CONCORD, N.C. (May 22, 2010) – Nelson Piquet Jr. came a long way in 200 miles. The Brazilia, Brazil native continued his progression in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, showing poise and a steadily-growing aptitude of stock car racing, in Friday night’s N.C. Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.  Piquet overcame an early-race accident and fought his way back onto the lead lap to score a 16^th-place finish. 

Piquet started the event from the 23^rd position. As he settled into the race, the Qualcomm, ArcSight Toyota Tundra tightened up on Piquet. He began experimenting with his line around the 1.5-mile race track, which led to an improvement in his lap times.

On Lap 25, Piquet was battling for position with the truck above him.  Piquet’s truck lost grip and shoved into the competitor on his outside and looped him around. The incident brought out the caution flag. Piquet’s No. 15 machine suffered damage to the right-side fenders and needed attention from his crew, so he made a trip down pit lane.  The team made multiple stops during the caution period to re-form the sheet metal to its original state. They also changed his tires and topped off the fuel cell before sending him back on the track.

Green flag action returned on Lap 29 with Piquet in 31^st-place. The field made a 51 lap green flag run before the next caution flag waved. Piquet methodically worked his way through the field into the 14^th position by Lap 80, but fell one lap down to the leaders during that period. The team used the caution to bring the No.15 truck down pit lane. Piquet relayed that his truck was “tight in traffic, but good in clean air” to his team, so his crew changed his tires, topped off the fuel cell and sent him back on the track.

The race went back to green on Lap 90 with Piquet in 17^th-place. Piquet continued to learn the handling characteristics of his Toyota Tundra and how to improve its performance.  His efforts paid off on Lap 109, when the caution flag waved. Piquet had fought his way into the “Lucky Dog” position and earned his way back onto the lead lap. He passed the pace car during the yellow flag and rejoined the field in 18^th-place.

On Lap 118, the race returned to green. In the 27 remaining laps, Piquet moved up the leader board and into 16^th-place before taking the checkered flag.

“I wish I could have started this race over,” Piquet said.  “There was so much I learned tonight. At the beginning, I just slid into another car next to us and that hurt our right-front.  I’m not used to some of the stuff and just getting used to everything.  I think the car was pretty stable at the end of the race.  We were able to get back on the lead lap.  The last restart I didn’t turn off a fan and the car was really tight.  I should have finished maybe 12^th or 13^th, but the truck was just too tight.

“I’m ready to get to the next race because I’ve learned so much tonight.  I’ll feel more confident and hopefully we’ll improve from our result today.”

Piquet will return to Truck Series action in the WinStar World Casino 400 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 4. Coverage will be on MRN and SPEED.