Fontana, Calif. (February 21, 2009) - John Ryan (J.R.) Fitzpatrick brought the No. 7 TRG Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado home in 22nd place in today's running of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series San Bernardino 200.
Fitzpatrick had muscling an ill handling truck all race. Early in the going he had a slight touch with the wall. The team had him on strategy to run long stints and with only two caution flags the crew didn't have many opportunities to adjust on the No. 7 TRG Motorsports Chevy.
"We were a little tight at the beginning," Fitzpatrick said. "I was fighting the truck pretty much the whole day. It got real tight and I kissed the wall a little bit. It didn't seem to affect the truck all that much. Somebody was spraying oil all over the track and it made me real loose. We came in for an adjustment and I called for tightening up the back of the truck. Coming with more experience I am learning what the truck needs and doesn't. I ended up speeding on pit road - live and learn. At the end the truck was pretty good, a little bit tight off, but still pretty good. We are just going to learn more and more every lap."
The 20 year old from Cambridge, Ontario Canada is taking the lessons learned to Atlanta in two weeks.
"I have to communicate the adjustments to the truck a little sooner. We were really tight off and that is what was hurting us the most. Now I know how they drive at these tri-ovals, we are not at Daytona, we just don't hold it to the floor. I am learning how to drive these tracks. At the end we were in the top 10 in lap times. When we make the right adjustments we can be fast, we just have to make them quicker."
Kevin Buckler, TRG Motorsports team owner, knows that J.R. will go through some ups and downs as he runs his rookie season.
"J.R. did a good job today to take what we had and make the best of it," Buckler said. "Butch Hylton and the TRG Motorsports guys adjusted on the truck and had a plan for the end. Unfortunately radio problems and then the pass thru penalty cost us some track position. At the end we had a fast truck. J.R., like at Daytona, showed maturity to not try and push the truck beyond the handling threshold. Sometimes you just have to ride it out and bring it back with four wheels and four corners on the truck. We will go to Atlanta with more knowledge and get better."
Round three of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will be run at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 7.
TRG Motorsports is based in Mooresville, North Carolina where they run a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team as well as an ARCA RE/MAX Series effort. 2008 marked the first full season of competition for TRG in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series where they recorded one win, one top-five and ten top tens overall. The team's sister company, The Racer's Group, was founded in 1993 has been competing at the top level of motor racing ever since. TRG 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 at the Rolex 24 at Daytona 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 TRG Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado. (it's located on the front end of the site)
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