LOUDON, N.H. (September 19, 2009) – The New Hampshire track known as The Magic Mile was anything but that for Tayler Malsam and the One Eighty Racing team. Saturday afternoon’s event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway was a bit of a battle for the young driver and his Randy Moss Motorsports team. After qualifying in the 13th position for the Heluva Good 200, Malsam took the checkered flag in 20th place.
Malsam’s was the 14th truck to take to the track for his two-lap qualifying run Saturday morning. The Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate posted a speed of 126.111 miles per hour around the 1.058-mile track, which was quick enough to earn the One Eighty Toyota Tundra 13th place on the starting grid.
Malsam took the green flag for the start of the afternoon event and immediately communicated to crew chief Doug Wolcott that the truck was tight in the center and off of the corners. Wolcott called for four fresh tires and a track bar adjustment to the No. 81 entry during the first pit stop of the day, which came at lap 40 of the 200-lap race. Malsam returned to the track for the lap 43 restart in the 15th spot.
Malsam, who had never before been to the Loudon, N.H. track, continued to struggle with a tight handling truck and went one lap down to the leader on lap 65. Several long green flag runs throughout the event hampered the team’s opportunity to adjust the handling of the truck, and Wolcott made a major change to the track bar during a scheduled stop on lap 94.
Malsam spent most of the day working to find a line that would best suit the truck, and the Toyota Tundra began to respond to the adjustments with about 50 laps left in the race. Malsam took the checkered flag in the 20th position.
“We just fought our One Eighty Toyota Tundra all day,” commented Malsam after the race. “We thought we had a good truck coming in here and it was just tight all day. Doug [Wolcott, crew chief] and the crew did a good job working on it. The lack of cautions hurt us because we couldn’t really work on it like we wanted to.”
Malsam fell one spot in the driver point standings and now holds down 12th place, 31 points outside of the top 10. He also remains in the middle of a tight points battle, with just 123 points separating him from fifth.
Tayler Malsam and the No. 81 Randy Moss Motorsports team will return to action at Las Vegas Motor Speedway next weekend. The Las Vegas 350 will be broadcast live at 9 p.m. (ET) on SPEED TV and on select affiliates of MRN Radio and Sirius-XM NASCAR Radio on Saturday, September 26.
ABOUT ONE EIGHTY: One Eighty, founded in 1976, encompasses hospitality, senior housing, and international brands, all of which require their customers to “Twist Your Thinking.” One Eighty’s hospitality brand has three divisions – Edibility, PrimeFit, and Twist Travel, which offer a bold take on their individual specialties. Edibility includes retirement community food services, corporate and social event catering, restaurant development and management, culinary classes, and signature food items. Also, PrimeFit and Twist Travel take a similar cover-the-all bases approach. For more information about One Eighty, please visit www.oneeightytwist.com.
ABOUT RANDY MOSS MOTORSPORTS: Randy Moss Motorsports ownership consists of Randy Moss, New England Patriots All-Pro Wide Receiver; and David Dollar, a long-time participant in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The team fields the No. 81 Toyota Tundra and the No. 5 Toyota Tundra full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. For more information about Randy Moss Motorsports, please visit www.randymossmotorsports.com.
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