Texas Speedzone - Green Goes Green-to-Checkers in USRA Truck Tussle at THR

For Immediate Release – July 16, 2006
Contact: Nick Holt, USRA Media Director
(210) 415-1251 (cell)
cnholt@sbcglobal.net

Green Goes Green-to-Checkers in USRA Truck Tussle

by JM Hallas and Nick Holt

Kyle, Texas (July 16, 2006) - Steve Green showed ‘em how it’s done Saturday at the United States Racing Association (USRA) Truck Series “Magnum Trailers 50” at Thunder Hill Raceway in Kyle, Texas. Green not only qualified on the pole, but led every lap on his way to victory at the tight, three-eighths-mile, D-shaped paved oval.

"It was kind of hot out there, but the truck's much better now," said Green after qualifying. "We came out last night, practiced and made change after change. I think we changed 10 springs last night. We were looking to step it up some tonight. If we don't hit on something the first time, we take it out and try something else. A lot of it is trial and error, and a little bit of knowledge. If we go the right way we keep trying until we start backing up.”

When asked about his plans to deal with Craig Roper, who has won the last three USRA Truck Series events in a row, Green said, “I’m going to race Craig hard and clean like he races us. He's a class guy and has caught a lot of flack the past few weeks that I don't think was due him. We're going to run it as hard as we have to run it to beat him though.”

Absent from today's event was current points leader Shawn Paul Lehman on a one (race) week hiatus.

Green not only set fast time for the Magnum Trailers 50, but drew the number 1 chip to start on the pole. It was all over after that as Green put on a driving clinic on his way to the flag to flag win.

Green, who drew the number one chip to start on the pole, and Jason Marshall paced the short field of 10 USRA Trucks to the green and quickly grabbed the advantage going into turn one. Marshall fell in line second, with multi-winner Roper third. Rusty Mirth and Jody Buzbee, winner of the season-opener at San Antonio Speedway, traded a little paint on the first lap as they battled for fourth.

Green wasted little in inching away from the field that soon sorted out.

Roper looked inside Marshall for second on the eighth circuit and worked his way past a lap later when Marshall got loose in turn four. Roper then tried to cut into Green’s two-second lead. It wasn’t long, however, before Mirth and Buzbee caught Marshall for third, while Wendell Bolton, Cameron Moore, Jr. and Jim Albert fought for sixth.
Green continued to stretch out his margin and at the halfway point he had earned a three second lead with Roper, Marshall, Buzbee and Mirth rounding out the top five. Shortly thereafter Mirth was able to get around Buzbee for fourth.

Jason Campbell brought out yellow on lap 36 when he had trouble and stopped on track. This erased Green’s huge lead, but since there were three lapped trucks between him and Roper, he easily pulled away while Roper, Marshall and Mirth negotiated traffic. The three of them finally cleared on lap 37, but were already two and half seconds behind Green.

With Green setting sail up front, the battle heated up for second with Marshall getting by Roper for second on lap 42 and bringing Mirth along with him into third. Mirth then got the better of Marshall, snagging second on lap on the next lap.

But Roper wasn’t through yet and retook third on lap 45 with Buzbee following through the hole. Mirth then tried to take up the charge on Green and got a big break when Bolton got turned around to bring out the yellow with only two to go.

On the restart, Green got a good jump to shake Mirth off his bumper while Buzbee, Marshall and Brent Bell got tangled in the third turn sending Albert through the grass to avoid the melee.

Under yellow, Mirth and Green made heavy contact as they scuffed their tires knocking the fender off Mirth’s truck.

When the green waved, Green once again motored away from Mirth but the rest stacked up behind Buzbee who was slow to get going.

Green went on to take the win by a comfortable margin of nearly a second.

“Tonight it was pretty easy,” Green said after the race. “This truck was awesome. I didn’t abuse it. It was a really good piece tonight. We’ve been making changes every race and we’ve got the truck better than the driver. So I’m going to have to catch up to the truck now. With Shawn missing this race I think that puts us in the points lead. It’s going to be hard to hold it though. It will be a pretty tight finish. It’s not going to be a blow out this year. I think we’re going to have to fight every week.”

Results of the USRA Truck Series “Magnum Trailers 50”

1. (54) Steve Green, Marble Falls, TX, 50 Laps
2. (07) Rusty Mirth, Austin, TX, 50
3. (40) Craig Roper, Vernon, TX, 50
4. (42) Jason Marshall, Leander, TX, 50
5. (1) Jody Buzbee, Waco, TX, 50
6. (38) Cameron Moore, Buda, TX, 49
7. (5) Wendall Bolden, Quinlan, TX, 49
8. (72) Brent Bell, Katy, TX, 49
9. (31) Jim Albert, Lockhart, TX, 49
10. (43) Jason Campbell, Adkins, TX, 20