Source: Summitted to RacingWest.com by Dave Grayson
Date: 07/05/2005

It was immediately apparent that Justin Fisher was going to be the driver to beat when the ASA Speed Truck Challenge ran the, July 2nd, Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation 100 at the Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino.

The Phoenix, Arizona driver set the fastest time in qualifying and then showed the field of 23 trucks a hole shot, at the initial green flag, and wound up leading all 100 laps of the race. However, it wasn't an easy race for Fisher. It was almost impossible to establish any kind of race rhythm due to the seven caution flags that consumed 47 laps of the race, in the wreck marred event.

The first of those wrecks occurred before the first green flag of the race was complete when three trucks slammed into each other, coming out of turn one, which forced the field to regroup for a restart. It was a sign of things to come.

Under the green again, Fisher, again, jumped into the lead and ran all of four laps when another caution flag flew into the air when Scott Franchimone spun his truck around on the backstretch. The field ran one green lap before the third caution came out due to Scott Dodd's turn four spin. That was pretty much the tone of this race: run a short green flag period and then run a series of caution laps.

The worst of the multiple incidents occurred on lap 40. Darren Young and Lee Hatch were racing hard, for the fourth position, when they got together in turn two. Hatch spun around and forced the truck of Alex Haase to go high to avoid hitting him. Unfortunately, Haase ran out of room and slammed hard into the backstretch wall. The Las Vegas driver walked away from the wreck uninjured but the damage to his truck was massive and his night was over.

With each ensuing restart Fisher repeatedly put the hammer down and paced the field in a dominant fashion. Finally, as if in an act of mercy, the 100th lap was completed and it was time to celebrate the victory. Matt Jaskol was right behind him in second while Kyle Cattanach, Darren Young and Steve Guccione completed the top five.

After the race a very happy winner said "I couldn't have done it without the help of Chris Hines, my crew chief, Jeff Cattlin, my mechanic, and my tire guy Bill Hansen as well as my Mom and Dad and all of our sponsors. Commenting on the fact that his truck was strong right out of the trailer, Fisher said "Chris Hines has had multiple wins in the ASA Speed Truck Challenge. He came on board this year and he's been helping us and we've been successful with his help."

Commenting on the high number of caution flags in the race, Fisher said "with that many yellow it was kind of disappointing because I couldn't keep any rhythm going. Chris and everybody on the radio, just kept me calm and collected and said we'll just deal with the cautions and we'll go forward and that's what we did."

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