Mansfield, Ohio (August 24, 2008) – Craig Goess and his Greenville-Toyota team raced to their first top-5 finish of the 2008 NASCAR Camping World Series East season this weekend at Mansfield Motorsports Park. Goess’ 5th place finish earned him Sunoco Rookie of the Race Honors.

“It was just a fun weekend overall,” said Goess. “The car felt good from the time we unloaded it. We didn’t have to make a lot of changes at all with such a great baseline. We just fine-tuned things during practice and knew we had a solid machine for the race.”

There was no doubt that Goess had a strong car. He fought through the corners to keep his No. 2 Greenville-Toyota off the rear bumper of cars in front of him. Goess qualified the Greenville-Toyota Toyota in the 10th starting position with a lap time of 16.723 seconds.

Goess remained solidly in the top-10 until he pitted under caution at lap 30 to have tape removed from the grill of the No. 2 Toyota. Goess restarted in the 17th position and skillfully maneuvered back into the top-10 where he remained for the majority of the evening’s race. In the final laps of the Mansfield 150, Goess positioned himself solidly seventh. On lap 146, the final caution of the day came and the race was set to complete with a green-white-checkered finish.

Crew Chief Johnny Allen radioed to his driver, “Alright, it’s been a great race. Only two more laps so get what you can and take what you can.”

Goess did just that and in the final two laps around Mansfield Speedway, took the No. 2 moved into the fifth position to grab his career best finish and the Sunoco Rookie of the Race award. v“Craig drove a fantastic race today,” commented Crew Chief Johnny Allen. “The last couple of races he has been up on the wheel and his level of confidence in the Greenville-Toyota Toyota is very evident.”

Next Stop: Craig Goess and the Greenville Toyota team will have two weeks off between now and their next event. The NASCAR Camping World Series East returns to action on September 12th at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Qualifying for the Heluva Good! Fall 125 takes place on Thursday, September 11th at 3:15 p.m. The green flag for the 125-lap event flies on Friday, September 12th at 5:10 p.m. All times are EASTERN.

For more on Eddie Sharp Racing, please log onto www.teamesr.com.

For more on Craig Goess please visit www.craiggoess.com.