MDM Motorsports announced Thursday that it has withdrawn its No. 99 Chevrolet Silverado from Saturday’s Drivin’ For Linemen 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Gateway Motorsports Park.
The team issued a media release that its decision is due primarily to the damage the No. 99 incurred in the vicious crash that involved Timothy Peters on the second-to-last lap last Friday at Texas.
While the team has a back-up truck, many of the suspension parts it needs were damaged in the Texas wreck.
“We came back to the shop and spent Monday assessing the damage to the race truck, and more specifically, the racing components,” said MDM competition director Mark McFarland. “While we had a truck at the shop to race in the event of damage at Texas, we were relying on the suspension components to come back in race-able condition.
“That obviously wasn’t the case when the Metabo Chevy spun into the infield grass at Texas and created the conditions for the truck to flip and land on its roof.”
Peters was scheduled to make his second start for MDM at Gateway.
“We couldn’t be prouder of the MDM employees that worked on the truck to ensure the seat was properly mounted for Timothy Peters and for the safety devices that all performed their jobs,” McFarland said. “However, we would be doing a disservice to our sponsors, partners and Timothy this weekend if we showed up with a truck that crew chief Shane Huffman didn’t feel was capable of competing for the win.”
The team plans to return for the next two races on the Truck schedule at Iowa and Kentucky, with Brandon Jones slated to be behind the wheel of the No. 99.
No driver nor sponsor has been named for the truck for the race at Eldora Speedway.
Thursday’s announcement of the Truck Series race pullout will not have any impact on MDM’s participation in Friday’s ARCA race at Michigan International Speedway. The team is fielding three drivers in the event: Brandon Jones, Sheldon Creed and Vinnie Miller.”