ROOM TO RUN: THOMPSON EAGER TO GET BACK TO SPEEDWAY

Brett Thompson (No. 61 Pets Best Insurance Chevrolet) cut his teeth racing on a 1/3-mile short track near his home in Idaho. But since joining the ranks of the NASCAR Camping World Series in 2000, he has developed a preference for competing on bigger speedways.

“I absolutely love them,” Thompson said of the larger tracks. “We get to the bigger tracks, where there’s plenty of room to race, and it usually works well for us.”

One of the newest speedways on the series schedule is the 7/8-mile Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. The track, which hosts this year’s only NASCAR Camping World Series East-West combination race with the US Cellular 200, is quickly becoming one of Thompson’s favorite tracks. “I love it,” he said. “It’s like a miniature California Speedway.”

“I had a whole lot of fun there last year and look forward to doing a lot better this year. I think we’ll have a better car,” said Thompson, who had a top-five finish among the NASCAR Camping World Series West drivers in the inaugural NASCAR event at Iowa Speedway last year.

The 30-year-old driver from Jerome, Idaho, is eager to return to Iowa, based on his performance and what he learned in last month’s NASCAR Camping World Series West race at Phoenix International Raceway, a similar-sized track.

“I think we had the car to beat at Phoenix,” said Thompson, who led late in the race and finished fourth. “We just took tires at the wrong time. I think our strategy will play out really good for us at Iowa and I look forward to being in victory lane there.”

In his 77 starts in the NASCAR Camping World Series since 2000 – Thompson has registered one win, 15 top-five and 44 top-10 finishes. Many of his best finishes came on the bigger speedways. His fondness for California Speedway, in particular, is reflected in his finishes there – with one top-five and five top-10 finishes in five starts on the two-mile superspeedway.

Thompson has also been successful at intermediate size tracks, such as the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he scored a third-place finish in his only visit. In his only race at the now-shuttered one-mile Pikes Peak International Raceway, Thompson also came away with a top-five finish.

Bolstered by his fourth-place finish at Phoenix on April 10, Thompson is currently ninth in the championship standings – with three events complete of a 13-race schedule for 2008.

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