NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Dodge California Truckstop 300: Notes
14 October 1997
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Dodge California Truck Stop 300 Notes Mesa Marin Raceway October 12, 1997 By NASCAR Public Relations BAKERSFIELD, CA - If you believe in numerology, Oct. 12 had to be Randy Tolsma's day. The Dodge California Truck Stop 300 winner came from 13th in the field in the 13th start for the IWX/Dole Chevrolet team. That's the deepest in the pack a short track winner has started, since Mike Skinner's 1996 victory at Martinsville, Va. He started 16th. - Tolsma, 31, never had led a series lap, prior to passing 1996 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion, Ron Hornaday on the 154th stanza. The Meridian, Idaho native's previous best finish, sixth, came July 31 at Indianapolis Raceway Park. That's where his wife, Tiffany, worked before the pair moved to the Charlotte, NC area. - Earlier this season, after Tolsma failed to qualify for four of six events, team owner Steve Coulter nearly folded his fledgling team. Tolsma begged for one more chance and Coulter hired crew chief Dave Fuge, a former principal in Tri-Star Motorsports whose NASCAR Winston Cup Series drivers included Phil Parsons, Bobby Hamilton and Hut Stricklin. Tolsma immediately finished eighth at Fort Worth, Tex. and was off and running. - "We started (in the series without any knowledge and we failed many times," said Tolsma who, with his wife, lived over the team's shop and watched television in the transporter. "We had to dig pretty deep and it just came together. This means a lot for morale. You can't believe how much that first win will do for us. It's perfect timing." - Tolsma is the season's seventh new winner and 10th of 1997. Both are continuing records. - The winner's lap 297 pass of Mike Wallace was the 11th lead change of the 300-lap race. That surpassed last year's Mesa Marin Raceway best, in which 10 lead swaps were recorded. Tolsma's 76.293 mph winning average speed was a track record. - Tolsma's 0.204-second margin of victory, over fast-closing Cintas Rookie Stacy Compton was the second-closest of 1997 and eighth-closest in NCTS history. - While Compton hadn't seen the half-mile paved oval before signing into the garage on Oct. 10, his crew chief, Troy Selberg, hails from nearby Porterville -- home of retired NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver Dick Brooks. "It helps to have laps here," noted Compton, referring to Tolsma's half-dozed Mesa Marin midget starts. The Impact Motorsports team's previous best finish, third-place, came July 19 at Erie, Colo. - Compton made big strides in what, a few races ago, was considered a darkhorse bid to overtake Kenny Irwin and Rick Crawford in Cintas Rookie-of-the-Year standings. Now it's a big-time horse race: Irwin, twice victimized by flat tires at Mesa Martin Raceway, still is leading -- but by just nine over Crawford, with Compton another two back. - Here's a look at the current NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series top-10 after the season's 13th and final short track event: - 10th - Butch Miller (2,856) recorded only his second finish out of the top-15 since Walker Evans Racing was reorganized in early August. - 9th - Late season woes continue for Chuck Bown (2,897), whose Exide Battery Ford has logged just two top-10 finishes in the past 11 races. - 8th - An off-day in the chassis department left Rick Carelli (3,038) in 12th-place. The race marked just the second time in the past 10 starts that the RE/MAX International Chevrolet has finished off the lead lap. - 7th - Jay Sauter's (3,073) fourth-place effort, following a late-caution stop to replace a flat tire, was Richard Childress Racing's fourth consecutive top-four finish at Mesa Marin Raceway. Former driver skinner won the race in 1995-96. - 6th - Jimmy Hensley (3,100) celebrated his 52nd birthday Oct. 11, then raced his Cummins Engine Company Dodge to a solid, ninth-place finish. Hensley has posted four top-10s in his past five outings for Richard Petty Motorsports. - 5th - His third straight race with rear end trouble (and fifth DNF of the season after a perfect 44-race finishing record in 1995-95) dropped Hornaday (3,133) a spot in the standings. He led a race-high 139 laps to retain his streak of leading every NCTS race Mesa Marin. - 4th - Bliss (3,142) remains hot, but victory still eludes the Team ASE Four outfit. The veteran's fourth Busch Pole, first laps led in Bakersfield and sixth top-10 finish in seven races keeps Bliss on course for his best series championship finish. Of note, a Busch Pole winner has yet to capture a series race at Mesa Marin Raceway. - 3rd - Diamonds to dirt for Joe Ruttman (3,300), who followed last week's Sears Point Raceway victory with a finish of 19th - matching his second-worse of the campaign. - 2nd - Rich Bickle (3,428) did what he had to do in the championship chase: finish high (fifth) and beat leader Jack Sprague. The Sears DieHard Chevrolet team's top-five finishing string reaches five races. - 1st - Sprague (3,484) did it the hard way, finishing 10th from an outside fifth-row start. He unlapped himself in the race's second half, thanks to some mid-race pitwork from Dennis Connor and the Quaker State Chevrolet crew. "We were lucky to come out of here with a top-10 finish and the points lead," said Sprague, who leads by 56 points with three races remaining," Dennis and the guys worked miracles on the break." STAT OF THE WEEK: Sunday's Dodge California Truckstop 300 represented a milestone in the continuing development of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The one-two-three finishes of trucks owned by Coulter, David Hodson and Marlene Smith represented the first time in NCTS history that no NASCAR Winston Cup Series-affiliated team has finished among the top-three. That's 67 races over three seasons.
