Kettelle Saves Fuel, Steals ‘Dega Win

Brandon Kettelle (Cape Coral, FL),  had enough gas left in the tank of his #80 Tide Chevrolet Thursday night to take his first career GSRacing.net Truck Series victory at the Talladega Superspeedway. Kettelle was in second place when leader Andrew Berger (Richland, PA) ran out of fuel under caution coming through the tri-oval on the last lap and held off a furious charge from drivers who had chosen to pit under green. Danny Hansen brought his #32 JDR Graphics Chevrolet home in second followed by Tanner Stoops (Sioux Falls, SD), Jesse Atchison (Prince Frederick, MD) and Jon Adams (Hiram, GA).

Brandon Kettelle’s fuel strategy paid dividends at Talladega as he took his first GSRacing.net Truck Series win ahead of Danny Hansen.

Four yellow flags slowed the 80 lap online race, which took one hour, thirty minutes to complete. The final caution flag of the evening flew with one lap to go when Cody Kutzner (Norco, CA) ran out of fuel, stacking up four trucks including 2011 NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship winner Ray Alfalla (Cape Coral, FL). Thirty-five trucks started the race while 23 finished under their own power. Allen Krier (Albany, GA) gained 27 positions to finish in the seventh place spot at the checkered flag. The lead exchanged hands eight times with Brandon Buchberger (Sugar Grove, IL) leading a race high 34 laps. Buchberger would wind-up finishing 19th place in a topsy-turvy race. Ryan Hoepner (Conroe, TX) scored the GSRacing.net Pole Award with a time of 51.26 seconds around the 2.66-mile oval. Atchison scored the top time in “Go Or Go Home” Qualifying while Carson Downs (Valencia, CA) took home the victory in the consolation race, locking himself into the next event at Milwaukee.

Thomas Hazard (Rochester, MN) entered the event as the point leader after winning the first two events on the GSRacing.net Truck Series but was involved in an early wreck, relegating him to a 34th place finish. Hazard now sits in a tie for second place in the standings with Adams, one point behind new point leader Rod Merritts Jr (State College, PA), who finished 15th at Talladega. Krier is three points behind in fourth while Berger completes the top five, six points behind. Starting at Milwaukee, the top 25 in points from the current season will be locked into the GSRacing.net Truck Series races.  Click here for complete results.

The next event for the GSRacing.net Truck Series is Round Four at the Milwaukee Mile. The historic one-mile oval is a new venue for the series that is expected to provide some exciting racing. The race goes green at 9pm (Eastern) on Thursday, November 4th, 2011.  Catch all the action on WebRacingNetwork.com.

About the GSRacing.net Truck Series

The GSRacing.net Truck Series is one of iRacing’s premier independently hosted series. The Truck Series is in its third full season and is frequented by the top drivers in the sim racing community, including those from the NASCAR iRacing Series World Championship. Races throughout the 2011 season are conducted on Thursday nights with select races with live flag-to-flag coverage on WebRacingNetwork.com.

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