Atlanta, Georgia (March 6, 2009) - John Ryan (J.R.) Fitzpatrick qualified the No. 7 Mammoet/TRG Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado in seventh place at Atlanta Motor Speedway in preparation for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series American Commercial Lines 200 to be run this afternoon.
Fitzpatrick was the fastest qualifying Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate posting a time of 31.690 and a speed of 175 mph that will see him start from the fourth row.
"I am really proud of being seventh on the grid," Fitzpatrick said. "The truck was almost a little too comfortable for qualifying. I didn't have much hand movement, the truck was really stable. We are going to learn from this. Next time we go to a track like this we will free up the truck a little more for qualifying. But this also means we have a fast, nice driving truck for the race."
The team had a little drama prior to qualifying with a slight radiator leak. The TRG Motorsports crew was able to fix it and keep their place in the qualifying order.
"They had me a little worried at the beginning. If we had to drop back in the qualifying order that would have been a disadvantage as the weather was nice and cool. Everything is working great. The crew did an awesome job."
Mammoet is back on the truck for Atlanta. When the beast is on the hood, Fitzpatrick performs.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"We would like to get Mammoet on the truck for the year. Every time that elephant is on there we run good."
Kevin Buckler, TRG Motorsports team principal, is more impressed with J.R. every weekend.
"J.R. did a great job this morning," Buckler said. "This is the best qualifying effort we've had with him in the Truck Series. "He methodically worked with the crew in practice and put a good setup on the truck which showed in qualifying. He is a talent and we are looking forward to having a strong run this afternoon."
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series American Commercial Lines 200 will be televised live on the SPEED Channel, today, Saturday, March 7 starting at 1:30 p.m. ET.
Mammoet (pronounced Mamoot) is a specialist in customer-driven and tailor-made heavy lifting and transport solutions at any onshore or offshore location. The company's core activities are turnkey lifting and transport operations, factory-to-foundation heavy lifting and multimodal transport projects, maintenance lifting services and plant stops, day-to-day rental of mobile cranes, salvage and wreck removal of ships and offshore installations, and trade in new and used equipment worldwide. Additional information can be found at
www.mammoet.com.
TRG Motorsports is based in Mooresville, North Carolina. Currently the team fields a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series entry as well as a Camping World Truck Series effort and an ARCA RE/MAX Series team. The Racer's Group was founded in 1993 and has been competing at the top level of sports car racing. TRG's Porsche sports car program is run out of the company's headquarters in Petaluma, California. The team has the most wins of any team in the Grand-Am Rolex Series with 26, including the 2005 and 2006 Rolex Series GT championship trophy to go along with wins in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona (three) and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
For more information contact please contact Kyle Chura at (248) 821-0468 or chura@aol.com. Detailed team info can be viewed at
www.trgmotorsports.com or
www.theracersgroup.com.
Photo caption: No. 7 Mammoet/TRG Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado
Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=9408.msg65507#msg65507
