Over the last few years Donny Lia has proven that
he is a talented and accomplished racecar driver. Lia knew that
he faced new challenges in 2008 when he joined forces with TRG
Motorsports for the 2008 Craftsman Truck Series season. After
two respectable performances, a 26th and 20th
at California Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway, Lia finally
broke through with a ninth-place effort at the Kroger 250 at
Martinsville Speedway (VA), scoring top Raybestos Rookie honors.
“It’s a big shot in the arm for me and the TRG
Motorsports team,” said a happy Lia. “I know that I can race
with these guys. I know I definitely need a lot more experience,
though. Going to Martinsville and running in the top-five and
finishing in the top-ten is a real big thing for us. I raced
with some real good drivers all day, battling side by side. It
was a lot of fun. More so, it was an eye-opener for me to show
me that I can race with these guys and they aren’t much
different than I am. I just need to get accustomed to this
vehicle, and I can be up there with them on a regular basis. At
the end of the day ninth is not a win; I want to win, but when
you are at my experience level, I think it’s huge.”
Lia’s run from a 25th-place starting
spot wasn’t an easy one. Good pit strategy by crew chief Jason
Miller and some hard short track racing vaulted the
AutismSpeaks.org Chevrolet to the front. Lia ran as high as
fourth during the Kroger 250. Although by races end, Lia had a
handful just to keep the #71 truck up front.
“We were tight all day. The longer the run, the
worse it got. I knew it was going to be a struggle there with
that long green-flag run at the end, and it was going to get
tighter and tighter. It was just a matter of protecting the
bottom and getting my line right. When you are real tight at
Martinsville, you are kind of like a sitting duck. You go into
the corner and have to stop and get it turned. At that point,
the trucks that are better than you are rolling through the
center. We got jacked up and moved to the outside but didn’t
lose too many spots. We fell back to 12th, but we
hustled up and made up a few spots at the end. I was trying to
redeem myself at the end.”
After racing at two tracks that he was seeing for the first
time, the trip to Martinsville was sort of a homecoming for Lia.
In 2007 Donny won the NASCAR Modified Tour’s prestigious Whelen
Made in America 300 on his way to capturing the series
championship. However, Lia attributes most of the success in the
recent Truck Series effort to testing at the paper-clip shaped
oval leading up to the race.
“The key was testing,” explained Lia. “I was
able to get over 400 laps around the track testing there. For
me, just running laps in a Truck is the key. Yeah, it’s
Martinsville, and I have won there in a Modified, but I need
laps in a truck. The more laps I get, the better I am going to
be. I’m still at a point where I am trying to develop a feel for
these vehicles with the weight and the radial tires. The trucks
have a whole different feel, and I am learning to try and figure
out what I need in the trucks to be fast. After 400 laps testing
there leading up to the race, my feel for the Truck just got a
whole lot better and it showed on race day. We ran in the
top-ten all day. I think the success at Martinsville had more to
do with us testing and getting a feel for this truck than
anything.”
Testing is something Donny and the newly formed
TRG Motorsports team plans on doing a lot more of now that they
are getting settled into the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
ranks. For Lia, it only means things are looking up for the
remainder of the 2008 season.
“We’ll be testing soon at places like Pocono and
Rockingham as well as going to the wind tunnel. It will help us
have a better understanding on what we need to bring to each
race. With me getting experience behind the wheel of these
trucks and us improving our program aero-wise and as a team
working close together and improving, it’s going to make us so
much better. I am really excited about it.”
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series takes a few
weeks off before it heads to Kansas Speedway for the O’Reilly
Auto Parts 250. Besides testing during the off-time, Lia will be
honored as the 2007 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Champion in a
special pre-race ceremony at the Tour’s season opener at
Thompson International Speedway (CT) on Sunday, April 6th.
“I’ll be chomping at the bit not to be getting
behind the wheel, but it will be fun to see everyone in the Mod
community,” said Lia.
For more information on Donny Lia, please contact
Matthew Dillner at 51Sports by calling (704) 788-2134 ext.9 and
be sure to visit
www.donnylia.com and
www.trgmotorsports.com.
Source: Matthew
Dillner/51 Sports
Posted:
April 1, 2008
