Ray Black Jr. Finishes 20th in Phoenix International Raceway Debut

Posted on: Saturday, November 14th 2015

NCWTS Driver Earns Eighth Straight Top-20 Finish

AVONDALE, Ariz. (November 14, 2015) – It was a caution-filled race for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) at Phoenix International Raceway, but driver Ray Black Jr. kept his No. 07 ScubaLife.com Chevrolet out of trouble and brought home his eighth straight Top-20 finish on Friday night. Black, who made his debut start at Phoenix this past Friday, maintains 11th place in the championship standings as the NCWTS heads into its final race of the 2015 season.

Black progressed throughout the weekend at Phoenix, finishing higher on the speed charts each time he hit the track. Black improved his 27th place finish in practice to qualify 22nd for the Lucas Oil 150.

“I feel like I caught on pretty fast at Phoenix,” explained Black. “There are a lot of grooves out on the track that you can run on. I was trying to stay close to the apron for the most part, but our truck kept getting so tight so fast that it was hard to maintain that spot.”

While there were a total of seven cautions and a lot of damaged trucks during the Lucas Oil 150, Black avoided getting tangled up in any on-track accidents and kept his truck in pristine condition. Unfortunately for the ScubaLife team, handling would prove to be the biggest challenge of the weekend, as the truck was great on short runs but struggled on longer green flag runs.

“The No. 07 ScubaLife.com Chevrolet was great on short runs,” said Black. “We could really pass guys during the earlier part of the race. Once it got to be longer green flag runs, the truck tightened up really fast and made it much harder to gain any positions. We were a 15th place truck for sure, we just weren’t able to show it with how the race ended up going green for most of the second half.”

Black now heads into the final NCWTS race of the 2015 season with a five point lead over 12th place driver Tyler Young. Catch all the end of season action next Friday, November 20 during the Ford Ecoboost 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Learn more about Black and his sponsor, ScubaLife, by following them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @TeamScubaRacing and @RayBlackJr.