August 7, 2006

East Takes Truck Series Career-Best in Hometown Race

Bobby East qualified deep in the field, but when it came time to race, he was on his game in the Power Stroke Diesel 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis.  East started 24th in the Wood/jtg Racing No. 21 Edy's Dibs Ford and methodically moved his way to the front.  Good work in the pits combined with expert moves on the track allowed East to come home a career-best eleventh.

East maintained a spot within the top-20 for much of the middle-stages of the race, and charged to the front despite a slew of late race cautions.  A record 11 caution flags waved for 51 laps, but East was able to avoid the problems and still find the steam to make passes out on the racetrack with very laps of green flag racing late in the going.

"It's great to come home and get a good finish in front of everyone," East said.  "We didn't qualify as well as we wanted but I knew John Monsam and the guys would give me a good truck to race.  They had great pit stops and we missed all the action out on the track.  The Edy's Dibs Ford looks pretty clean for just coming off a short track race, but that's the way I want to race these guys.  If they race me clean I'll race clean back.  That's the way to earn respect out there and we did that tonight.  I just wish we could have picked up one more spot and got our first top ten here."

East now sits 23rd in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points, just 136 points outside of the top-20 despite not racing in the first two events of the season.

Next up for East and the Wood/jtg Racing No. 21 Edy's Dibs/State Fair Corn Dogs Ford is the Toyota Tundra 200 at the Nashville Superspeedway.  Practice is scheduled for Friday August 11, with qualifying and the 150-lap/200-mile race slated for Saturday August 12.  SPEED Channel will broadcast the race live with Motor Racing Network carrying the radio call on selected radio affiliates nationwide.  TruckSeries.com will have complete event coverage throughout the event weekend online at www.truckseries.com.