Quiroga ready for his second start at HMS in the season finale

GERMÁN QUIROGA
Ready for a Second Helping of Homestead-Miami

With Thanksgiving fast approaching, many people are looking forward to a second helping of their grandmother's turkey dinner. NET10 Wireless® Racing driver Germán Quiroga has his mind focused on a different second helping, his second Camping World Truck Series start at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway. Friday's Truck Series finale will be the 32-year-old's sixth career start in NASCAR's third division and his first repeat visit to a track.

After registering a respectable 16th-place finish in his Truck Series debut at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon last September, Quiroga had a disappointing first visit to Homestead-Miami Speedway in his second start. After moving from his 27th starting position into the 20th spot early in the race, the Mexico City native was sent spinning sideways when another truck got loose underneath him. Although he avoided contact with the wall, his Tundra sustained two flat tires and slowly limped to the pits. The three-time Mexico Series champion went a lap down and ended the night with a disappointing 26th-place finish.

The NET10 Wireless driver has shown progress over his first three races this season. His 2012 debut came at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, where after learning the nuances of drafting, he made a late charge towards the front of the field and ended the day with his first Truck Series top-10 finish. In his second event, he tackled the blistering fast Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, but experienced a terminal engine failure near the halfway mark of the race and finished 28th.

Last week at Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway, Quiroga started 18th but with just over 40 laps remaining had put himself in a position for a top-five finish. Then, he was involved in an accident, which caused severe damage to his NET10 Wireless Tundra and ended his promising run.

The talented driver will look to continue his progress Friday night at the 1.5-mile oval that is located just over 30 miles from NET10 Wireless' corporate headquarters in Miami, Fla. With many employees of his sponsor expected to be in attendance for the race, Quiroga is hoping to net his second helping of a Truck Series top-10 finish and end the 2012 season on a positive note.

Germán Quiroga, Driver of the No. 51 NCWTS NET10 Wireless Tundra:

What positives can you take out of last week's race at Phoenix? "It was really the first time that I felt very comfortable racing in the Truck Series -- I felt like I was in contention to have a solid top-five run until the accident. I learned so much about how the tires change over the course of a run and where the Net10 Wireless Tundra likes to ride on the track. I'm expecting to take everything I've learned -- not only last week, but over the first three races -- and have a good result for NET10 Wireless, KBM and everyone associated with this No. 51 Toyota."

Are you looking forward to your first repeat visit to a track? "Yes, I think I'm going to be able to give more information to my crew chief, Rick Ren. Not only because it's my second time there, but also because I have learned so much in the three previous races this season."

Is there any added pressure racing so close to NET10 Wireless headquarters? "Not really -- the pressure has been around for months. First working on securing sponsorship for these four races and then once that was in place, working to improve my on-track performance to give Net10 the results they deserve for trusting in me. I will give my 100% as always."

Rick Ren, Crew Chief of the No. 51 NCWTS NET10 Wireless Tundra:

Despite the end result, did you see continued improvement from Germán last week at Phoenix? "I think that things went really well at Phoenix. We had productive practice sessions because he gave us good feedback and that allowed us to adjust the truck for him. Then, he did a better job in the race and showed a lot of progress. I think going into this weekend at Homestead he will have more confidence in his own ability. Combine that with the fact that he is going back to a race track that he has already been to before and I think this weekend will turn out to be a really good one."

What setup will you be running on the truck this weekend? "We are going to put the setup underneath him that we won with in 2010 with Kyle and if it hadn't have been for the rain last year, we would've won with Denny Hamlin. It's a proven, race-winning setup and we are on the same tire, so nothing has really changed. Germán just needs to get more comfortable on the race track like he did last week -- he kept getting faster and faster the more laps he turned."

Germán Quiroga's No. 51 NET10 Wireless Tundra: Chassis KBM-3: KBM-3 will be making its second start of 2012 and eighth overall start in Friday's Truck Series finale. It is the same Tundra that Quiroga drove to a 26th-place finish in the 2011 event at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway last season. He also piloted the same truck two weeks ago at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, where a terminal engine failure resulted in a 28th-place finish. The trucks best career result, a seventh-place finish, came with Brian Ickler behind the wheel in its debut race at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway in September of 2010.

Kyle Busch Motorsports