Kyle Krisiloff drove his No. 15 ditech.com/Krud Kutter Chevrolet from the 34th starting position to capture 17th place in the Quaker Steak & Lube 200 last Friday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.  The finish was Krisiloff’s third top-20 finish of the 2006 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season.  Krisiloff’s teammate for this race, Kyle Busch, was victorious, capturing Billy Ballew Motorsports’ first win of the year.

“I felt like we had a really good truck at Charlotte,” said Krisiloff following the race.  “I believe we could’ve run in the top-10 with our No. 15 ditech.com/Krud Kutter Chevrolet if some things had gone our way.  Starting in the back wasn’t good and a few other mistakes were made, but overall we continue to get better each race.”

The 20-year-old Krisiloff had trouble qualifying, as did several other competitors, scraping the right side of the truck coming out of turn four.  He immediately brought the truck to the garage for the Billy Ballew Motorsports team to hustle to get the truck ready for the race, since the Quaker Steak & Lube 200 was in just a few hours. The crew had to beat the right side of the truck out and replace the decals.

“We were just way too loose out there,” Krisiloff explains after his qualifying lap.  “I about wrecked the truck coming off of turn two, but was able to save it.  I just wasn’t as lucky coming off of four.”

Because the team had to repair the truck during impound, Krisiloff would start from the rear of the field.  The first caution period waved on lap four for the spinning No. 20, which Krisiloff was able to avoid.  At this time, the No. 15 had already moved up to the 22nd position.  Acting crew chief Buddy “Red Dog” Barnes asked Krisiloff to assess how the truck was at this point.  “It’s a little free right now,” Krisiloff said.  “We just need to go a little more though.  It’s too early to tell.”

By lap 20, Krisiloff had wrestled his way up to the 19th position, 15 spots ahead of his starting position.  The team pitted when the second caution came out on lap 47.  Krisiloff asked for the truck to be tightened up a little bit so it would handle on the way in the turn.  A slip in the pits caused the No. 15 ditech.com/Krud Kutter Chevrolet to not get all the fuel inside the tank, so Krisiloff brought the machine down pit road once again to fill the tank up with Sunoco fuel.

Krisiloff restarted in 20th place and within a few laps, Krisiloff radioed to the crew that the changes they had been made seemed to have made the truck looser in the center.  He managed to get to the 18th position when the third caution came out on lap 85.  Krisiloff brought the No. 15 ditech.com/Krud Kutter Chevrolet down pit road and unfortunately pitted with his right front tire out of the box, causing a one lap penalty to befall on the team.

Krisiloff restarted in 21st place, one lap down to the leaders, on lap 90.  A few quick cautions occurred and on lap 101, Krisiloff received the “lucky dog” award, gaining back his lost lap and earning the 18th position for the restart on lap 106.  Krisiloff was able to move around a couple more competitors by the end of the 134-lap Quaker Steak & Lube 200, finishing up in the 17th position.

“Starting in the rear puts you behind the eight ball right from the get-go,” Krisiloff said.  “We lost spots in the pits due to some mistakes, one of which was mine, but it would’ve been a whole lot easier to maintain a top-10 positioning if we had been able to start up front.  Having that long green flag run didn’t help us either.  Our No. 15 ditech.com/ Krud Kutter Chevrolets keep getting better and we’ll continue to go from there.”

Kyle Krisiloff currently sits 19th in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series drivers standings and third in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year ranking.

The race at Lowe’s kicked off a nine-week stretch which now sees the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series turn their attention to the short track of Mansfield Motorsports Speedway this Saturday afternoon.