Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR
Entering the weekend, ThorSport Racing had their heads held high in hopes of four good finishing spots with four talented drivers. While Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter finished in the top-nine, the same wasn’t the case for the other half of the quartet.
Cameron Hayley was running inside the top-10 when his engine would go up in smoke. The team would find a broken valve spring, changing it and sending Hayley back out on track, but he eventually had to end his day early due to leaking oil. He would finish 21st.
“We had a fast truck,” he commented. “I just blew a motor, that’s the easiest way to say it. We dropped a valve spring and came in, we thought our day was done, and they decided to put another valve spring in it. We tried to make some laps and get some points back and we were leaking too much oil. Super-fast truck, we were running top-three – it just didn’t work out.”
Meanwhile, Jesse Little was making his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut this weekend, and was solid in practice. Unfortunately, his day would end early as a result of a wreck. He would finish 30th.
“I’m fine. I just made a rookie mistake, I just got loose,” he stated. “I should have known better. I knew how much the air affected these trucks – it’s a lot, a lot more than I thought and I shouldn’t have taken a chance that early in the race. I hate it for my guys, I hate it for Carolina Nuts. We’ll try to do whatever we can to hopefully come back and rebuild. It’s a bummer, man. We had a great Tundra, just shouldn’t have done that.”
Recalling the incident, Little said he dove underneath Mason Mingus, looking to complete the pass, but got loose and spun around, before hitting the wall.
“This is exactly what I was trying not to do and it’s something that kind of sets us back,” he added. “I learned and that’s what it’s all about. We’ll go get them next time.”
