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(Bill W) August 3, 2010 – This week, Brian Brown hopes his yearlong preparation will result in his first championship at the 20th Annual Arnold Motor Supply 360 Nationals held at the Knoxville Raceway. He will qualify on Thursday for Saturday’s finale, and hopes to end up on top of the podium in the FVP #21. Of course, it will be double duty on Saturday, as he attempts to extend his lead in the 410 standings at Knoxville as well.
Brian has a few podium finishes in his career at the 360 Nationals. This will be his 11th attempt. “From the first time I competed, I’ve always wanted to win the 360 Nationals,” he says. “Two weeks ago we brought the car to Knoxville and everything worked well. We just need to be consistent on Thursday to put ourselves in contention.”
The competition will be as tough as ever this week. “I think realistically, we need to be in the first three or four rows,” he says. “There are some serious heavy hitters. The 360 Nationals is harder than the 410 Nationals in a lot of ways. There are probably 35 guys that could win the 360 deal, while there are only around 15 that could win the 410 Nationals.”
Brian should be feeling good about his chances. He entered the Lucas Oil ASCS National Series race at LA Raceway in La Monte, Missouri last Friday having won four 360 main events in a row, including one at Knoxville. “There are years that you don’t feel so confident heading in, and others you feel like you can really win it,” he says. “This year, we feel like we can win it.”
Friday’s race at the 3/8 mile oval in La Monte saw Brian start outside row one in the stoutest heat of the night. The heat included Josh Fisher on the pole, as well as Jason Johnson, Tim Crawley, Jack Dover and Justyn Cox. “It was the toughest heat of the night, so we were lucky to start up front,” says the Grain Valley, Missouri driver. “Josh (Fisher) is doing a great job, and he got the jump on us going into turn one. Whoever did that was in the driver’s seat for the win.”
Brian’s second place finish in the heat put him outside row five for the feature. “On the initial start, Josh spun it and we got into the back of Jonathan Cornell,” he says. “That knocked our nose wing off, and I knew that I had to drive the car different without the down force.”
Brian brought the FVP #21 forward, but ended up on his lid. “We were able to drive up to sixth, and I felt we may have a top three car despite the nose wing,” he says. “The tenth lap, we went into turns three and four and something broke and we tore the car up. We believe we lost a stop. They found it in turns one and two.”
Preparations had to be made for 410 racing Saturday night at Knoxville. “The guys worked really hard from 2 a.m. to 8 a.m. Saturday morning to get ready for Knoxville,” says Brian. “They did a great job.”
With a stout 39-car field at Knoxville, Brian qualified second quick. “We had a fresh motor that we may run at Nationals,” he says. “To qualify that well with the competition we had gives you a good feeling heading into the Nationals.”
Brian surged from sixth to third in his heat. He would lose the brakes and struggle to a ninth place finish. “The heat went really well and I felt good heading into the A,” he shares. “We had a decent first and second lap, but about the third lap, the brake pedal went to the floor. We ran the rest of the race without the brakes. You don’t really miss them until you don’t have them. It was tough to do any racing without the brakes to help us.”
He will be ready with the 410 this Saturday night. His point lead over Don Droud Jr. will be 100 heading in. “I think we could have been in contention, but it was a good point night for us anyway,” Brian says of Saturday’s events. “If we’re consistent the last three (point) weeks, we’ll be in good shape.”
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