Willie Allen named truck series rookie of the year
By Lee Montgomery
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
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CONCORD, N.C. - Willie Allen was honored Tuesday as the Raybestos Rookie of the Year in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, but landing a seat in the series proved to be far more difficult than he imagined a few years ago.
Allen had figured a solid performance in a General Motors driver development test would quickly turn into a blossoming NASCAR career. Allen turned the fastest lap in the test at Caraway Speedway in North Carolina in 2005, which led to a ride in the Craftsman Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway last year. And then he finished sixth in Morgan-Dollar Motorsports' truck.
Surely, Allen figured, owners would be calling, trying to sign an up-and-coming driver.
"I was really excited about that," Allen said, "and then the phones didn't ring."
So Allen returned to Nashville, Tenn., where he ran Late Models at Music City Motorplex and got a regular job. Every so often, he'd call Duke and Rhonda Thorson, owners of ThorSport Racing, to ask about a job.
"I had been talking to the 13 team on and off since 2005: 'Hey, give me a shot,'" Allen said. "I just wanted to make it here."
"I don't know that I called every day. I may have called every other day."
His persistence paid off, and the Thorsons hired Allen to drive their No. 13 Chevrolet in the Craftsman Truck Series for 2007. And their intuition paid off with the rookie honor for Allen and the team.
"It means a lot," Allen said Tuesday at a luncheon honoring NASCAR's top rookies. "No matter what happens from here on, they can't take this away from us. I'm so excited fort the guys and myself. This is definitely our goal at the start of the year.
"We had some up-and-down moments during the year, but it seemed like the harder it got on us, the harder the team pulled through and worked. I can't say enough about them."
Allen had one top-10 finish in 2007, a sixth at Talladega, but he failed to finish only three races, and none of them were because of wrecks.
Despite Allen's solid season, he likely would not have won the rookie title had it not been for Aaron Fike's legal problems. Fike had one top-five and four top-10 finishes in the first 15 races before being arrested on drug charges in July. He was suspended by NASCAR, helping open the door for Allen in the rookie battle.
"I hate to see that happen. Aaron is a really good guy," Allen said. "I talked to him at all the rookie meetings. I hated to see that. Definitely, our thoughts and prayers are still with him [to] get that turned around. I hope to see him Craftsman Truck Series soon because he's one heck of a race car driver.
"We just went on after that and tried to focus on what we had to do. We tried to be the best we could each week."
And for Allen, that meant learning new tracks and trying to get comfortable on the superspeedways.
"It's so much different than short-track racing," Allen said. "Just learning the air, I definitely made some mistakes there. I'm still learning every time I go to the race track. Hopefully I can use the experience I got this year to carry on to next year."
Allen returns to ThorSport for 2008 and hopes to break through with his first victory.
"I really feel good about 2008," Allen said. "We definitely want to be in the top 10 in points or the top five. But the main thing is to be competitive and put ourselves in position to get that first win. That's what all our of goals are at ThorSport Racing."
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Willie Allen
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