David Starr knew that the Nashville 200 weekend at Nashville Superspeedway would be a challenging event for the No. 81 Randy Moss Motorsports Toyota team with all on-track competition taking place in just one day. The teams spent the afternoon on Thursday taking Starr’s Toyota Tundra through technical inspection and preparing to hit the track on Friday morning.
Friday kicked off with two morning practice sessions where Starr recorded a fastest lap of 31.161 seconds in the No. 81 Randy Moss Motorsports Toyota Tundra. Before hitting the track for qualifying, the Randy Moss Motorsports Toyota team made a series of changes to help adjust the Toyota Tundra to Starr’s preferences. Starr went out seventh for qualifying, and held his time pretty consistently from final practice. His lap of 31.197 in qualifying earned him the 15th-place starting position in Friday night’s 200-mile race at Nashville Superspeedway.
Starr held his position within the top-15 throughout the first half of the event. During the opening laps, the No. 81 Randy Moss Motorsports Tundra struggled with loose handling condition off the exit of the corner. Luckily, a lap 30 caution period allowed the team to bring Starr’s Tundra down pit road for a series of adjustments—including track bar and air pressure—to help tighten the handling.
As the race progressed, Starr struggled with the handling of the No. 81 Randy Moss Motorsports Toyota Tundra but the crew not willing to give up, continued to work diligently to adjust Starr’s truck. When the checkered flag fell on Friday’s race at the 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway, Starr was scored in the 16th position. The finish moved him to 17th in the 2010 owner’s points, just 30 points out of 10th place.
“Tonight was a struggle for the 81 Randy Moss Motorsports Toyota team,” said David Starr. “Our team has been really great at hitting the setup for each of the first three races this season, but we were just a tick off tonight. We have a really great group of guys at Randy Moss Motorsports, and I know we’ll be able to regroup and come back stronger than ever at Kansas [Speedway]. Before Kansas [Speedway], we have quite a few off-weeks coming up; I just wish we had the chance to rebound sooner. We learned a few things [at Nashville Superspeedway], and I’m certain that we will be able to come back and race for the win in August.”
