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John Ryan (J.R.) Fitzpatrick soldiered through a wheel problem to finish the No. 7 Mammoet/TRG Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado in 22nd place in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series American Commercial Lines 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Fitzpatrick was the furthest Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate up the grid at the start thanks to a strong seventh place qualifying effort this morning. At the start Fitzpatrick was able to hold onto the lead group until lap five when he started to report a tight truck. By lap 21 the tightness turned into a vibration and the team brought him to pit road on lap 24. The culprit was a left rear wheel coming loose.

“What happened was we were really good at the beginning, like really good at the beginning," JR said. "There were three really good guys and we were running fourth there I think. It slowly just started to drift off. It was getting tighter and tighter. After about five laps it started vibrating really bad and we tried to ride it out. We came in and it was a loose wheel. We only had two lug nuts on when we pulled in. And on that stop we tried to loosen it up because it was real tight but it was because the wheel was about to fall off."

“The truck was fantastic," Fitzpatrick continued. "It’s been great all weekend. I had a lot of fun running with James Buescher and Tayler Malsam there. It was all three of us there for a minute. Tayler did a fantastic job. He was very quick today. James, I think he was just a little tight. That was a lot of fun, the three of us racing. We were racing hard there for a minute so that was a lot of fun. It’s unfortunate to see what happened to Ricky. It’s going to be a great year because I think those guys are better on short tracks too and that’s where I feel more comfortable. We’ve got a fast team, fast trucks. Just a little misfortune here and there. Once we get this all cleaned up we’re going to write those four races off and move on.”

J,R.'s team's principal owner, Kevin Buckler, likes how J.R. is responding to the challenges early in the season.

"We had a fast truck for J.R. today," Buckler said. "He showed that he knows what is going on with the handling when he felt the change to the truck when the wheel was coming loose. It was tough to pit under green like that, but we are thinking full season and we need to take every green flag and every checkered flag to come out toward the front at the end of the summer."

Ricky Carmichael Finishes 15th at Atlanta

Carmichael, the most successful motocross racer in American history and former Camping World East Series competitor, started from the 15th position and ran among the top-12 positions for the first 70 laps, then moved into the top 10 on lap 71. While running 10th, Carmichael was hit from behind by the truck of Colin Braun, sending the Monster Energy Silverado into a spin, where it was hit by the truck of Dennis Setzer. The KHI All-Stars team was able to make repairs to the No.. 4, and Carmichael was able to limp the damaged truck for the remainder of the 130-lap race, finishing four laps behind the leaders.

“It was just an unfortunate situation for the Monster Energy Chevrolet. We were coming in to one there after one of the restarts. I messed it up and spun the tires and missed a shift, but we got back going and the No. 6 just got in to me and turned me sideways and I was a passenger at that point. (Dennis) Setzer hit the truck then I just had to baby it along. Just unfortunate because we had a top-10 for sure.

“I was good," Ricky said. "I felt like I was trying to make progress and get that top Raybestos Rookie spot. I think I had them handled but it is what it is. It’s just unfortunate, man, ‘cause I was learning and just got knocked out. I learned a lot. I made it over halfway. Just an unfortunate situation. The guy just ran right over me and I went sideways.”

“It is a new situation for me going sideways and spinning around, for sure, just learning. But real happy that we were running that good and that strong at this place. It is a beast and I feel like I learned a lot while our truck was in great shape.”

Post-Race Highlights: Immediately after the race, Carmichael traveled with co-owners Kevin and Delana Harvick and several other NASCAR Sprint Cup stars to the AMA Supercross race at Daytona International Speedway. The race course there was designed by Carmichael and he appeared on SPEED-TV as a guest commentator during the live telecast of the Supercross event won by Chad Reed.

TAYLER MALSAM IN THE No. 81 ONE EIGHTY TOYOTA WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE

Malsam scored a 13th-place and claimed Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the first time this season.

MALSAM: “This One Eighty Randy Moss team did awesome. I screwed up in qualifying and just wasn’t good in practice but these guys stuck behind me and gave me a truck that I could race with and gave ‘em what I had. I wasn’t very good on restarts but Doug and the guys just made an awesome truck for us. We’ll get ‘em at Martinsville now.”

JAMES BUESCHER, No. 10 INTERNATIONAL MAXXFORCE DIESEL FORD, 4th in Rookie Standings:

“It’s not a bad day. I mean, we qualified 13th I think so overall stayed where we were all day or all weekend. That’s as much speed as we had in the truck. It was a long race, going a lap down twice, and getting the lucky dog back twice was kind of lucky for me. I guess that’s why they call it that [smiles].

The MAXXFORCE International Diesel F-150 was pretty awesome. Towards the end of the race we got it a lot better. We kept working on it and working on it every stop. The guys never gave up. We were a lap down inside 12 laps to go and finished 14th. I think we were the top Ford again this week. As long as we keep doing that we know that we’re doing the best we can do with what we’ve got. We’ll go to Martinsville and hope we get a top-five, maybe a win.”

“We just kind of struggled all weekend getting the thing to turn from the center off the corner. It just stayed tight all weekend. I could get to the bottom just fine getting into the corner and then be on the throttle in the center of the corner and then all of a sudden lose nose grip and just wash way up the racetrack. I worked around with the top groove a little bit all day and seemed to me the best way for me to get around my truck not being able to turn as good as some of the other ones was to be right on the seem of some of the different lanes, like where there is a seem in the track and the banking changes so it kind of de-wedges the truck a little bit and helps me out. All in all a good day. The truck is in one piece again. It’s the same truck from California.”