From Bill W
April 15, 2013 – Brian Brown and the Casey’s General Stores/FVP #21 are back in familiar territory now as they have returned to the Midwest from their western swing with the World of Outlaws. An eleventh place finish at Perris Auto Speedway finished things up on Saturday, and the Grain Valley, Missouri driver looks forward to competing in his hometown and at the Knoxville Raceway this weekend.
Things started for you with the WoO at Hanford (King’s Speedway), where you won in the 360 a week ago.
We were really looking forward to getting there after our win. I think we were third quick overall hot lapping, and we were the first car out. We’ve been kind of fighting getting our car balanced the way it needs to be balanced. You miss a little bit with the Outlaws and you’re where we ended up (14th).
That put you inside row three for your heat.
We were running fifth and challenging Steve (Kinser) for fourth. Then we had a double-file restart, and I kind of got used up on it. It seems on the double-files, you’re either taking advantage, or being taken advantage of. We feel we haven’t been aggressive enough on those. We need to be.
Did things feel better in the B?
We changed our car quite a bit. We got it better, and we were able to win it.
You started outside of row seven in the main event.
We were maintaining through the first couple yellows. We were kind of four-wide there, and I probably should have pushed the issue more, but I didn’t. I got up over a guy’s right rear and came to a stop off of three and four. The Outlaw officials thought that I brought out the caution on purpose, so that was the end of the night for us.
Four-wide? It must have been a racy track!
It ended up being a great race. It was dry-slick with several grooves. I was just sorry not to be a part of it. It was the track I was looking forward to most, and they had a great track for us to run on. It was one of the best races I’ve seen in a while.
It sounds like you made some adjustments for Perris on Saturday.
Chad Morgan and Travis Marsch decided to bring down our Knoxville car for Perris. We’re trying to sort through some issues. The engine we had in was fresh. We qualified well (10th). We made the invert.
Running second in your heat qualified you for the Dash, but you didn’t get to run it.
Pushing off, we had an ignition switch go bad. So, when we had an opportunity to make something happen, we weren’t able to.
You wound up your trip with a solid 11th place finish.
I think the fastest lap of the night was turned in the A main. So it was heavy and there wasn’t much passing. We settled for 11th.
You must be happy to be headed toward the Midwest.
We’re happy to be headed home. Knoxville obviously is on our schedule for Saturday. Looks like Jackson (MN) is already postponed. It looks like we’ll run Valley Speedway in Grain Valley on Friday (ASCS-Warrior event). We’ll just have to look at the weather. It will be good to get to some tracks we know. It was good to go to California. It was good for FVP and their customers and employees. We had some good finishes and some bad, but I think we learned a lot from the trip. It was good for the big picture.
It looks like this year will be as tough as any in the 410 class at Knoxville.
Everyone will be ready to go. They will have fresh stuff and be looking to win. We’re going to do our best. The rest of the guys don’t really care where we’ve been racing, they want to win. Terry McCarl, Mark Dobmeier, Davey Heskin, Don Droud, Lucas Wolfe…the list goes on and on. Knoxville’s 410 program is as strong right now as it’s been in a long time. They’re not going to roll over for us that’s for sure!
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 recorded his 100th career win in last year’s Jackson Speedway Spring Nationals. The $5,000 score came over Danny Lasoski, Dylan Peterson, Jason Johnson and Justin Henderson.