Truck Series return not going as Kvapil had hoped

CONCORD, N.C. -- When Travis Kvapil came back to the Craftsman Truck Series from Cal Wells' Nextel Cup operation, it wasn't to drive just any old truck.

He came back to the No. 6 Ford F-150 that Mark Martin had used to brow-beat the field into submission at nearly every race he ran.

But so far in 2007, the results that Martin was able to achieve with the Roush machine -- three poles, six victories and 12 top-10 finishes in 14 starts -- were much better than during the same period with Kvapil behind the wheel.

A stirring third-place finish at Daytona gave Kvapil a good start to the season, but in the following four races, he finished 16th, 15th, 14th and 13th. He finished 13th again Friday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway, and although he moved up one spot to eighth in points, he fell 270 markers behind series point leader Mike Skinner.

Not the stuff dream seasons are made of, certainly, but there are reasons for that, Kvapil said.

"Daytona went really well out of the box, and I have a good team with a lot of support behind us," he said. "We were kind of thrown off-track, the first couple of races, at California and Atlanta. We struggled pretty bad.

"We were trying to look at what they had a lot of success with last year as far as setups, and on top of that we had a new nose and it changes the aero balance on the truck. We were really trying to figure out which way we needed to go and it really took us a couple weeks to get that sorted out. The team has done a really great job of digging in and we're back on track. With what happened at Kansas [he ran well but finished 13th] and so far here [Saturday] at Lowe's Motor Speedway, that's what I expect the rest of the season. It just took us a couple weeks to get going."

Kvapil put his Ford second behind Skinner in qualifying for the Quaker Steak and Lube 200, putting some credence in Kvapil's assertion that he's got the balance back.

For a Cup driver coming to the Truck Series to recharge his career, there's a little bit of pressure to get off to a quick start, and that's something Kvapil has thought about.

"There's definitely a lot of pressure to perform," he admitted. "We went to California and ran 15th or 16th and it was a race that Mark had won the year before. Atlanta was the same thing, where Mark had won and we finished 13th or 14th. You start to wonder ... 'Uh-oh, I know this team is capable of winning, so I just have to step it up.' (Continued)