After a disappointing finish at another concrete track two weeks ago in Nashville Crew Chief Marcus Richmond brought the best Tahoe Dodge chassis in the shop to Bristol Motor Speedway looking for redemption. The decision proved to be the right one.
The old saying “cautions breed cautions” proved to be true. A total of three cautions waved in the final 19 laps. Setzer used his veteran driving skills to dodge those wrecks and bring the Tahoe Dodge home in eighth spot. It was the team’s sixth top-10 finish of the season.
Kyle Busch won the O’Reilly 200. Todd Bodine finished second, Scott Speed, Johnny Benson, and Rick Crawford followed in the top five.
IndyCar Series drivers will find the 1.96-mile, 14-turn Edmonton City Centre Airport circuit is distinctively different from the 2.258-mile, 13-turn Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course -- last weekend's venue du jour.
Airport runways and taxiways to rolling terrain.
Left- and right-hand 90-degree corners to sweeping turns.
Concrete and tire barriers to sand runoffs.
Majority of racing surface is 75-feet wide to about 50 feet.
Both are physically and strategically challenging in their own right, which contributes to the depth and breadth of the IndyCar Series schedule. This week, it's the inaugural Rexall Edmonton Indy in provincial capital - a venue that transitions from Champ Car to Indy Racing League stewardship.
Eight IndyCar Series drivers entered in the 95-lap race July 26 (5 p.m. ET; ESPN and indycar.com) have competed on the circuit in the event's three years, (as ChampCar Series drivers) which leads to whether they'll enjoy a decided advantage.
When racing at a new track, Dan Wheldon ensures that he studies the in-car camera footage from other drivers that have driven on the track and have been competitive. He prefers to look at the most recent footage to gauge his approach at the venue. He also looks at the telemetry that the TCGR team is able to provide. Finally he'll take advantage of the track walk around the airport circuit with his engineers when he arrives in Edmonton this weekend.
Wheldon will make his first trip to Edmonton. He anticipates, "it seems to flow like Cleveland with a surface that may be like Nashville."
“We had a good run today and we’re glad to bounce back after having two tough races where the GEICO Camry was taken out on the final laps at Darlington and Charlotte,” Wallace said. “We had a consistent weekend and ran well in the practice sessions and the race. The driver probably got a little bit conservative in qualifying, but when the green flag waved we showed how good the GEICO Camry was. I’m happy to record another Top 10 for GEICO, Sport Clips and Smith Transport.”
He continued, “This Germain Racing team did a great job and we’re looking forward to getting to Nashville next week. We’ve got a good run going and Nashville is going to give us the opportunity to make up ground in the points chase.”
Wallace started his race week off by visiting GEICO’s corporate office, which is located just 100-miles from Dover, on Thursday afternoon. He met with GEICO’s top executives and presented them with his driver helmet from the 2007 season and thanked them, as well as GEICO’s 20,000 employees, for their support over the years. After all, Wallace and the Gecko have shared a lot together, including a trip to Victory Lane at Daytona in 2004.
Wallace must have enjoyed his visit to GEICO’s office and whatever they said he must have liked because when he arrived in Dover he wanted to go fast. And he did.
This week, the Germain Racing team heads to Nashville, Tennessee, where Mike Wallace and the GEICO team will attempt to pick up ground in the point standings, where they currently reside in the 9th position.
Mike Wallace and the #7 GEICO Camry will hit the track at Nashville Superspeedway for their opening practice session on Friday, June 6th, at 6:00 PM (ET), with the final practice session being held at 7:45 PM (ET). Qualifying will be held on Saturday afternoon at 3:35 PM (ET).
The Federated Auto Parts 300 presented by Dollar General is on Saturday, June 7th, and it will be televised live on ESPN2 beginning at 7:00 PM (ET), while the Motor Racing Network (MRN) will carry the live radio broadcast.
LEBANON, Tenn. (April 7, 2007) – Stephen Leicht, driver of the No. 90 CitiFinancial Ford, posted a career best eighth-place finish Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway for the running of the NASCAR Busch Series Pepsi 300. It was apparent that the No. 90 CitiFinancial Ford was going to be a contender in Saturday’s Pepsi 300 after posting the fastest lap time in the final practice session on Friday.
“All in all it was a great day for the CitiFinancial Team,” said Leicht. I fought a slight tight handling condition for most of the race. The track kept tightening up as the race went on and that made it difficult for me to pick up additional positions at the end. I have to thank my team for hanging in there. I know it was brutally cold outside and they did a great job of performing at their best.”
The NASCAR Busch Series will return to action on April 14 at Texas Motor Speedway. The O’Reilly 300 begins at 2:30 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by ESPN2 and PRN.
"No, by no means we're not." Bobby Hamilton Jr. said in a recent teleconference. "Right now we should be the best Busch Car by far, and what I mean by that is we should be the best full-time Busch guy, and anything less than that is not acceptable. It's really hard to deal with some of the Cup guys because those guys are tough. But they can be beat. We've done it before. But I think the biggest letdown is right now that we're not the leading Busch guy. Give me two or three weeks, and I will be."
Currently Marcos Ambrose is seventh in the Busch Series points standings and Mike Wallace is ninth. Given Bobby's excellent chances of having a good run at Nashville, I don't doubt that he can deliver on his promise and become the top "Busch" guy.
"That's just what I expect out of the people, what the team expects, and once we get to that part where we're the best Busch guy, then we can go to the next part about being the best guy that's capable of beating those Cup guys," Bobby continued. "So it's the A-B steps, you've got to crawl before you walk, and it's all new stuff. I have a bunch of new crew guys, new crew chief, so we're learning the language, learning all that stuff."
"Other than that, where we're sitting in tenth is not because of great, great runs; it's because of being consistent, surviving in races. But we need to be a little bit better than that."
Being consistent is what wins championships so that is definitely a good thing.
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