McCumbee Ready for the Madness of Thunder Valley

With the O'Reilly 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway looming ominously before the teams of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Raybestos Rookie-of-the-Year contender Chad McCumbee isn't intimidated by the high banks, rough racing, and hot tempers of the World's Fastest Half-Mile. In fact, he's looking forward to it.

With momentum on their side, McCumbee and Green Light Racing have no reason to fear a Wednesday night at Bristol. Though circumstance foiled their pit strategy and hopes for a top-10 finish, The GPS Store/Garmin International team had a truck strong enough to battle for the lead during the last CTS short-track race, at Indianapolis Raceway Park. Then, two weeks ago at Nashville Superspeedway, McCumbee qualified his No. 08 Chevrolet Silverado on the outside pole and cruised to a career-best 7th-place finish.

"We are looking for another great run Wednesday night to improve on the rookie standings, Chad has been able to keep out of trouble all season long and I feel that is the key to having a good finish at Bristol", said team co-owner Gene Christensen.

Experience may also keep the No. 08 GPS Store/Garmin squad confident this week. Though McCumbee has never raced at Bristol, he has had plenty of experience on short tracks in the ARCA RE/MAX series and during the three prior CTS short track races this season. The double-punch of momentum and know-how could be all McCumbee needs to score his first top-five finish on Wednesday.

"I have run good at Winchester and Salem in the ARCA Series which are both high banked ½ miles and I feel with Bobby and Kevin's experience here at Bristol we should be pretty good," said McCumbee.

The O'Reilly 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway is set to start at 9:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday, with qualifying preceding the race at 5:30 p.m. ET. The event will be broadcast on SPEED, opening with the pre-race show at 8:30 p.m. ET.