Mainer turns in solid effort Last tire change puts Ryan Moore in 15th

LOUDON, N.H. – Ryan Moore of Scarborough had a successful New Hampshire International Speedway NASCAR Craftsman Truck series debut during the New Hampshire 200 Saturday, but the last set of tires cost his team an even better debut.

Moore started 30th and climbed to as high as 11th before settling for a solid 15th-place finish.

It is his second top-18 finish in three races for the Key Motorsports team after a four-race stretch in which he didn’t finish higher than 31st. It was his second best finish in 11 races. He had a 14th at Texas Motor Speedway.

Johnny Benson won the race with Mike Skinner, Kyle Busch, Todd Bodine, and David Starr rounding out the top five.

Moore was second among the series’ 10 rookies. Erik Darnell finished ninth.

“This is more like it,” said Barry Dodson, Moore’s crew chief. “We opted early to come in and make a chassis change, obviously for the better. Ryan drove from shotgun to 15th, but the last set of tires made the truck real tight. Other than that, I’m sure we could have had a top 10.

“All in all, we have to be very pleased. To see Kelly [Moore, Ryan’s father who won the Busch East race right before the Truck race] race before us and then for us to have such a good run. … We were hoping for a top 10 and we just barely missed it.”

Moore said the adjustments made in the early pit stop “brought the truck to life pretty good.”

Dodson said the last set of tires had the same air pressure and other parameters as the previous sets.

“Different people make the tires, you have a different time of day, and all rubber isn’t the same,” said Dodson in explaining why the last set of tires produced a tight race car.

“We had a top-10 truck,” Moore said. “It seems every week, we get a bad set of tires. It’s too bad this one had to fall on the last set of tires. We had a decent truck. I just couldn’t turn it.”

He said his truck needed to be at its best to run up front over the final stages of the race.

“People aren’t taking prisoners [late in a race]. They’re going to knock you out of the way or rub you out of the way. They’ll do whatever they have to do to get around you. You have to fight hard. You need to be the best you can be in the final 20 laps and we weren’t. We were at our best on lap 120 or 150 before we got our last set of tires.”

Moore said his familiarity with the track helped him salvage a good finish despite the truck’s tight condition, which made it hard for him to steer.

“We wanted to get in the top 15 and we did that, although I was hoping for a little better than 15th,” he said. “At least we made the top 15. We want to build some momentum for Curtis [team owner Curtis Key]. Some of the guys right in front of us [in owner points] had bad days. It would be good to get in the top 30.”

The teams that finish in the top 30 in owner points receive provisionals for the first five races next season if they don’t qualify.

Dodson expects the team’s fortunes to improve.

“I’ve never had a team that got weaker as the year went on and I won’t let that happen here,” said Dodson, who was the crew chief for Rusty Wallace’s NASCAR points championship team in 1989. “We backed it up with a good run. We’re obviously on our way back.”

He is confident Moore can produce a strong finish.

“He’s great. He’s much better than we are right now,” said Dodson. “We have to come up to his level. This kid’s good enough to become a household name.”

Moore said it’s important to try to build on the momentum attained Saturday.

“We’ve got to make sure we prepare the trucks, use our heads during practice, and make the right changes during the race,” he said. “This stuff isn’t brainwork. Anybody can do it. We may not be the highest funded team, but Curtis Key puts a lot into it and I know I can get the job done. I’ve done it before. I’ve won races before.

“I’m going to keep digging and plugging. I’m going to go into every race with a fresh attitude. We’re going to go in there looking to win and whatever happens, happens.”