(Concord, NC - July 12, 2003) After two weeks of bad luck and a smashed up Craftsman Chevy Truck, TJ Bell was trying to keep his focus on his primary goal of the season. "We were trying to go back to square one this weekend at the Kentucky Speedway by concentrating on keeping the truck in one piece and finishing the race," commented Bell. "Unfortunately, we've had problems all weekend long." When Bell and his team arrived and ran practice for the Built Ford Tough 225, the No. 86 Speed Motorsports Management Chevy was only running on 7 cylinders. The truck had burnt through a plug wire. After qualifying in the 32nd position, Bell and the crew went back to work to improve their performance. "We'll definitely be making some changes before the start of the race tomorrow," replied Bell. "We'll get it up to par before the start of the Built Ford Tough 225."
As the drivers buckled in and got ready to fire their trucks up, Bell could not get the No. 86 Speed Motorsports Management Chevy to start. "We had to pull the truck behind the wall before the race even started," replied a frustrated Bell. The alternator had grounded everything out and the team had to replace the battery. TJ Bell started the race already two laps down. After a chassis adjustment on lap 18, Bell was very satisfied with how the truck was running. That would not last long. During a caution on lap 32, Bell started having clutch problems. By lap 33, the clutch was totally gone and Bell could not get the truck in gear on the restart. "Hopefully third time is a charm in that all the bad luck is now behind us," commented Bell. "We are going to try and start off fresh next week at the Dodge Dealers Ram Tough 200 in St. Louis."
