NASCAR Trucks: Canadian J.R. Fitzpatrick Heads to California Truck Race Hungry

J.R. Fitzpatrick Heads to California Truck Race Hungry

Mooresville, North Carolina (February 17, 2009) - John Ryan (J.R.) Fitzpatrick and his No. 7 TRG Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado is headed to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California for round two of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series San Bernardino 200 to be run Saturday, February 21.

Fitzpatrick and his No. 7 Chevy Silverado were a force at Daytona last weekend. The 20-year old Cambridge, Ontario, Canada resident led the most laps with 17, was the top finishing Chevrolet Silverado driver, won the Wix Filters lap leader award and was the Raybestos Rookie of the race award winner.

"I learned a lot at Daytona," Fitzpatrick said. "I did some good things and made some bad decisions. The biggest thing I learned is to be patient. Some maneuvers that I did in the race probably hurt me in the end. Going forward with those mistakes, it makes you think how we could have done with just a little more experience. With the short amount of time left in the race I was told to be aggressive and I went hard. We waited until eight laps to go to get aggressive, which was about perfect. Waiting to the end to put on fresh tires was a great move. The fourth place finish made me really happy and the team as well."

Auto Club Speedway will be another challenge for J.R. who has done his homework.

"I am excited. I have already done my homework. We have awesome equipment. I have been working hard to get familiar with the tracks. I have been on the video game, and even looked at in-car video on youtube.com. I will go into practice and get behind one of the veterans and get some laps and then start to work on the truck."

"In Daytona we just made a few adjustments on the truck right off of the trailer. I hope we don't have to do too much at California as well. I definitely think that it is to my advantage that TRG Motorsports brings a lot of experience. The team ran nearly every race last year. Butch (Hylton, crew chief) and the guys have a real good handle on the truck. Having an ill handling truck would make my learning curve steeper."

Kevin Buckler, TRG Motorsports team owner, wants to keep Fitzpatrick upfront all season.

"We want to give J.R. every opportunity to run for a championship," Buckler said. "He showed what he is capable of at Daytona last weekend. If he can bring that level of maturity, performance and professionalism to the track every weekend there is no reason why he can't be in the running for the number one spot at the end of the season. We have the trucks and team to support him."

The San Bernardino 200 from the Auto Club Speedway will be televised live on FOX starting at 3:00 p.m. ET.

TRG Motorsports is based in Mooresville, North Carolina where they run a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team as well as an ARCA RE/MAX Series effort. 2008 marked the first full season of competition for TRG in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series where they recorded one win, one top-five and ten top tens overall. The team's sister company, The Racer's Group, was founded in 1993 has been competing at the top level of motor racing ever since. TRG has the most wins of any team in the Grand-Am Rolex Series with 26, including the 2005 and 2006 Rolex Series GT championship trophy to go along with wins at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

From Kyle Chura / TRG Motorsports