Lookout ASA Speed Trucks in 2005! Justin Fisher made a very impressive debut at Las Vegas this last weekend, qualifying 3rd out of 25 trucks and finishing 6th in the main event. The results for the 18 year old rookie, who just completed a season in the SCOA 410 Winged Sprint Car series, finishing 5th in points and capturing Rookie of the Year honors were remarkable considering this was Fisher’s very first time in this type of vehicle, the first time ever on this track and the first time with his new crew chief. Fisher Racing plans on running the ASA Speed Truck series full time in 2005.
Fisher Racing showed up at the Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, not really knowing what their weekend was going to be like. Chris Hines has signed on for next year to be Fisher’s crew chief and has lined up support from Plateau Motorsports and their matriarch, Edie Arrowsmith. Plateau Motorsports is a first class operation providing a lot of necessary support for a new team just coming together. Hines has most recently competed in the NASCAR Southwest Series and is a previous winner in the ASA Speed Truck Challenge series.
Hines exudes a lot of confidence and at first the team wondered if it was an act or for real, but as the weekend progressed it became very evident that it was for real and in fact it was contagious. The goal of Thursday was to get Fisher as much seat time as possible and start the process of dialing the truck in and getting it suited to what Fisher is comfortable with. The beauty of the Bullring at Las Vegas is that it is a true 3/8-mile oval. This allowed Fisher to tap into his vast Quarter Midget experience as far as what line to run. With Hines’s tutelage on the radio as the spotter, Fisher managed to get the truck dialed in to within about four tenths of a second of where Hines thought Fisher needed to be to qualify within the top five by the end of the day. The team was very satisfied with their first day and they were starting to catch the eye of some of the other teams.
Friday’s format had another afternoon of practice followed by qualifying in the evening. By the end of practice and another day of coaching from Hines and continued work on the truck set up, suddenly everyone was watching us as Fisher was running times as quick as anyone else there. Qualifying order was determined by point’s standings and since this was their first race Fisher qualified last. A team member mentioned to Jim Fisher (team owner) that there was probably going to be a little more interest then usual on the last truck to qualify. Fisher didn’t disappoint as he ran two really smooth laps and put the third quickest time on the board, missing 2nd quick by .001 of a second! This put Fisher inside the second row for the trophy dash and since they inverted the top six cars; put him on the outside of the second row for the feature.
Saturday was another few hours of practice in which the team worked on different set ups on the truck to try and simulate race conditions. Excitement was high as Fisher rolled out for the trophy dash and his first race in the trucks. The jitters didn’t show and Fisher “held serve”, finishing the dash where he started in 3rd place.
The format for the feature was a 150 lap feature broken in to two segments. At the initial green, Fisher was hung out on the outside as Hines was trying to talk him into any openings down low, Fisher was dropping back as there was no room, when in turns 1&2 he got involved in “one of those racing deals” and was bumped and spun out. Luckily no one hit him and once Fisher got the truck restarted and got back up to speed, he was only about 10 truck lengths in front of the leaders and sitting in last place.
The race stayed green for about another 10 laps and Fisher showed his speed as the lead trucks could not run him down, when the first caution of the night flew. This was Fisher’s first break as it let him catch up to the field.
During that first caution, Hines laid out the plans to Fisher to just stay calm and he would pick off the trucks one by one. Fisher started this process and had moved up to about 13th or 14th when he ran into a difficult challenge. The truck in front of him was running a very aggressive defensive line; meaning he was coming off of the turn and immediately diving down low.
After about 15 laps of battling this guy, including passing him and then getting passed back, Fisher finally cleared this truck and continued to move forward. With about 10 laps to go, Fisher had marched his way all the way up to about 7th place, when the truck started to go wicked loose. It was frustrating for Fisher as a few trucks went by him right before the checkered and he finished the first segment in 10th place. Still a pretty impressive run up through the field after being spun out.
The team’s strategy going into the mains was to save the best set of tires for the second session and they made a few adjustments to the truck based on how it went away in the first segment. At the green, Fisher got passed by a couple of trucks and then he settled in. From that point forward, he might have been the fastest truck on the track as Fisher continued to pick off trucks one by one and moved all the way up for a hard earned 6th place finish!
