Brian Brown – Tulare First Up in California WoO Swing!
(Bill W) March 10, 2014 – Winning races with the World of Outlaws requires you to put yourself in position to win. Despite qualifying well with fast racecars, Brian Brown and the Casey’s General Stores/FVP #21 team suffered some bad luck along the way last weekend. After a flat tire knocked them out of a certain Dash spot on the first night at the Dirt Track in Las Vegas last Wednesday, a wind-aided flip sidelined them while leading the Dash in Tucson. The team rebounds this week for a pair of events at the Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, California.
You qualified well in Las Vegas. You were sixth quick on Wednesday and fifth quick on Thursday.
(Engine builder) Charlie Garrett really did his homework in the offseason and has given us some good engines. Our qualifying has always been good, but it has really picked up. We had a good qualifying effort both nights.
Both nights, unfortunately, those qualifying efforts put you inside row two where it is hard to get into the top two and get a Dash spot.
With the format the way it is, with four heats you want to be first or second quick, or ninth through sixteenth to put you on the front of a heat. You want to secure a spot in that Dash and put yourself in position for the feature.
You were able to get to the front in Wednesday’s heat though.
We were able to get by Danny (Lasoski) and Brad Sweet and get out to the lead. I felt really good, but coming to the white flag, we cut a tire. The rocks were just horrible. They beat the car up, and about broke Joey’s (Saldana) arm. It was unfortunate that it came to that.
You were able to win the B, and get the car better for the feature. How did the car feel?
We had about a ninth to eleventh place car. We had a red with about six or eight laps to go, and our right rear tire went flat again (Brian came from the back to finish fourteenth). Some nights it’s your night, and some nights it’s not. Getting two flats in one night…luck was definitely not on our side.
You were fifth quick in Thursday’s program.
We qualified a spot better on Thursday. We got beside Joey in the heat for third, but we settled for fourth. In the end, we were starting in the feature mid-pack (13th) again.
Talk about the feature.
We weren’t as good as we needed to be. I made some mistakes as a driver that I shouldn’t have made. We probably should have been in there in the top ten, but with some mistakes I made, it didn’t happen. We got spun out and came back and got fifteenth, but it was definitely a struggle. Everything is really predicated on getting yourself in the right spot with the Outlaws, and we were qualifying in the wrong range.
You hit the ground running Saturday in Tucson.
(Crew chief) Chad (Morgan) and I talked and we were able to get third quick at Tucson. That was good. The heat went well too (finishing third).
Disaster struck in the Dash. You started second and you were leading it. It looked like you’d be sitting on the pole of the feature.
The wind really picked up before the Dash, almost like a cold front was coming through. During the Dash, the winds were 40 mph with bigger gusts. We took off on a restart for a yellow and when we went into turn three, the car wouldn’t turn. It’s almost like the wind picked the right side tires off the track and we got into the fence and tore a bunch of stuff up. Paul McMahan got into us the same way, and Danny couldn’t stop either. It was just unfortunate. That’s just what you call bad luck.
How can you gauge the wind in a sprint car?
As a driver, you really don’t know if the wind is 10 mph, or 100 mph. There’s no wind gauge on the Dash. You’re kind of just along for the ride. You don’t want to go in half throttle, because you may lose four spots. It’s a blind leading the blind deal. It didn’t work out for us. Unfortunately, we felt like we had a top three car, if not a winning car at Tucson. We have it apart and we’ll get it back together in California. We’ve been fast, we just haven’t had the results we would have liked.
You head to Tulare, one of California’s most famous bullrings this weekend.
I hope they get it slick like it usually is for Trophy Cup. When we’ve been there in the Spring, it’s been rough and heavy. It has been a battle of attrition. We’re hoping it’s nice and slick and we have some good results. We can’t worry about Vegas or Tucson, we need to turn the page and get going.
Follow Brian on the Web, Twitter and Facebook!
Follow Brian at his website located at www.BrianBrownRacing.com!
Also keep up with FVP, Casey’s and Brian on Facebook and Twitter at the following links…
Twitter Links – @BrianBrown21, @FVPRacing, @CaseysGenStores
Facebook Links
Brian Brown Racing – www.facebook.com/pages/Brian-Brown-Racing/200630163294222
Casey’s General Stores – www.facebook.com/pages/Caseys-General-Stores/112073528804354
FVP Racing – http://www.facebook.com/FVPRacing?ref=ts&fref=ts
Other Web site info
Casey’s: www.caseys.com
FVP: www.fvpparts.com
Category: Brian Brown, Driver Updates
