Starr happy to be 'back home' with Red Horse Racing
By Jared Turner - SceneDaily Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
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David Starr said he felt as if “Christmas came early” when he agreed to reunite with Red Horse Racing for the 2008 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season.
Well, four races into a new campaign with the team he drove for in 2006 before sponsorship issues led him elsewhere for a year, Starr is no longer just glad to be back with his former organization. He’s happy to be running near the front more consistently after a disappointing 2007.
“One thing about their team – Jamie Jones, the crew chief [and] Red Horse Racing as a team – they’re competitive,” said Starr, who was a teammate of driver Rick Crawford at Circle Bar Racing last season. “Their trucks are fast week in and week out. If you look at the 2007 season – I believe they had four or five different drivers – week in and week out you always had to contend with the Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra on the race track. They’ve got a great program, and I really feel fortunate to be part of it.”
And the feeling is reciprocated. Starr’s decision to leave Red Horse Racing after just one year with the team wasn’t caused by organizational unrest or lack of performance. It was sponsorship-driven.
Majority owner Tom DeLoach funded Starr’s ride out of his own pocket for most of 2006 with some backing from a sponsor, Toyota Forklifts, in the second half of the season. When it appeared Toyota Forklifts might not return in 2007, DeLoach called Starr on the phone that December and said that without a primary sponsor in place, the team would likely be forced to run only a partial schedule in the upcoming campaign. But the hardest part for DeLoach was telling Starr, a four-time Craftsman Truck Series winner, that he would release Starr from his contract if Starr found an opportunity with a better-funded team.
“The one thing that’s got to happen next year is that David Starr has a ride,” DeLoach remembers saying to his driver. “So when we get down to it, the first thing we’ve got to do is make sure you’re in a ride, not necessarily that you’re with Red Horse.”
Making Starr’s decision to leave particularly tough was the success of his inaugural campaign with Red Horse Racing in 2006.
He finished fourth in the points standings, scored a win at Martinsville Speedway that spring and garnered 12 top-10 finishes. It was the best points finish of his truck career.
“It wasn’t like they were letting me go or I wanted to leave,” Starr says. “It was just kind of the ugly side of this business that has to do with sponsors.”
Starr found a full-time ride and sponsor at Circle Bar Racing but failed to duplicate his 2006 fortunes with his new team. He finished 2007 with no wins and just five top-10 finishes and slipped to 10th in the points standings.
Red Horse Racing, likewise, had its own set of problems without Starr. Four drivers spent time in the team’s truck – the first of those drivers actually brought a sponsor along with him - but the team failed to find victory lane.
When Red Horse Racing decided to hire a full-time driver again for this season, DeLoach didn’t have to look very far. He called Starr, who eagerly accepted the offer.
“There was no question what I was going to do,” Starr said.
So far, the move seems to be paying off. In four races, Starr has two top-six finishes and has placed lower than 13th only once. The Houston, Texas, native is seventh in the series standings, just five points behind sixth-place Matt Crafton.
How thrilled is the team to have Starr back in its stable?
“Oh, we love it,” says DeLoach, who co-owns Red Horse Racing with "NASCAR on Fox" analyst, Jeff Hammond. “We’ve developed a close relationship with David. Even for the time he was not with us we maintained contact and would see each other at the tracks. He’s just a guy that you've kind of got to really appreciate.”
Starr is just as thankful for his relationship with DeLoach, whom he compares to "a second dad.”
Now the question is whether Starr’s second stay at Red Horse Racing will outlast his first. Despite his stout start to the season, the team is once again without a primary sponsor after plans to sign a sponsor came unraveled in January. DeLoach, a former Mobil Corp. executive, has resumed funding Starr’s entry out of his own pocket.
“We’re back where we started,” the majority owner says.
DeLoach says the team is currently in negations with other sponsors but could find itself needing to scale back its schedule again next season without additional backing.
“It’s like any race,” he says. “You don’t win the race in the sponsorship world until the check’s in the bank. I’ve been close. We get close, close, close.”
As for Starr, he’s focused on this season – and finding victory lane with a team he’s been there with before.
“It’s just a great atmosphere and a great racing team,” he says. “I don’t know how to put it into words, but it just feels good to be back with them. … When you walked in the front door, it just felt good to be back home.”
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