DOVER, Del. (May 30, 2015) – Ray Black Jr. battled his way through gear issues for the majority of Friday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race to secure an 11th place finish in his No. 07 ScubaLife.com Chevrolet Silverado. The Lucas Oil 200 marked his first start at Dover International Speedway and his third Top-15 finish of the year.
After qualifying 20th, Black worked closely with his spotter, Stevie Reeves, to determine the best lines to move up through the field. Just before Lap 50 and under caution for an unrelated incident, he radioed over to his crew that he had lost the gears in the truck. Black would only have fourth gear for the rest of the race.
Despite having to drop back on restarts due to the lack of gears, Black stayed competitive. In the closing laps of the race, he made a three-wide pass to secure his 11th place finish at the “Monster Mile.”
“What a comeback this weekend! My team did an awesome job, from Jason (Miller, crew chief) on the pit box to Stevie (Reeves, spotter) guiding me through that three-wide move. We were so close to a Top-10,” said Black. “I wish I could have ran up with the leaders because it looked like they were having a lot of fun, but we did what we had to do with our issues today and secured a solid finish.”
With this finish, Black moves back into 10th place in the NCWTS Championship Standings, 89 points behind leader Matt Crafton.
“It feels great to be back in the Top-10 in points, especially with Texas coming up next weekend,” said Black. “I raced at that track last year and had a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to keeping this momentum at Texas.”
The next race for Black and his No. 07 ScubaLife.com Chevrolet Silverado team will be the Winstar World Casino 400 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 5th.
