Daniel Dye finished his night at Martinsville Speedway with a 13th place finish. In his second appearance at “The Paperclip”, Dye tied his career-best short track finish and advanced two positions in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series standings to 13th after six races.
Dye started his race for the Long John Silver’s 200 in 23rd position. The majority of the first stage was filled with single file racing, making it tougher to pass at a track such as Martinsville. Dye was able to move up to 20th position by the end of Stage 1 on lap 50. Crew chief Blake Bainbridge brought Dye to pit road to receive two right side tires and fuel to set the driver of No. 43 Champion Container Chevrolet Silverado RST with track position later in the event.
Dye came out of pit road in 19th place to begin Stage 2 on lap 60. The caution flag flew on lap 75 and Dye made a second trip to pit road after expressing discomfort with the handling. Bainbridge made minor adjustments to the right rear while also giving Dye fuel and four fresh tires. Bainbridge explained that this was the final scheduled stop of the night and the team planned on running to the checkered flag. Restarting 26th-place on lap 83, Dye was able to find a better balance in his truck and ran in 22nd at the end of Stage 2 on lap 100.
Dye’s recent pit stop gave him the opportunity to keep track position while a majority of the field pitted under the stage caution, moving him up to 11th place. Dye battled back and forth for his position until lap 165 when the bottom lane began to check up leaving him nowhere to go and being collected in a multi-truck collision. Dye received heavy damage to the front end and needed to come back down pit road for an unscheduled stop. Dye returned to the field 26th and spent the last 30 laps avoiding several incidents to inherit track position. He was able to bring home a 13th place result, giving him a career best finish at Martinsville Speedway and moved him up to 13th position the NCTS standings.
Daniel Dye Quote:
“Its nice to come home 13th after everything we went through tonight. Our Champion Container team did a good job managing the strategy in the first half and making some repairs after we got caught up in that jam-up with about 30 to go. We definitely want more, but it’s nice to have another top-15 finish at a short track. It’s something to build on and we’ll take a couple positions in the point standings too.”
MHR PR