Goess Finishes 11th in First Trip to Dover
Rookie Takes an Instant Liking to The Monster Mile
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Craig Goess, Jr. and his Eddie Sharp Racing team traveled to Dover International Speedway for the NASCAR Camping World East Series' next to last race of the 2008 season. Tagged “The Monster Mile,” Goess was making his first start at the track, but had no problem taming the oval and fending off the “monsters.” Goess claimed the 11th finishing position in Friday afternoon's Sunoco 150. He started in the 24th position.
“I had a ton of fun out there,” Goess exclaimed. “It's definitely my favorite track we've raced on this year. The car wasn't quite the way I would've liked, but I still had a good time because the track is just so fun to get around.”
Goess was hoping his No. 2 Greenville Toyota/Team ESR Development Toyota would be to his liking during his first laps on the track so he could acclimate himself on getting around the tricky one-mile concrete oval. The Eddie Sharp Racing team had taken a car Goess had competed with one time earlier this season. However, his crew chief, Johnny Allen, was not with the team at that time and was unfamiliar with the car.
“We had taken a car I raced at South Boston earlier this year,” said Goess. “My crew chief hadn't worked on it before because he wasn't with the team then so we didn't have a lot of data to go off for the car's set up. It traveled a lot more in the front end and the
left front kept bottoming out causing a major handling issue. If we could take it back to
the shop and work out that problem and go back, I could see us as a top-three car.”
From the start of the race, Goess maintained his position, still trying to adjust to the track. The first caution came out on lap 17 and when the cars restarted on lap 22, Goess was running in 14th position, picking up 10 spots. Caution number two waved on lap 54 while the No. 2 was running in 11th place. Goess brought the Toyota Camry down pit road at this time for fresh tires and gas and lined up in 14th position for the restart.
Goess narrowly avoided the big accident of the afternoon. The third caution came out when the No. 95 of Tim Andrews spun just in front of the No. 2 Greenville Toyota/Team ESR Development Toyota. On first glance, it appeared Goess might've tapped the No. 95, but replays showed otherwise and Goess came away unscathed, while others weren't so lucky, causing a red flag period for clean up.
For the restart just past halfway, Goess had made his way into the top-10 for the first time during the race. Goess jumped up to the seventh position by the time the next caution came out on lap 102 and Goess brought the No. 2 down pit road for the second time. They restarted in eighth following their stop and lost a couple spots when the next caution waved on lap 120. Goess, once again, brought his No. 2 Toyota to the attention of the crew. After restarting 10th, Goess lost one spot during the final 30 laps and brought home an 11th place finish.
“It was a lot of fun racing out there,” said Goess. “I had a good motor and an awesome body on this No. 2 Greenville Toyota/Team ESR Development Toyota. I made the most of it and it was a good weekend overall.”
The 2008 NASCAR Camping World East Series wraps up its season this weekend at Stafford (Conn.) Motor Speedway. Practice and qualifying take place on Saturday with the CARQUEST Fall Final getting underway at 12 noon on Sunday.
