Rico Abreu – 2016 Bristol Recap

Rico Abreu, driver of the No. 98 Safelite/Curb Records Toyota Tundra, made his track debut in the rain delayed NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway (BMS) Wednesday night. Showing speed in both practice sessions, Abreu made it to Round 2 in the unique, three-round NCWTS qualifying session, before a spin, and contact with the wall, forced the Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender to a back-up truck for the 200-lap event.
 
Starting from the rear of the 32-truck field, Abreu was able to work his way into the top-25 by lap 20, and was scored 12th by lap 50. Complaining of a Toyota Tundra that was, “loose through the center,” the ThorSport Racing driver was able to maintain a position inside the top-20 for the first-half of the 200 lap event. However, at lap 103, Abreu radioed into his crew that he had no power, and lost valuable track position, as he brought his Safelite Toyota Tundra to the attention of his crew, while under green. Scored 28th, multiple laps down to the race leaders, Abreu would continue making laps around the .533-mile track, gaining experience, and every position he could obtain on the race track before crossing the stripe in the 26th position, six laps down, to race winner Ben Kennedy.  
 
Quotes:
“This just wasn’t our day. The guys worked so hard to get this back-up truck ready after the incident in qualifying, and I can’t thank them enough for that. We had to start at the rear of the field, and were just biding our time, being patient working our way through traffic. I just hate it for my guys, Toyota, and all the Safelite guests that came out to support us tonight. Hopefully, I can have some solid runs for them moving forward.”

Thorsport PR