Fike blasting through own goals in rookie season

Aaron Fike has four goals he'd like to accomplish in his first Craftsman Truck Series season: finish in the top 10 in points, win rookie of the year, win a pole and win a race.

With three top-10 finishes in the first eight races of the 2007 season, Fike is halfway to two of those goals. And the way Fike's been running, the other two will come in time.

"At the beginning of the year, I said I wanted to finish in the top 10 in points and win rookie of the year honors," Fike said. "Hopefully along the way, we'd win a pole and maybe a race.

"We definitely had a shot at winning the race at Mansfield and I think we'll have a shot at winning more races as the year goes on."

Fike, who ran a partial Busch Series schedule the past three seasons, has made a seamless transition to the trucks. He finished on the lead lap in each of the first six races, and then was a contender for the win at Mansfield before his No. 1 Toyota ran out of fuel with two laps remaining, stranding him 24th.

A week ago at Dover, Fike once again was running strong.

"We were in the top five at Lap 100 but then we had some bad pit strategy," Fike said. "We had to pit under green and ended up going a lap down and the way the rest of the race went, we got back on the lead lap but we never got a yellow to catch back up."

In two previous trips to Texas, Fike has failed to break the top 25 but qualified in the middle of the field, one reason why he's confident that things will go well this weekend.

"Texas is probably one of my favorite tracks," he said. "It's one of the fastest tracks we run at. It's similar to Atlanta but it's definitely a little bit different.

"Atlanta's a lot more bumpy. At Texas, the pavement's a lot newer. The shape of the track's pretty similar. When you're out there running, you definitely can tell the difference."

Fike is a native of Galesburg, Ill., located halfway between Chicago and St. Louis. He and his older brother, A.J., grew up rooting for teams in both cities.

"I'm a Chicago Bears fan and a White Sox fan," Fike said. "I grew up liking the Rams, too."

Fike's athletic pursuits might have gone in a different direction.

"I grew up playing all sorts of sports: baseball, basketball, a little bit of football," Fike said. "Then when I got halfway through my junior year of high school, I kind of dropped all that and focused on racing all the time."

The key to a successful season, Fike said, is showing improvement as the season goes on.

"I think I'm getting better each week," he said. "I don't think I've shown our true hand yet. I feel we're definitely capable of doing better and I think we will here."