News Archive

Josh Richards made his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday showcasing a special paint scheme to honor the U.S. Navy Seals who were injured and lost their lives on August 6.
 

The race weekend at Martinsville started with what was supposed to be two practice sessions for the Kroger 200 shortened to just one 30 minute practice on Friday afternoon when rain caused NASCAR to cancel one practice and shorten another. Richards was able to get in 38 laps of practice at the .526-mile speedway.
 

The No. 51 Joy Mining Machinery Tundra sported a special hood paint scheme painted by Mooresville, N.C. residents Hunter Vogel (age 9) and Alexandra Vogel (age 7). The Vogel children created artwork to honor the U.S. soldiers and the families who lost loved ones in an August 6 battle in Afghanistan, which killed several members of the Naval Special Warfare (NSW) community. The Vogel family only recently moved away from the NSW community after the children’s father, Steve, retired following twenty years of service to the U.S. Navy. The artwork the children created was ultimately made into stickers that the children have given away in exchange for donations to the Navy SEAL Foundation.
 

Hunter and Alexandra’s family, several members of the NSW community, including uniformed members of the U.S. Navy and active duty Navy SEAL team members attended the races to show support for Hunter and Alexandra and their special fundraiser.
 

Richards started 25^th and by the first caution on lap 39 had moved up four positions to 21^st. The team made several changes to the Joy Tundra throughout the race, and by lap 57 Richards was up to 15^th. With team owner Kyle Busch sitting on the pit box for part of the race, the team owner and driver was giving feedback through crew chief Ren helping Richards to negotiate the turns at the paperclip shaped speedway.
 

Richards got up as high as 7^th by lap 110 and stayed in the top ten until lap 134 when the team called him to pit road for his final four sticker tires and fuel under caution. Several teams chose to stay out, Richards restarted 20^th. While the Joy Tundra was making its way back into the top 15, on lap 155 spotter Rocky Ryan warned him that the No. 88 of Matt Crafton was hard charging behind him. Crafton nudged the No. 51 Joy Tundra and Richards was sent spinning with the No. 32 of Blake Feese. Richards was forced to pit road under green for two left side tires and came back to the track P30.
 

Following the spin Ren reported to Richards that his lap times were only slightly slower than Hamlin. Throughout the race Richards continually ran lap times similar to the leaders including race winner Hamlin who was driving the No. 18 for the Kyle Busch Motorsports. Richards finished the race 28^th, with Ren excitedly saying to Richards on the radio, “you survived your first race at Martinsville.”
 

Ren following the race said, “I think Josh had a really great run for his first time there at Martinsville to go from the back starting at 25^th to as high as 7^th at one time, we made some adjustments based on his feedback and we were moving in the right direction trying to free the truck up for him. I think for his first time for Martinsville he got his timing down a little bit better in the race, started charging the corner a little bit better and got a little more aggressive with the racetrack, and was really moving forward. The guys did a great job on pit road, Josh did much better on pit road, we just got in a bad situation late in the race when people were charging really hard, and he was involved in an altercation and we had a tire cut down, where we had to pit under green and lost some laps there late in the race, that kind of ruined our day, but all in all the day had really good promise.”
 

Richards said after the race, “It’s a fun racetrack. I’m disappointed for the team and for Joy Mining Machinery that a good run was spoiled there at the end, but I know I learned a lot and look forward to coming back to race at Martinsville. It was great to have Hunter and Alexandra and the guests from the NSW community at the race. It is because of the sacrifices of the U.S. soldiers that we get to have the freedoms that we have, and it was a privilege to be able to honor those that have given their lives, and to honor the families who have given so much. I want to thank Joy Mining Machinery for giving up their hood branding to allow us to have the Hunter and Alexandra’s artwork on the truck this week.”
 

The hood and the helmet Richards wore for the race will be auctioned off with all proceeds going to the Navy SEAL Foundation. More information on the items and where to bid on them can be found on www.NSWKids.com.