Red Horse Racing remains competitive with Green

Perseverance: A steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.

For the folks at Red Horse Racing, that one word defines its 2007 Craftsman Truck Series season.

Kenny Wallace

By the Numbers

The Wallaces, the Greens, the Bodines and the Sauters are the only families to have at least three brothers race in the Truck Series. All four families will have a driver in Saturday's Truck Series race at Gateway.

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This is the third season for the single-truck organization based out of Mooresville, N.C. Last season, David Starr drove their No. 11 Toyota to a win at Martinsville, six top-fives, 12 top-10s and finished fourth in the championship standings. Despite the success, the sponsors weren't there and the team was forced to let Starr go.

Starr is now with Circle Bar Racing and Red Horse Racing owner Tom DeLoach, along with partner, FOX analyst Jeff Hammond, decided to change from No. 11 to No. 1 and fill the seat with rookie Aaron Fike.

The 24-year-old drove part time in the Busch Series for three years before getting this opportunity for a full time ride in the Truck Series. Unfortunately for Fike, it was an opportunity he wouldn't take advantage of.

The season started out well. Through the first 12 races, Fike had a top-five at Memphis, four top-10s, was sitting eighth in the points standings and looking like the man to beat for rookie of the year. Then, everything at Red Horse Racing began to unravel.

During the Fourth of July weekend, Fike and his fiance, crewmember Cassandra Davidson, were arrested at an amusement park in Ohio for possession of heroin and drug paraphernalia. Following an investigation, NASCAR suspended the driver indefinitely.

Red Horse Racing was left without a driver.

The team didn't look far for its replacement. David Green, who won the Busch Series championship back in 1994 and coached Fike during the season, seemed like the logical choice.

"David coached Aaron earlier this year so the team knows him pretty well and it will be an easy transition," DeLoach said back in July. "Having a veteran in our truck will serve us well at this time. David has the maturity and experience that we need right now."

Green made his debut in the No. 1 Red Horse Racing Toyota ironically in his home state of Kentucky and immediately made his presence known with a fifth-place finish at Kentucky Speedway.

He has since followed that with a 15th at O'Reilly, a 14th at Nashville and a 16th last week at Bristol, his first race on the 0.533-mile short track in a truck. Although he has yet to lead a lap, Green has finished every race on the lead lap and the team finds themselves ninth in the owner standings.

Now the Truck Series moves to Gateway International Raceway, site of the Dodge Ram Tough 200 on Saturday (5 p.m. ET, SPEED) and Green hopes to use his knowledge of the track from the Busch Series to bring home a win in a truck.

"It's a track I've got a lot of experience on," Green said. "Even though I'm new to the Craftsman Truck Series, with my history and my laps on the race track, that might put me right up there with [Mike] Skinner, [Ron] Hornaday and those guys."

His experience includes starting on the outside of Row 1 in 2004, a second-place finish in 2003, two top-fives, four top-10s and an average finish of 10.9 in seven starts at the 1.25-mile track.

Still, the uniqueness of Gateway makes it an interesting race, one that Green can't wait to run in.

"To me, Gateway is the most fun short track that we race on," Green said. "It's kind of the Saturday night atmosphere. But Gateway is such a unique track. It's almost really too grown up to be a short track but yet it's not quite big enough to be a speedway.

"So with that in mind, it's got short track corners in Turns 1 and 2 and intermediate sized track corners in [Turns] 3 and 4. To me, as a driver, that's very challenging. Gateway is a Martinsville-style type of race, just stretched out into a little bit bigger track"

With four races under his belt at Red Horse Racing, Green says the time is now to make the leap into top-five finishes. The team has proven it can overcome adversity, now can it make that move to Victory Lane, a place it hasn't visited since Martinsville in April of 2006.

"I never go out on a limb and make big predictions, but I'll be very disappointed if we come out of there without a challenge for the win," Green said. "I think our chances are excellent. With [crew chief] Jamie Jones and everybody here at Red Horse Racing, I think our chances are great!"