By Bill W
April 7, 2014 – With the rough west coast trip for the Brian Brown Racing Casey’s General Stores/FVP #21 team, a second place finish Saturday night at Calistoga Speedway in California was a welcome reprieve. The World of Outlaws finish up their California swing this weekend at King’s Speedway in Hanford on Friday, and the Perris Speedway on Saturday.
Getting back on the half-mile at Calistoga must have been a relief. You qualified third quick.
With the new format, you need to qualify in the right spot, and with three heats, third quick put us in a position to lock ourselves in the Dash. On the half-mile, we’ve been great with Charlie Garrett engines and Maxim Chassis and Saturday was no different. We were still two-tenths off of Joey (Saldana), but we were right there with the rest of the field. We need to keep working to try to cut into Joey’s two-tenths.
You were able to lock yourself into the Dash through the heat (finishing 4th), and you started on the front row outside.
(Donny) Schatz and I were up front. I just couldn’t quite get him cleared on the start. We kind of fell in line from there. I felt if we were somewhere up front for the A with a shot at the clean air, that we’d be o.k.
It sounded like the track was a rough one.
The track was narrow. They had a lot of rain on Thursday. Realistically, they did a good job of getting the event in. I think most tracks would have canceled with having to blade the track and do all the things they needed to do to it. It was a sloppy mess for a while. My hat’s off to the Abreu and Stadelhofer families for getting things ready. They had a great crowd both days, and that was good for them too.
You jumped out to the early lead in the feature.
We were able to get Schatz at the start and get the lead. Clean air is such a big thing now with these racecars with the way the tires are now. If you are fifth on back, it’s like an unruly bull. It’s just not fun to drive, and it’s tough to pass. There are a lot of drivers scratching their heads that have been at this a lot longer than me. I would like to see them go back to a RR tire that grows sometime soon. I think that would make the racing better throughout the field.
What was the ride like up front?
We kept our nose clean, but it was like a 140 mile per hour rodeo. The holes were so treacherous, and they were hard to see. You just had to keep your wheels spinning to get through them. I hooked one of the holes wrong, and that allowed Brad Sweet by us. I kind of fell in line, and he did the same thing and we were able to get back by. The same thing happened one more time and Brad got back by. I felt like I had a shot at him with a couple laps to go, it just didn’t work out. Our car was so good in clean air. We just got a little tight when we got to traffic. At the end of the day Brad did what he had to do and we got beat.
Even though, you fell a little bit short of winning, finishing second had to give you some confidence.
For the month we had had, it was testament to the whole crew: Chad Morgan, Zac Thomas and Beau Stewart. They have worked so hard putting cars back together and plugging away and not getting negative when the cards were down. All of our partners stuck beside us when we had some bad luck also. It’s been a rough month where we’ve tore things up, we’re not getting results and I haven’t felt the best in the world. Second felt a little bit like a win for us.
On Sunday, you came back with another solid qualifying effort, fifth quick.
The good thing with the new format is being fifth quick, you’re going to start eighth instead of twelfth. We were able to get through the heat (starting and finishing third).
You started outside of row four for the main event.
We struggled a bit in the A. It seems when you get out of line and try to pass someone, you get passed. Without that clean air, you are just hanging on. I think it shows with the guys who have qualified in the right spots and keep their nose clean…they are finishing up front. We lost a couple of spots on the start and we kind of rode there in ninth. I tried to be a hero on a restart with about four to go, and I got it up on two wheels. I lost four spots right there and we ended up 13th.
This marks your last weekend with the Outlaws, and you go to King’s Speedway Friday and Perris on Saturday.
We were able to win the 360 race at Hanford last year. It seems to get slick there from time to time, and that’s what we’re hoping for to put on a good show for the fans. We’ve got some FVP customers coming to Perris, so we’re looking forward to putting on a good show for them as well. Two more nights and we’re headed back to the Midwest. We’re looking forward to getting back to the Knoxville and having some fun there.
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 won sixteen races in 2013. His wins came with five sanctions: ASCS, Rebel Cup, Knoxville Championship Cup Series, JSTS and MOWA, and seven states: Arizona, California, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Illinois and Texas.
15% off of Enco Tools Purchase!
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About Casey’s General Stores
Casey’s General Stores is a Fortune-500 company (NASDAQ CASY) operating nearly 1700 convenience stores in 11 states through the Midwest. Known for its “Homemade-To-Go” pizza, sandwiches, donuts and bakery items, Casey’s strives to consistently deliver quality gas, fresh kitchen-prepared food, clean environments and friendly service at every retail location. Casey’s is currently the 12th largest c-store chain and sixth largest pizza chain in the United States.
About FVP
We are very excited to introduce our new line of automotive chemicals, oils and fluids to our product offering. These new products will be available at many retailers across the country. We continue to offer a full line of high quality oil, air, cabin air and fuel filters, plus a complete line of high quality batteries for multiple applications including cars, trucks, SUV’s, commercial and other specialty vehicles. All products are made to OE manufacturer fitment specifications. FVP products are engineered to provide our customers with quality products that are equal or superior in performance to the major national brands at a competitive price. To learn more about our FVP products or to find out where you can have FVP products installed in your vehicle, visit us at www.FVPparts.com! FVP…The Confident Solution
Marketing Partner of the Week – DNA Energy
In July of 2013, DNA Energy re-launched their energy drinks with a completely new look, logo, can design and simultaneously introduced three new flavors to complement their award winning Citrus energy drink. They currently produce, market and sell a proprietary line of five carbonated blends of DNA Energy Drink®: Cellular Citrus, Cellular Citrus Zero Calories, Cryo-Berry, Molecular- Melon and DNA Original. They are looking forward to adding three new coffee energy drinks containing omegas in the near future. DNA Cellular Citrus (f/k/a/ DNA Citrus) was named the best tasting energy drink two out of the last three years by the World Beverage Competition. Visit them online at www.DNAEnergyDrink.com!
Associate Marketing Partner of the Week – RateWin.com
RateWin.com strives to bring you the best online auto insurance shopping experience possible. Unlike many other sites that promise the ability to compare quotes between multiple companies, but simply sell your information to telemarketers as a hot lead, RateWin.com gives you the ability to choose which of the major companies you wish to do business with.
The people behind RateWin.com have been in the online insurance marketplace for a number of years. Through that experience they have learned that for long term success, they have to ensure their visitors are satisfied with their experience – both while on the website and after. They firmly believe that by simply suggesting the companies offering car insurance in your area they allow visitors to have a degree of control over their private information that most other online auto insurance comparison sites simply can’t offer.
Brian Brown Racing would like to thank Casey’s General Stores, FVP, Searsboro Telephone Company, MC Power, Impact Signs Awnings Wraps / impact4800.com, Champion Brands, DNA Energy, Ditzfeld Transfer, Maxim Racing, Smiley’s Racing Products, Enco Tools, Weld Wheels, Housby Trucks, www.RateWin.com, Arctic Cat, K&N, www.hostiowa.net, FSR Race Products, TI64, Fuel-Safe Tanks, Wolfe Eye Clinic, Bell Helmets, Hinchman, CP Pistons, Carrillo Rods, Vortex Wings, Penray, All Pro Cylinder Heads, Butler Built Seats, AkzoNobel, Kenny’s Components, www.AllDayParts.