Dana Dodge Racing Report: Kragen/Exide 151
7 October 1997
Hubert/Dana Racing Team Was Class of Field at Sears Point FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Cornelius, NC (October 6, 1997) -- Tom Hubert drove the wheels off the #18 Dana Dodge in the Kragen/Exide 151 at Sears Point Raceway yesterday to bring home a second place finish to the Dana Racing team. This was the season best finish for the #18 Dana Dodge, and Hubert's career best of four starts in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Hubert ripped through the field three times to the front, giving no mercy to regular truck series competitors. The green flag of the Kragen/Exide 151 saw the #18 Dana Dodge maintain its fourth place starting position through the first three laps. Excellent pit strategy on the part of Dana crew chief Mike Bodick saw Hubert come in for a splash and go on lap 3, then head back on out with enough fuel to make the first half distance, well before the rest of the field made their own stops. "It was pretty obvious that none of the other trucks could go the whole way on fuel, so we decided to pit on lap 3 no matter what," said Bodick. The only other truck to pit for fuel before the Dana Dodge was teammate Tony Raines in the Pennzoil/Dana Dodge. Back out on the field in 32nd position now, Hubert passed competitors left and right, returning to the top five by lap 18. On lap 20, Hubert got enough off of turn 11 to get around the #63 Rick Johnson truck to take the lead. With the #18 Dana Dodge pacing the field now, Hubert managed to pull away, at one time maintaining a 3.23 second advantage over second place Dave Rezendes. By leading the field at the halfway break, Tom Hubert earned the $1000.00 Gatorade Front Runner award and honors for the Dana Racing team. With the halfway break over, its time for the trucks to go back on the race course and complete the rest of the distance. Its time now to play the pit strategy game on fuel mileage. What did we learn in the first half? Track position was gained by coming in early to top off for fuel, so only two laps into the second half of the race, both Roehrig Motorsports teammates, Tom Hubert and Tony Raines, gave up track position to come in for fuel in order to go the distance. After leading 14 of 60 laps, Hubert expertly wheeled the #18 Dana Dodge back through the field from a splash and go fuel stop. Within seven laps, the Dana Dodge was again back in the top ten until lap 47 when Hubert spun to avoid wrecking the #24 truck of Jack Sprague. That maneuver put the Dana Dodge back to the 15th position, but not for long. With a rocketship of a truck under him and pure talent holding the wheel, Tom Hubert passed nine trucks in two laps to head back to the front. Racing wheel to wheel with NASCAR Craftsman Truck series regulars, Tom Hubert pushed on and took advantage of every restart and every corner to move to the front. With five laps to go, Hubert pushed the Dana Dodge into third on a restart, and inherited second when race leader Dave Rezendes spun on lap 57. The final lap was run under green and white flags, and Hubert ran wheel to wheel with race leader Joe Ruttman, using every trick in the book to get around him and bring the Dana Dodge home to Victory Lane. Time ran out on Hubert, however, as the Dana Racing team was set to celebrate its first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory, and settled for second place after dominating the Kragen/Exide 151 at Sears Point Raceway. "It's too bad that Tom Hubert is labeled as a road racer, because he's not- he's a racer all the way," said crew chief Mike Bodick. "We can talk about our pit strategy and everything else, but our success today was due to Tom Hubert's talent. He came from the back and had to pass all those trucks three times, and his desire and hunger to see the Dana Dodge come in first is what put us up there. Our guys have worked hard all season long, and we've been close a bunch of times until something or someone took it away. Hopefully we can pull it together for the rest of the season and get a win before its over. Tom drove the wheels off that truck today- there were a couple of times that it could have been pretty ugly, but Tom hung in there and got the job done. My hat's off to the guy." "It was and exciting race," said Hubert. "I've only run here a few times, and I had a rocket ship today. The Dana Dodge ran great all day, we had a super motor, and they Dana team did a great job. I was hesitant coming into the pits for fuel, but we couldn't count on caution laps, and we made a deal to come in on lap three no matter what- we knew we could go the distance then.. I thought I had that win there - I had the nose out front for a couple of seconds, but we just came up a little short. If this race had gone green, white, then checkers, nobody could have stopped us - the Dana Dodge was the best truck on the track, without a doubt. I can't thank (team owner) Kurt Roehrig enough for this opportunity- it was a great day for the Dana Racing team." "Tom Hubert did a fantastic job for the Dana Racing team today," said team manager Scott Treichler. "Everybody knew after the first half that there was no way they were going to beat us, so we pushed Tom real hard, and he got a little low in turn eight on that last lap. The #80 truck had to roll the dice on fuel mileage because they knew they couldn't beat us. This second place finish was a little bittersweet- if the end was a green flag lap then a white flag lap to the checkered, there was no way Ruttman could have held Tom off, but you can't count on 'coulda, woulda, shoulda'. This race really did showcase Tom 's talent, and we look forward to hopefully putting him in the truck again. We were happy to get Dana Corporation some airtime today, with all the other competitors out there looking over their shoulders at the Dana Dodge coming at them." Next up for the DANA Dodge... ...is Kevin Cywinski wheeling the truck around the one-half mile Mesa Marin oval. Cywinski, with his seventh place finish in yesterday's American Speed Association race in Salem, Indiana, clinched the 1997 ASA Championship title in only his second full season of ASA competition. Out of 19 starts in the ASA series this year, Cywinski has posted 17 top-ten finishes and three wins to date, with one race left in the season. This will be Cywinski's second race in the Dana Dodge. His first start in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series was in the Dana Dodge in July of this year, at Indianapolis Raceway Park, where Cywinski posted a 20th place finish. "I'm very excited to get back into the Dana Dodge for this race at Bakersfield," said cywinski. "I've never run at Bakersfield before, but I'm told its similar to Nashville, where my best finish is third. I'm anticipating a good performance for the Dana Racing team this coming weekend." Dana Dodge On-Board Activity... The next on-board camera event for the #18 Dana Dodge will be the Dodge California Truckstop 300 at Mesa Marin Raceway on October 12. In Team News... Roehrig Motorsport teammate Tony Raines posted a 20th place starting position and finished the Kragen/Exide 151 in 24th place after an engine failure on lap 52. The #19 Pennzoil Dodge carries associate sponsorship from Dana Corporation. About DANA Corporation... Dana Corporation and four of its major brands- Spicer_, Victor Reinz_, Wix_, and Perfect Circle_, comprise the primary sponsorship of the #18 Dana Dodge. Dana is the worldwide leader in the engineering, manufacturing, and distribution of products and systems for the vehicular, industrial, and off-highway markets. A unique aspect of the relationship of Dana Corporation and Roehrig Motorsport is in the product and engineering provided. Many of the automotive components that Dana Corporation manufactures are used on the race truck, including filtration products, sealing products, gasket technology, driveshaft, and drivetrain technology. For more information on DANA Corporation's products and technology, check out the DANA web site at http://www.dana.com
