Brian Brown – In Position Again!
(Bill W) August 9, 2014 – For Brian Brown and the Casey’s General Stores/FVP team, it’s been about being in position to win on sprint car racing’s biggest stage, the 54th Annual FVP Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s General Stores. Consider that goal accomplished. The Grain Valley, Missouri driver will start outside row two of tonight’s championship event at the Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa after winning Thursday’s qualifying feature and scoring 485 points.
You came out 17th in the order for time trials and laid down the fourth quick time of the night on Thursday.
Obviously, qualifying has been very important for us all year long, and we were able to turn a good lap. Charlie Garrett is second to none in giving us the power that we need to do that. Our Maxim chassis and Vortex wings were also a key. We knew with the track being so heavy, we had to get our game face on for that heat race.
Despite the track being narrow, the top four qualifiers were able to move up through there in the heats, and you were able to grab the fourth and final transfer.
That’s something we’ve worked on all year, is getting as far forward as we can in the heat races with the inverts. Starting eighth on a narrow track is tough, but we were able to do that. That’s always the key to putting yourself in the show on Saturday night, and we could breathe a sigh of relief after that.
You started fifth in the feature, and slowly worked your way forward. Jeff Swindell and Sam Hafertepe were setting a good pace out front.
We settled into fourth or fifth there, and we had quite a battle going. We were finally able to get by Jeff (for second) with about lap 19 and set our sights on Sam. That’s when the open red came out for Kevin (Swindell).
You had to be confident at that point, but you said you were running out of tear-offs.
The crew wasn’t really sympathetic. They were telling me to get in the lead so I didn’t have to worry about tear-offs! The car was pretty good, we weren’t great…probably not as good as we’ve been…but we were able to maneuver there on that restart. I got a good run on Sam. I was going to try and slide him, but I decided to try and run the bottom instead. I did that, but then he kind of chopped me. Fortunately, we were able to come back and make it work the second time and get the win.
You just keep rolling, and tonight you’re outside row two for the Nationals. What’s your mindset going into tonight?
It’s a long race, and we’ve been in this spot before. The first twenty-five laps, you just want to set a good pace so you’re in contention after the stop. I have such a great team and great partners…I just want to do the best I can for them and thank them for putting us in this position. This is what it’s all about. We want to climb one more step on that podium tonight.
Category: Brian Brown, Driver Updates
