Chase Montgomery’s rookie season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series continued on its path of a rocky road on Friday night.  While fighting a bad handling truck, the 22-year-old brought home his #8 DODGE in the 24th position in the running of the Infineon 200 under the lights at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

“It was really a challenge out there this evening,” stated Chase.  “We fought an ill-handling truck all evening and no matter what changes the crew made it just never helped.  We will have to look the truck over when we get back to the shop but it makes you think that something was wrong with it.  My guys worked hard and we threw everything at it but nothing really worked.”

Carrying sponsorship for the second time this season of Big Daddy’s Cycle World, Montgomery fought mechanical gremlins right off the trailer.  The #8 DODGE lost valuable track time during the only practice session before qualifying with vital necessary repairs.  The loss of track time hurt the teams qualifying effort which resulted in a 30th place starting position for the 200 mile race on Friday evening.

“Our mechanical problems started as soon as we unloaded the truck,” said Chase.  “We had to change a steering box first thing into our practice session and then we just could not get a hold of the handling on our #8 DODGE.  I give credit to the guys on this team as no one quit and they all worked their butts off on this truck.”

The race saw much of the same as Montgomery battled the mysterious handling woes.  The use of impressive patience by the rookie helped the BHR2 team battle their way throughout the 134 laps of the event and bring home the truck safely in the 24th spot.

The finish kept Montgomery in the 23rd spot in the overall driver’s standings as well as maintaining the 5th position in the highly contested battle for the Rookie of the Year honor.

Chase will remain busy behind the wheel as he heads directly to the friendly confines of the Chicago Motor Speedway for a Monday and Tuesday test session.

Chase and his BHR2 team will return to action on the track in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series on June 4th with the running of the MBNA America 200 at the Dover International Speedway.