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Press Releases by Deborah Renshaw
August 27, 2005
Renshaw Endures Tough Day in Thunder Valley
Bristol, TN – The last time Deborah Renshaw tested
at a concrete race track she came home with a career best
12th place finish earlier this season at Dover. With a similar
test session behind her at the Bristol Motor Speedway, Renshaw
entered the O’Reilly 200 presented by Valvoline with
great expectations. Unfortunately, a blown right tire in a
race day practice session forced the BHR2 to their back up
truck and was the beginning of a long night at the “World
Fastest Half Mile”. Renshaw and her No. 8 Heritage DODGE
would go to endure a long and adventurous night to come home
with a disappointing 27th place finish.
“Well, that was not the type of day we had in mind,”
said Renshaw. “We came here and tested and really felt
good about what we unloaded earlier in the day. We were getting
the truck about where we wanted it when a right front blew
tire going into turn one and we were forced to our back up
truck. We got a few laps on that truck before qualifying and
really put down a decent lap but I just was not totally comfortable
with that truck yet for the race. In addition to that, I felt
like a pinball out there at times but that is Bristol for
you. Just an unfortunate night for this BHR2 team but we never
hang our heads – instead we re-group and prepare for
the next race.
With only a few laps on her back up truck, Renshaw would
tour the Bristol track in 15.523 seconds, which was good enough
for the 26th spot on the starting grid. The early laps would
prove to be eventful for the Bowling Green, KY native as on
lap 18 two trucks would get together right in front of Deborah
and just as she was going to clear the mess one of the truck
got into the right rear of her No. 8 machine. The damage seemed
cosmetic so her BHR2 crew left her out on the track. She would
come down pit road under the next caution on lap 42 for four
tires, fuel and to repair a little of the damage from the
incident – but unfortunately would lose a lap to the
field in the process.
The excitement would continue for Renshaw as on lap 68 the
No. 8 truck got a little help coming off turn two and spun
around without any contact with the wall. Again, Deborah would
come down pit road for four tires and fuel. Back to green
flag racing, a determined Renshaw posted some of her fastest
laps of the event. A long green flag run of 100 laps would
highlight the middle stages of the race until a late caution
came out on lap 187. Deborah would keep her nose clean with
the late restart and come home with a 27th place finish.
“This was not an enjoyable day for me and this BHR2
team,” stated Deborah. “I want to thank my guys
for working so hard today in preparing our back-up truck for
the race – these one day shows are hard enough but to
have to do what they did makes it even harder. That was just
tough short track racing out there and we did all we could
do to just to survive. We had a few encounters out there that
hurt us but in all we did finish an event at Bristol and from
there we will just re-group and head off to Richmond.”
The next event in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is at
the Richmond International Raceway on the night of Thursday
September 8th.
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