From Bill W
February 25, 2013 – The season couldn’t have started better for Brian Brown and the Casey’s General Stores/FVP #21 team. They picked up a win after starting tenth in the Lucas Oil ASCS National series opener last Friday night at Tucson International Raceway in Arizona. After leading all but two laps in Saturday’s finale, they would settle for a solid second. This weekend, the series moves to Cocopah Speedway near Yuma for a two-night stand.
How did the car operate to start out the season?
The car was really good. Practice went well Thursday. We were good right out of the box. Friday, the track started taking a little rubber, even in the hot laps and heats. We started third in the heat and got to second. We stayed there, really because of the way the track was.
You had to be concerned with the track taking rubber, and your tenth starting spot.
At that point, I thought it would be a long night with the passing point situation starting tenth. They went out before the A and reworked the track. We guessed that it would slick off the way it was, but it really didn’t slick off as much as we thought.
So you’re starting outside row five, things must have clicked right away.
Our start wasn’t good. We backed up to 14th. We were able to work our way back up. We kind of went where they weren’t. We plugged away. There was a red about four or five laps in. I think we finally got to the lead about lap 19. We were able to pull away from there.
It has to be huge to win the season opener!
It’s just a great start to the season getting a win like that, especially starting tenth. It was awesome for Casey’s General Stores and FVP. Searsboro Telephone Company supplied us a brand new Charlie Garrett engine. He does all 410 stuff, and this 360 ran flawless. The Maxim chassis worked really well.
You couldn’t have drawn a better number (the pole) to start Saturday’s finale.
No you couldn’t. With the one…it’s nice to start on the front row, but I’m not always a fan of it. Sometimes you can outthink yourself. I don’t think we did. The car was really nice. It was heavier than we thought again. We got a good start out front and got going.
It sounds like you led most of the way.
We went two or three laps, and the next 28 went non-stop. We worked traffic pretty well. We had a few issues throughout. We really had the one issue with a lapped car with two to go and it cost us the race to Roger Crockett. As the leader, it’s your responsibility to get by the lapped cars whether they are going 2 miles per hour or 200. We didn’t do our job and Roger did. It was a good example of being in second being an advantage. We were able to get back to him, but it wasn’t meant to be. First and second is a really good start to the season with Chad Morgan and Travis Marsch.
There’s a big payday this weekend at Cocopah Speedway.
I’m looking forward to Yuma. Everything I have heard about the place is top notch, from the facility to the fans. We let one slip away, and it pays $10,000 on Saturday night, so we’ll definitely be going in with our elbows up! We’re not racing for points…we’re racing for wins.
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-
Casey’s General Stores – www.facebook.com/pages/Caseys-
FVP Racing – http://www.facebook.com/
Other Web site info
Casey’s: www.caseys.com
FVP: www.fvpparts.com
Brown’s Bits
Brian has a jump on last year with his season opening win. Last year’s first win came on April 7 at I-80 Speedway near Greenwood, Nebraska. It was event #9 on his calendar.