From Bill W
October 28, 2013 – It takes luck to run up front at the Short Track Nationals, but Brian Brown and the Casey’s General Stores/FVP #21 team couldn’t find much of it last weekend. The team worked hard, but came up short of their goal. They will get a couple of well-earned weeks off to prepare for The World Finals in Charlotte, North Carolina.
A change in the Short Track Nationals format added a program on Wednesday night. Over ninety cars showed up to compete!
It was probably the toughest one-day field that I’ve been a part of. The Capitani Classic is up there too. We drew 135 out of 150, so that put us starting ninth in our heat.
At that point, I know you were trying to get as many passing points as you could.
We got up to fourth, but I got a little complacent there. I was going to be happy with fourth, but (Matt) Covington drove by me there. Fourth would have locked us in the show, but fifth put us in the third row of the B.
You weren’t able to make it out of the B.
We just didn’t make the right adjustments. It was a tough deal, but unless you won the feature, it really didn’t matter. It was just a little bit more than a practice session.
The real deal came in your prelim on Thursday, but your luck wasn’t any better with the draw.
We didn’t think we could draw much worse than we did Wednesday, but we did. We got a pretty good start in the heat and got up to sixth (from eighth). I tried to make something happen, and it didn’t work (finishing seventh). If you don’t get a lot of points in your heat, you’re in for a long night.
You bounced back in the qualifier and the B.
That’s what’s good about our team. They are fighters who never give up. We got it better in the qualifier. We were able to drive by Chris Bell, Jason Johnson and Derek Hagar. We got up to fourth (after starting eighth), and then we were able to go from fourth to second in the B.
What were your thoughts heading into the feature?
We were hoping to drive up to third and salvage our night. The track didn’t really clean off so we could run the middle until a little bit later than we would have liked. I was able to get up to fifteenth and then I tried the middle and it wasn’t ready. I got passed by a couple of guys. At the end, we got going pretty good and got back up to ninth.
That put you in row six for the one of Saturday’s B’s.
Overall, to be tenth in points and have a shot at the A main on Saturday night wasn’t too bad considering our start to the night.
Unfortunately, there was a four-hour rain delay before you could hit the track on Saturday.
It was a bad deal really. It was bad for the fans who had to wait in the rain, and it was bad for us stomping around in the mud. Realistically, maybe we should have got a four-hour head-start on our drive home. But this is a team that will never give up.
You pulled off early.
They got the track ironed in. We wanted to survive out there and maybe take advantage of some drivers having some issues. We got a pretty good start, but then I got into three and four and biked up on two wheels. I let everyone back by me. At that point, I made a couple more laps and called it a day. It wasn’t worth tearing something up to run tenth in the B. It definitely wasn’t the Short Track Nationals we wanted, but the car is in one piece, and we’re getting ready for Charlotte.
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