David Starr
No. 24 Zachry Toyota Tundra
Built Ford Tough 225 Presented by the Greater Cincinnati Ford Dealers
Kentucky Speedway

SPARTA, KY, (July 18, 2009) – Once again David Starr and his HT Motorsports Racing Team were able to capitalize on their misfortune of a caved in nose on the No. 24 Zachry Toyota Tundra and being a victim of a mishap on pit road.  The team finished the Built Ford 225 Presented by the Greater Cincinnati Ford Dealers at Kentucky Speedway in the ninth spot.  It was Starr’s seventh top-10 finish of the season.   
The No. 24 Zachry Toyota Tundra Race Recap

  • Starr qualified his Toyota Tundra in the 17th position with a lap time of 31.809 seconds at a speed of 169.763 mph.
  • The race opened with a long green flag run.  Starr was trying to shake out the kinks in his No. 24 Zachry Toyota Tundra in the opening laps and fell short to the leader on lap 32.
  • Luckily only a couple of laps later the first caution came out on lap 34.  Starr was unable to slow down fast enough before he hit the rear of another competitor in front of him.  It caused a significant amount of front end damage to the Tundra.
  • Unfortunately as he was entering into the pits the No. 81 truck was exiting his own pits and tapped the left rear of Starr’s Tundra causing more damage.   So the team started with the nose, placed bear bond over it and pulled out the fenders to keep them from rubbing on the tires. 
  • Starr came in again on lap 36 and 38 so the team could add more tape and try to make Starr’s racing damage as minimal as they could.
  • Starr restarted on lap 41 in the 17th spot.  Shortly after he told Crew Chief Jason Miller he had no front grip in the corners.  Miller assumed because of the damage that would be the case and assured his driver that they would continue to work on the damage under the next caution. 
  • Then on lap 53 the second caution came out.  The team called Starr to pit on lap 54 and 55 to replace the front grill and tape another piece of grill to the front of the Tundra to give him a better aerodynamic edge.  He restarted on lap 57 full of fuel in the 19th spot on a different pit sequence now than the majority of the field.
  • Unfortunately because of the damage on lap 95 Starr fell one lap down to the leaders.   Luckily in the consequent laps majority of the field had to pit for fuel under green-flag conditions.  Starr had more fuel than most so he was able to stay out on the track longer.  He inherited the eighth position. 
  • Then just in the nick of time, the third caution of the day came out on lap 110.  Starr was now back on the lead lap and sitting in the top 10.  The team used the next three laps to come to pit road each time and work on the No. 24 Zachry Toyota Tundra.  They changed tires, added fuel, and did more front end repair trying to help.    He restarted on lap 117 in the 13th spot. 
  • Starr held on through three more cautions fluctuating around the top 10 despite the damage. 
  • The seventh caution came out on lap 145 and Starr positioned himself to finish in the top 10 in the final shootout.  After the restart he went three-and even four-wide to finish ninth. 

Ron Hornaday won the Built Ford Tough 225.  Mike Skinner, Matt Crafton, Timothy Peters and Aric Almirola followed in the top five.