Austin Wayne Self, No. 44 Don’t mess with Texas / AM Technical Solutions Chevrolet
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Pocono Raceway / Overton’s 150
Box Score Report
Race No. 12 of 23
Stats:
Started: 21st
Finished: 16th
Laps: 60 / 60
Status: Running
Quick Recap:
In his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) debut with Martins Motorsports in collaboration with Faith Motorsports, Austin, Texas native earned a solid 16th place finish in Saturday afternoon’s Overton’s 150 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway.
Grateful for an opportunity to drive the No. 44 Don’t mess with Texas / AM Technical Solutions Chevrolet for Martins Motorsports, Self and his new team work hard over the weekend to improve the handling on their truck from the shortened practice session on Friday afternoon.
From practice to qualifying on Saturday afternoon, Self continued to pick up the pace, qualifying a track-best 21st at the 2.5-mile triangle just three hours before the start of the 12th race of the season.
Throughout the short 60-race stint, Self battled an extremely tight race truck at the end of Stage 1, but diligent work by the Martins Motorsports team improved the handling condition significantly allowing Self to climb from 20th at the end of Stage 2 to finish 16th when the checkered flag waved.
The effort was Self’s fifth top-20 finish of the 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season. Also, the run was best since a competitive 12th-place run at Texas Motor Speedway driving for AM Racing in June.
Self, 22, has 29 career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts to his credit. He holds a career-best finish of second at Daytona International Speedway in Feb. 2017 driving for AM Racing. Self’s career-best qualifying effort occurred at his hometown track of Texas Motor Speedway in June 2017 where he qualified 15th before finishing 12th.
Driver Quote:
“I appreciative of this opportunity to drive for Martins Motorsports, Faith Motorsports and to have the support of Don’t mess with Texas, AM Technical Solutions and all of our partners who make this possible.”
“Our truck was pretty decent. We kept making some changes and with those changes the truck got faster. Pocono is a short race, so if you don’t have it the way you want too by the start – you play catchup the entire race.”
“I’m really proud of the guys though. They worked their guts out and we had a solid finish. Looking forward to seeing what’s next.”
Event Notes:
- Austin Wayne Self finished 16th in the Overton’s 150 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway in his second NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at the famed 2.5-mile triangle. Last July, the Texan finished 25th after starting 21st.
- Self-made his seventh NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start of the year but first with Martins Motorsports in a collaboration with Faith Motorsports. Self also has raced for AM Racing and Niece Motorsports respectively this season.
- Christopher Bell won the Overton’s 150 followed by Ben Rhodes (second), Ryan Truex (third), John Hunter Nemechek (fourth) and Johnny Sauter (fifth).
Next Race: LTi Printing 200 at Michigan International Speedway on Sat., Aug 12. Â
To learn more information on AM Racing please visit amracingteam.com.
For more information on Don’t mess with Texas and how you can become involved in the program , visit dontmesswithtexas.org.
For more on Austin Wayne Self and AM Racing, please visit awsracing.com, like his Facebook page (Austin Wayne Self) or follow him on Twitter @AustinWSelf.
About Don’t mess with Texas:
TxDOT’s Don’t mess with Texas litter prevention campaign has been educating Texans about litter prevention since 1986. For more information, visit dontmesswithtexas.org. Don’t mess with Texas is a registered trademark and service mark owned by the Texas Department of Transportation.
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