After touring the Dover Air Force Base the previous evening, Miguel Paludo was ready to fly high taking on the steep inclines and concrete of the “Monster Mile,” Dover (Del.) International Speedway. However, Paludo’s day was cut short when he was caught up in a mid-race accident ending his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start at the one-mile track.
“I’m very disappointed,” Paludo said after the race. “We did not have the best truck all weekend, but I felt like we were making gains on it each time we came to pit road. I just had nowhere to go when the accident happened and I got caught up in someone else’s mistake.”
Paludo started the 200-lap event from the 27th starting position, at first racing the race track and trying to find a comfortable line for the No. 7 Lucas Oil/K&N Filters Toyota Tundra. The first caution of the race came early on lap six, the No. 7 team called Paludo to pit road for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment. The No. 7 team restarted the race on lap 12 from the 30th position. Palduo found it difficult to make forward progress, but tried to learn from teammate Timothy Peters as the two followed each other making their way toward the top-10.
The leader set a torrid pace placing Paludo one lap down on lap 37. The caution waved for the second time on lap 45. The No. 7 team opted not to come to pit road under the caution period but take the “wave around” placing them back on the lead lap for the restart on lap 50. As soon as the race restarted Paludo radioed that he thought he had a tire going down. Fortunately, for the No. 7 team the caution waved again on lap 54 allowing Paludo to come down pit road for four tires, fuel and another chassis adjustment. Paludo restarted the race on lap 58, scored in the 22nd position.
Paludo continued to run his own race, slowly and steadily making his way to the front of the field. On lap 72 another competitor became loose and overcorrected the problem, sending the truck hard into the turn-four wall, Paludo tried to avoid the damaged truck as it slid down the race track, however, he was unable to avoid the massive amount of debris littering the race track. Paludo struck some debris cutting the right-front tire, sending him hard into the outside wall. The No. 7 truck sustained heavy right-front damage. The team took the machine behind the wall in hopes of making repairs, but the damage was too great. On lap 74, crew chief Rick Gay declared that the No. 7 team’s day was over relegating them to a 28th-place finish.
Red Horse Racing PR
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