Roulette Recap follows a randomly selected driver throughout a race and recaps their efforts. The driver could face calamity on lap one or start from the rear and win the race – there is no telling ahead of time. With that, may the odds be ever in the driver’s favor.
Love’s RV Stop 250
Saturday’s race marked Colby Howard’s second trip to Talladega Superspeedway in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. In his lone start, he finished P8 at the chaotic track. While the young driver from Simpsonville, South Carolina was not in the running for the Truck Series championship, the superspeedway is known for producing first-time winners. Additionally, Howard had a shot to play spoiler to those Playoff drivers looking for a win.
Howard qualified P17 in his No. 9 Titan Construction Chevrolet. He thanked his team for all the hard work saying he knew they had a good truck.
Crew chief Michael Shelton said, “Keep it in one piece and we’ll have a shot.” Spotter Tim Fedewa agreed and said, “Keep the nose clean. Be smart. We’re in a good spot to start.”
Stage 1
It was all two-by-two for the first half of the opening lap, but coming down the backstretch, drivers immediately went three wide. Fortunately, everything stayed clean, and coming to the close of the opening lap, Howard had moved to P13. He ran just behind Bret Holmes, who, according to Fedewa, had “the same truck as last year. Should be pretty good.”
Lap 4 saw Howard sitting three wide, and as usual at superspeedways, he had shuffled back to P18 as the lanes surged with each lap. Fedewa was working hard to get his driver out of the middle of the pack, predicting, “They’re gonna wreck soon.” Howard continued to run the bottom lane, but Fedewa was watching ahead, noting, “They’re getting wild up there.” Finally, his lane got the run and Lap 7 saw Howard running P9.
On Lap 11, Howard updated that his truck was running a little hot, but Shelton confirmed that Holmes was running the same temperatures. He told his driver to “poke his nose out” to get some air flowing and cool it off a little.
Lap 13 saw the field settle into two lines with minimal change. Howard was sitting P12 with seven to go in the opening stage. Two laps later, the No. 51 of Jack Wood was running a lap down and making things squirrely for the leaders.
Howard was sitting P12 with two to go. Fedewa said, “Stage points are great, but we need to finish.”
He got a push from the No. 15 of Tanner Gray, and coming to the stage end, the chaos began as the pushing got aggressive. Howard crossed the line in P6 and earned five stage points.
Coming to pit stops during the stage break, Shelton said, “Let’s see what the leaders do here.”
Stage 2
Howard followed the leaders in for fresh tires and fuel. Leaving from the fourth pit stall, he had a long, slow drive back to the track. He lined up to restart P15 with only 12 laps remaining in Stage 2. Fedewa said, “Be smart. Smarter than they are. They’re gonna get rowdy.”
The racing immediately went three wide and Howard got shuffled back to P24, running the high line.
Fedewa noted, with four to go, “They’re getting three wide up in the action spot. Just watch ahead.” Howard was in P26.
With 26 to go, Stewart Friesen and Christian Eckes got into each other. They went spinning and collected Tyler Ankrum and David Gilliland. It all happened right ahead of Howard. He managed to clear the chaos and finish the stage, under caution, in P19.
Stage 3
Howard came to his stall for fuel only and was second off pit road. He lined up to restart in P4 on the inside lane of the second row.
In the opening laps, Howard held his line right behind Tan. Gray, pushing as needed to best help his line.
Lap 49 saw the outside line get a run, but his position shifted as the two-by-two superspeedway train varied its surging.
Veteran spotter, Fedewa coached his young driver throughout the laps, helping him know when to hold and when to push.
Lap 50 saw the next caution for incident as Bayley Currey got into Taylor Gray. This caused a domino effect and took a good number of truckers out of contention.
When asked for an update on his truck, Howard said, “She’s driving great. The (No.) 11 [Corey Heim] is pushing me, but it’s in the right spot, so it’s okay.”
Shelton opted to keep Howard on track through the lengthy caution and restart on the second row in P3 on Lap 58.
One lap later, the caution was back out as Currey and Tyler Hill got into each other. Howard sat P4 and Shelton noted, “I’m sure everyone will pit here. It’ll be two tires and fuel when we do.”
It was a busy pit road with mixed strategies and Howard returned to the track in P14 with 32 to go.
Talladega Turmoil
Immediately after the green waved, NASCAR called a restart violation on the No. 2 of Nick Sanchez. As Sanchez made moves to hit pit road, the leaders got shaky. However, the race stayed green and Howard was sitting P13.
In the following laps, he was shuffled back to P18, but as drivers took the race two wide through the field, he worked back to P13.
The caution waved again as the No. 51 of Wood lost the hood to his truck. Howard was running P12 and was informed he was good on fuel for one overtime restart. Fedewa encouraged his driver ahead of the final stretch.
A terrible restart with 18 to go had trucks in all lanes. Howard took advantage of the situation and jumped into the top 10. However, he was stuck in a stalled-out top lane.
Three laps later, another caution waved as the No. 24 of Rajah Caruth went for a spin as he attempted to push through the tri-oval. Howard once again sat P13.
He was in the same position on the outside lane as he came to the restart with 10 laps remaining. The No. 42 of Carson Hocevar immediately jumped out to make a third lane. Drivers even took the action four wide for a moment.
Trouble for Howard
Before he could finish out the restart lap, Howard was spun out from behind by the No. 4 of Chase Purdy. He was sent spinning through the infield grass and radioed in to inform his team his left side tires were down.
A big hit for today's pole sitter at Talladega. #NASCARonFS1 https://t.co/zkbVJnZeYE pic.twitter.com/YQvfJBitiI
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) September 30, 2023
After getting fresh tires, Howard returned to his team because the splitter was hitting the ground. Before he could make it to pit road, he informed the team there was smoke in the cockpit. He was worried it was the transmission as his truck did not want to go into gear.
Shelton gave Howard some advice to help with shifting in an attempt to finish out the race.
With six to go, NASCAR red-flagged the race for a lengthy clean-up. However, as the red flag was lifted, Howard informed his team he had no gears. Shelton continued to encourage Howard to just “baby the truck” and “bring it home.” The team would be starting from the tail of the longest line, so the goal was to stay out of the way.
Howard came to the green with three to go in P25. Before taking two to go, trucks were sliding all over the track – with 14 drivers involved.
Big trouble! #NASCARonFS1 https://t.co/bHYMdakw9K pic.twitter.com/BBnpr7KUPU
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) September 30, 2023
Howard was scored P19 as the race was immediately red-flagged once again.
Unfortunately, once the yellow was displayed, Howard could not get his truck rolling – his transmission had completely given out.
The No. 9 team pushed the truck behind the wall and called it a day with Howard scored in P23.
Sponsor Shoutout
As NASCAR fans know, sponsors make the sport go ’round. We want to give a shoutout to a few who were a huge part of the weekend for Colby and the No. 9 team:
Titan Construction & Development, Inc. and RAD – Reis Auto & Diesel
Be sure to give Colby Howard (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and CR7 Motorsports (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) a follow to keep up with the latest news from the driver and team.
Thank you
Thank you, Linda!