Stremme Scores Top-10 in Thunder Valley

OVERVIEW

posted on August 20, 2008

BRISTOL, Tenn. (August 20, 2008) – The O’Reilly 200 produced exactly what race fans have come to expect at Bristol Motor Speedway – 100 miles of furious racing action. The carnage quickly turned the infield garage into a junkyard of scrapped NASCAR trucks. David Stremme and the No. 15 Ergon Racing team tactfully avoided the melee, though, and took home a ninth-place finish. The effort marked the team’s second top-10 of the season.
Stremme qualified the Billy Ballew Motorsports entry in 30th-place. The Ergon Tundra was fighting a tight condition in the early goings of the race, so crew chief Doug George used the preliminary cautions to work on the No. 15 machine. The team made three pit stops during the first 101 laps, making wedge adjustments, track bar adjustments, air pressure adjustments and adding spring rubbers to help get the Ergon Toyota turning better through the corners. Following their final pit stop, Stremme rejoined the field in 20th-place.
With the team’s final pit stop completed, Stremme spent the second half of the race navigating his way to the front. Stremme remained on the track for the duration of the event and continued to click off positions. On lap 116, Stremme cracked the top-15, and broke into the top-10 on lap 177. Stremme’s veteran poise was evident, as he carefully evaded six multi-truck wrecks during the closing stages of the race. His cool headed driving kept him out of trouble and allowed him to take the checkered flag in ninth-place.
“What a crazy race,” said Stremme following the event. “It seemed like trucks were spinning everywhere. My spotter was busy tonight. He had to talk me through a lot of spins, but fortunately we avoided everything.
“Fortunately Doug (George, crew chief) had a good strategy. We spent the first half of the race working on the truck and getting it to handle as good as possible. We were able to pick up a lot of spots after we made our final stop. Everybody did a great job tonight. It was a hard fought top-10, that’s for sure."