NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Ross Chastain and the SS Green Light Racing team will join thirty-five other competitors this weekend as the NCWTS begins the second half of the twenty-two race 2012 season. Saturday, the truckers travel to the Irish Hills of Southeastern Michigan for the VFW 200 at the freshly repaved 2-mile Michigan International Speedway.
For the second straight race the Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender will have backing from Melon 1, one of the largest shippers of fresh watermelon in the United States as the Florida teen looks for a second consecutive top-ten finish.
“We’re real excited to have Melon 1 back on our Toyota again this weekend,” Ross said. “We’ll also have the Illiana Watermelon Association and Engine Parts Plus giving us a hand. We appreciate all the support that we have been getting this year.”
“We were going to bring the truck we ran at Texas to Michigan but after Pocono we switched and we are going to run that truck again. I just like the way it felt and hopefully we can get that same feel on the new pavement at MIS. They say you can run anywhere on the track, I’m looking forward to see where our Melon 1 Tundra will run our best times.”
“They said I should hold it wide open, we’ll see. We’ll take our time getting out on the track and I’ll talk to some people that I talk to a lot and I’ll go to Todd (Bodine) after he goes out to see if he still says what he said before. Then I’ll find out for myself if we can do it,” Chastain continued. “I met Todd a long time ago and he helps me as much as anyone at the track.”
Prior to the race, Ross will pay a visit to the University of Michigan’s C.S Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan to visit with young patients at the Hospital to sign autographs and hand out watermelon coloring books and stickers to the children. “I went to the Children’s Hospital in Fort Meyers back home and it’s a real humbling experience that makes you appreciate your health. It means a lot to them to have visitors and I’m glad to be able to go.”
The VFW 200 is the 282nd consecutive NCWTS start for the SS Green Light Racing team and the seventeenth career start for Chastain in the Truck Series. Ross has moved up to seventeenth in the NCWTS point standings and has four top fifteen finishes in 2012 including a career best seventh at Martinsville in March and tenth two weeks ago at Pocono.
There are 35 trucks on the entry list for the VFW 200, which will prelude the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Pure Michigan 400 at the Michigan International Speedway. Johnny Chapman is set to pilot the No. 07 for SS Green Light Racing.
Practice for the VFW 200 will be Friday, August 17th from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. with a rare third practice from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. On Saturday, August 18th there will be two laps of qualifying at 9:35 a.m. and the green flag will fly in the VFW 200 at 1:30 p.m. All times Eastern. The race will be shown live on SPEED TV and will also be broadcast live via on the Motor Racing Network and on SIRIUS Satellite Radio NASCAR Channel 128-XM104
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