Goess Finishes Tenth in NASCAR Truck Series Debut

Top Ten Result Comes at Talladega Superspeedway

Index Size   253 X 172

Craig Goess finished 10th in his debut in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Talladega Superspeedway last Saturday. Piloting the No. 46 Greenville Toyota of N.C. Toyota Tundra, Goess picked up his first top-10 finish in his entrance into the series.

In his first laps in a NASCAR Camping World Series truck, Goess drove the No. 46 around the 2.66-mile track for the lone practice of the weekend. Goess completed the session with a time of 51.804 seconds (184.851 mph). The No. 46 team worked hard after practice to get the Toyota Tundra quicker, and Goess laid down a fast lap of 53.960 seconds (177.465 mph) during the qualifying session. The lap was good enough for the No. 46 to lineup 19th for the Mountain Dew 250 fueled by Fred's.

The green flag waved on Goess' first NASCAR event, and it didn't take long for the famed track to take to three-wide racing. By lap four, Goess raced three-wide in the 16th position. "The bottom line is moving pretty good," said spotter Mike Calinoff. "Hang with it down there for right now." The driver followed instrucutions from the veteran spotter, and the cars soon fell into single-file racing on lap 12, with Goess holding steady in the 14th position. By lap 22, Goess raced hard on the high line running three-wide in the ninth position.

The yellow flag came out for the first time on lap 24 for a two-car incident. Sitting in the ninth position, the No. 46 came down pit road for the first stop of the day. Crew Chief Jefferson Hodges made the call to add fuel, change four tires and remove tape from the grill.

The field went back to green-flag racing, and Goess did not waste any time working his way to the front. By lap 34, the Greenville, N.C., driver cracked the top-five and looked to stay in line with the leaders. Goess moved into the fourth position on lap 35 behind Ron Hornaday, Todd Bodine and Jason White.

The No. 46 received pressure from the No. 18 of Kyle Busch on lap 47. Busch looked to the outside of Goess to take away the fourth position, but Goess continued to race hard and was able to hold him off. By lap 53, the field once again went back to two-by-two racing, and the No. 46 dropped back to the eighth position. Goess once again tried to use the bottom line to his advantage and work his way to the front.

The yellow flew on lap 60 when the No. 9 of Max Papis and Goess made contact coming in for green flag pit stops. Papis spun on the apron and hit the interior wall, bringing out another caution. The No. 46 received left-rear damage from the incident, and when pit road opened, Goess received four tires and fuel as the crew worked hard to repair the damage.

The field resumed racing on lap 64 with Goess running in the 10th position. "Things are going to get nutty," Calinoff radioed to the driver. "Keep running your line, and you are going to be fine."

The yellow flag came out again with Goess running in the 14th position on lap 73. Hodges strategized with the crew to fix the left rear fender, and as the No. 46 stopped at the pit stall, the crew worked diligently as they added left side tires, fuel and fixed the damage to the left rear fender and the grill.

On lap 77, the green flag waved, and Goess did not hesitate to move up in the field. He advanced to the 11th position on lap 79 and stayed drafting in the front pack. By lap 83, the field went back to single-file racing with the No. 46 in the sixth position. As the top six began to pull away from the rest of the field, another yellow flag waved on lap 85. Hodges made the call to stay out, and Goess lined up on the outside. "We're going to have to find our way back to the bottom line," said the driver.

Green-flag racing commenced on lap 87 with Goess in the sixth position, but the field opened up to three-wide racing, leaving Goess in the middle-row with no help behind him. He fell back to the 15th position on lap 90.

As the field came down to the start-finish line on lap 91, a multi-car incident created a maze of smoke and debris. Goess steered through the incident, dodging the tumbling No. 33 of Ron Hornaday.

Six cars were involved in the incident, and officials worked diligently to clean the track with a nine-minute red flag on lap 91. Officials worked to get Hornaday out of his truck after safety crews turned the truck from its hood. The veteran driver climbed out of the car and was able to walk away from the incident.

The winner of the race would be decided by a green-white-checker finish, and crew chief Hodges and Goess strategized how to get to the front once the green flag fell. Prior to the final-lap shootout, pit road was open, but Hodges made the call to stay out with Goess in the 12th  position. Goess utilized the extra laps to pick up important spots.

"The green-white-checker finish was pretty exciting," Goess explained after the race. "I didn't know what to expect. We didn't have a clutch in the last half of the race. We had to be on top of it, really ripping through the gears. We had a lot of metal hanging off the truck, so we didn't get that great of a restart. Luckily we got a good run in the middle of turns three and four. I committed to the outside, and I thought we had enough of a run to be able to clear the guy on the inside. We cleared him and got back on the inside. I caught the draft from there, and it pulled us back past more trucks. We made up a lot of spots in that last quarter of a lap."

Kyle Busch grabbed the checkered flag for his sixth win of the season. Goess crossed the finish line 10th, nabbing his first top-10 finish in the NCWTS.

"All in all, I think that it was a pretty wild race with that wreck, with smoke everywhere and a truck flying," said Goess. "I didn't know if the No. 33 was going to land on top of me. Luckily, that worked out. I wanted to get a top-10 finish for our NCWTS race, but I didn't know how realistic that would be. For our first run, I am proud of everyone on the No. 46 Greenville Toyota of N.C. team, and I'm really looking forward to our next race."

Goess will take to the track for his second NCWTS event in the No. 46 Greenville Toyota of N.C. Toyota Tundra at Homestead Miami Speedway on Nov. 19, 2010.