Richmond race moving into the new addition to the Lebanon, Tennessee based team's shop. The new addition to the race shop will allow the team to build most of their trucks in house. This will give them the opportunity to enhance the Bobby Hamilton Dana racing program.
Ruttman's Quotes for Las Vegas Motor Speedway
"I really like this place. It has long sweeping turns that you can run two and three wide. It's just fun to drive, and since I won here you know I have to like it."
"The guys have built a great truck for the speedways. It drives easy, well, as easy as 180 MPH can be. I guess I mean I know that when we get to the track and we roll the truck off the rig that it will be fast from the get go."
"Boy when we won here two years ago it was one of those fuel mileage deals. We had a fast truck but we got lucky. But I'd rather be luck that good any day."