Rookie Driver Claims His Fourth Top-15 Finish of the Season
MADISON, Ill. (June 14, 2015) – It got wild there at the end, but Ray Black Jr. held on at the Gateway Motorsports Park on Saturday night to earn a 13th place finish during the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ (NCWTS) Drivin’ For Linemen 200. The driver of the No. 07 ScubaLife.com Chevrolet battled back from being a lap down to racing with the leaders and secured his fourth Top-15 finish of the season while doing so.
After starting 18th due to a rained out qualifying session, the combination of Black’s truck being too loose and the blistering pace of the leaders put him one lap down until he earned the free pass just before Lap 100. Once back on the lead lap, Black remained in the Top-15 for the majority of the night. He raced as high as 12th before getting shuffled back to 16th after his final pit stop of the night.
From there, Black pushed his way back up through the field to his finishing position of 13th. In order to do so, he had to survive a string of late-race cautions and wrecks, as his fellow drivers were getting antsy about the finish. While some of the drivers like Matt Crafton, Erik Jones and Justin Boston saw their nights cut short due to on-track accidents, Black navigated his way through the field by making smart decisions and brought his ScubaLife.com truck home in one piece.
“I felt like a wheelman tonight! We were so loose in the beginning and it caused us to fall a lap down, but we fought back from that and worked our way up there,” said Black. “We focused on saving our truck when others may not have been and that paid off for us in the long run. We will definitely take the momentum from this finish and move on to the next race.”
With this finish, Black moves up to 11th place in the NCWTS championship standings and is 10 points behind 10th place driver, Ben Kennedy.
Next up for Ray Black Jr. and Team Scuba is the American Ethanol 200 at Iowa Speedway on Friday, June 19.
