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Brian Brown – Ups and Downs! 

(Bill W) June 7, 2010 – Two nights at Knoxville Raceway with the World of Outlaws must have seemed like a roller coaster for Brian Brown.  A second place finish on Friday night followed a night that included a crash, a thrash and a blown left rear.  This weekend, Brian will hit the Eagle Raceway with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Series before returning to Knoxville on Saturday. 

Things started well on Thursday with a sixth quick time in qualifying with 46 cars on hand.  “Going into the weekend, we really didn’t know where we were with our qualifying package,” says Brian.  “We put a fresh Ostrich motor in there, to make sure we had all our ducks in a row.  We drew a really good number to qualify.  We were still about a tenth off, but that’s better than four-tenths off.  Qualifying is huge with the Outlaws.” 

Disaster struck in the heat when contact came from Joey Saldana’s right rear.  “We got a pretty good start,” says Brian of a heat where he started third.  “We rode there in fourth, and as long as you are top five, it doesn’t matter.  We got a caution, and on the restart, I got into Dusty Zomer a little bit and got him crossed up.  We got going, and entering turn one, I was third.  I saw Joey out of the corner of my eye, and I planned to hold my line.  He just kept coming and coming.  In turn two, he kept coming, and I ran out of Real Estate.” 

A mangled racecar was the result.  “I had nowhere to go and the contact sent me into the fence,” says the Grain Valley, Missouri driver.  “Unfortunately, Erin (Crocker) was caught in the mess too, and that messed up her weekend.  It was just a bad deal overall.  It was the first thing we’ve torn up all year long, and we were in a spot for a good night.” 

The Brian Brown Racing FVP #21 team went to work to get the car ready for the B.  “I think that’s what great teams are made of,” says Brian.  “Nobody in our pit gave up, and we were able to get back out there in the B and take the win.  Things weren’t totally right for the car, but we fixed what we could.” 

After threatening the top ten in the feature, a tire would give out in the late stages.  “We were doing the best we could,” says Brian.  “I think we were running 11^th with a couple of laps left and blew the left rear.  It was unfortunate, but par for the course on the night.   We had high hopes going in; it just didn’t end up the way we wanted it to.” 

With a special feature on Friday night that inverted the top twenty cars from Thursday, Brian was living right after finishing 19^th.  He would start Friday’s 25-lapper outside of row one.  “We were able to try a couple of things in the car, because they gave us two hot lap sessions,” he says of Friday.  “I think we found some things that could make us better down the road.  We were able to get it good for the feature.” 

Brian set sail after pole-sitter Jac Haudenschild.  “I knew Jac would be tough from the front and we had cars behind us, so we really needed to get going,” he says.  “We got to second there, and to be honest, I was a little gun-shy with the Goodyear tires.  You can’t go as hard as you want for 25 laps.  You’re not going to make it.” 

Brian kept pace with Haudenschild even as the two were hitting lapped traffic.  “I thought we were fast enough to win, and we kept ourselves in contention by not doing anything stupid,” he says.  “The last ten laps, I ran a lot harder than the first 15.  I knew if I was going to beat Jac, I would need a good run where I could pass him and then pull away.  I looked at the scoreboard and there were four laps to go.  I looked again and there were two.  I had a good run on him and the yellow came out.” 

Jac would select the pole on the restart, putting Brian on the outside.  “With the new double-file restarts, you are asking yourself how you’re going to win, but you’re also thinking about not backing it up with those fast cars behind you,” he says.  “Jac did what he had to do to win, and once we got to turn two he had four or five car lengths out.  We had to settle for second after that.  Our left rear was down to two and a half pounds, and we limped home.  Our right rear was flat by the time we got to the scale.  I’m sure Goodyear and Knoxville are working to get us a tire that will go 50 laps in August.” 

Brian is tuning up for the Eagle Nationals preliminary on Friday.  “It’s going to be cool to get back over to Eagle and to have Tony Bruce promoting it,” he says.  “We’re going there Friday and see what we can do.  Of course, if there were a weather issue in Knoxville on Saturday, we’d stick around and try to take the big money home.  If not, we’ll continue to build on our program at Knoxville.  With the Outlaws gone now until August, the locals can get their cars tuned in.  I don’t think the track conditions we saw last weekend are what we’ll see in August, so I hope that’s to our advantage.”