Xpress Motorsports' Brian Scott gambles, wins first career Truck series race
Xpress Motorsports' Brian Scott celebrates his first career win in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, which came Saturday night at Dover International Speedway. // David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
DOVER, Del. – With emphatic fist pumps and whoops of joy, 21-year-old Brian Scott survived a day full of tire issues to become a first-time NASCAR winner.
Scott outlasted the Camping World Truck Series field at Dover International Speedway and captured the AAA Insurance 200 after taking the lead when Kyle Busch hit the wall with 16 laps remaining Saturday.
Busch dominated his second race of the day at Dover, but was thwarted by tire issues both times. With Ron Hornaday, Todd Bodine and Johnny Benson also among those experiencing difficulty with tires, the door was open for a first-time winner at Dover.
And Scott, who showed potential by finishing second in last season’s finale at Homestead, took full advantage.
“Victory lane, baby! Wooo hooo!” he screamed on the team radio, then literally pinched himself to see if his dream of winning a NASCAR race had really come true.
Scott, a former dirt-track racer from Idaho who moved to North Carolina to pursue a NASCAR career, was unchallenged in his Xpress Motorsports Toyota over the final 10 laps of the race, holding off MRD Motorsports’ Dennis Setzer and HT Motorsports’ David Starr.
Gunbroker.com Racing’s Jason White finished a career-best fourth, followed by ThorSport Racing’s Johnny Sauter.
Busch finished ninth despite leading five times for a race-high 133 laps, and Hornaday was able to retain the points lead (by 27 over Mike Skinner) with a 26th-place finish.
The fresh-faced Scott was aware of the tire issues and saw several of them blow while racing for position. He called it “kind of scary,” but said crew chief Jeff Hensley told him the team’s tire wear was better than some of the other trucks.
Goodyear’s NASCAR racing manager Greg Stucker acknowledged the tire issues and said a combination of a relatively green track and 10 caution periods “made for kind of an ugly day.”
Busch appeared to be on track to avenge his earlier setback in the Nationwide Series race when he lost the lead on the final restart because of a flat tire.
Though he didn’t speak to reporters after that race, it was obvious he was livid with the turn of events and showed his aggression on several restarts, blowing past chunks of competitors at a time.
At one point, he raced past a whopping seven in one corner and seemed to be sailing to an easy victory.
The only times he wasn’t out front was during pit stops, when other trucks attempted to use pit strategy to gain track position. It may have worked against any other competitor, but Busch appeared undaunted and simply passed anyone who dared stand in his way.
But late in the race, one of Busch’s tires failed him again and sent him into the wall. Colin Braun inherited the lead for what seemed like less than a second, but he too, hit the wall.
It was Scott’s race from then on, and the young driver became the 10th driver to win in the 10 truck races that have been held at Dover.
