Brian Brown – Close Again at Knoxville!
Brian Brown – Close Again at Knoxville!
(Bill W) June 17, 2013 – Another shot at a win with the World of Outlaws at Knoxville Raceway came up just short last Saturday night for Brian Brown and the Casey’s General Stores/FVP #21. After leading much of the race, Brian was trapped behind a lapped car, relegating the Grain Valley, Missouri driver to a second place finish. He also posted a ninth place finish with the WoO at Jackson Speedway in Minnesota on Friday night. The team is looking forward to the Impact4800.com Showdown this Saturday night at the Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri.
Things started on Friday for you at Jackson.
It’s always good to get up to Jackson. Some of our greatest fans are there, and they showed up just like I knew they would despite the weather threats. It was good to see them. We have some big supporters of our team up there.
You qualified eighth and finished fourth in the heat.
There just wasn’t a ton of passing in the heat races. Eighth is a tough spot to qualify in with four heats. You’re not fast enough to be a top two qualifier, and you’re not slow enough to start on the front of the heat.
Not making the Dash put you back in row seven to start the feature.
We got rolling pretty well. We were up to tenth about halfway through. We had a double-file restart and we just didn’t get a good restart. We fell back to fourteenth or fifteenth. We were able to move around and get back up to ninth.
Still to move forward on a track like that and get a top ten had to qualify as a good night for you.
Overall, it wasn’t a bad night. We’ve been a little off the last couple of weeks just trying things to make our car better. We went back to the basics a little bit Saturday at Knoxville and got back to where we needed to be. Chad Morgan and Travis Marsch really worked hard on the car, and I’m proud of all of our guys.
You’ve been qualifying at the top of the heap at Knoxville all year no matter who is in town. Being 11th quick probably wasn’t what you were looking for.
Obviously, we want to get quick time anytime we can. The driver just missed it a little bit. I was on the wrong part of the track the first lap, and missed the bottom in one and two on the second lap. It makes you nervous, when you’re halfway through and you’re eighth quick. The track slowed down a bit and helped us there.
The qualifying helped you with positioning in the heat. You were able to win from the front row and make the Dash.
We had a pretty tough heat with (Terry) McCarl and Ian (Madsen). They run really well here. McCarl ran us really hard and clean on the first lap, and we were able to get by and set sail a little.
You dominated the Dash.
We worked on the car all night to make it a little better. We started with (Donny) Schatz on the front row of the Dash and we were able to win it. The car just felt good all night long.
The fans were really on the edge of their seat when you and Donny were trading the lead the first couple laps. You pulled away from there though.
It was fun to race with Donny there in the beginning. He always races me clean, and he’s the man to beat there. I felt the best there that I have in a while. I felt like we got through traffic pretty well the first eight or ten laps before the red came out.
On the restart, you didn’t miss a beat. You pulled away again. That’s when the trouble came in lapped traffic.
We got back to traffic, and I didn’t time it right. I got to (Don) Droud and Kraig (Kinser) racing for position there. I didn’t know who may be coming behind me, and I got behind Kraig and got a little tight. That sent me into the fence and got the front axle bent back, and that let Schatz by.
It was evident that the car wasn’t handling the best after that, but you still held onto second.
I was just happy to get second at that point. It was definitely not what we wanted, but we’ll take it from where we’ve been. As long as we keep doing what we’re doing, we’re building towards the big prize here. If I can win the Knoxville Nationals, I’ll run second the rest of the year!
I know you’re looking forward to the Impact4800.com event this Saturday at Wheatland.
Depending on how the week goes, we make take on a couple of the ASCS Speedweek races on Wednesday and Thursday too. We’re looking forward to the Impact4800.com Showdown at Wheatland this Saturday night. The track has always been good to us, and David and Julie Goodson have been great partners of ours from day one. Hopefully, we can go down there and bring back the trophy.
Category: Brian Brown, Driver Updates
