Stacy Compton expected nothing short of a Top-Five finish Saturday afternoon in the New Hampshire 200. What he didn't expect, however, was to be an innocent victim in a four-truck crash.

The driver of the No. 09 Zaxby's Ford F-150 had one of the best trucks at the New Hampshire International Speedway, but a crash involving Clint Bowyer, Chad Chaffin and Aric Almirola left Compton with signficant damage to the rear deck of his Wood Brothers/JTG Racing-prepared F-150. He was able to finish the race, but he was two laps down in 22nd place.

Compton, who is splitting time in the No. 09 Ford with Joey Clanton, said his truck was flawless during Friday's final practice session. Rain washed out time trials on Saturday and that put Compton 13th on the starting grid. He stayed on the lead lap early in the race with a strategy to make up ground at the end of long runs when he was hit from behind during the Lap 58 accident. His Gary Gogswell-led crew made enough repairs to get him back on the track, but there was too much damage to the rear deck to be competitive.

Compton will remain at the control of the No. 09 Zaxby's Ford during next Saturday's Smith's Las Vegas 350 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Clanton will drive the truck Oct. 6 in the Mountain Dew 250 at the Talladega Superspeedway.

WHAT THE TEAM HAS TO SAY

Stacy Compton, driver of the No. 09 Zaxby’s Ford F-150:
“That was our 99th career start in the Craftsman Truck Series and when we race next week at Las Vegas it will be 100," he said. "That's a significant milestone, I guess, but it's only important to me if we can go out and win.

"I really thought we had a great truck for New Hampshire. In practice, we were a Top-15 truck although we were running race setups on old tires. Everyone else was working on their qualifying setups. I knew if we kept our nose clean, the race would come to us. We were all right early and our No. 09 Zaxby's Ford was coming to life like we figured when we got caught up in somebody else's wreck. It's really disappointing because we were good enough to contend for a win. All we could do for the last 140 laps or so was stay out of the way and log laps. We did that and gained a bunch of positions.

"You have to take the good with the bad, but everyone on this Wood Brothers/JTG Racing team deserved better. Now we have to wait until Las Vegas to give it to them."