|
|
|
|
|
(Bill W) August 29, 2011 – Brian Brown gave Mark Dobmeier a run for his money on Saturday night at Knoxville. Before a late nose wing problem, it looked like he may be able to grab the lead on a late restart, but it wasn’t to be, and he settled for third. The FVP #21 was strong all night long, and it was the first night for new crew chief, Bryan Sundby as well. It was Brian’s first action at Knoxville since his seventh place finish at the Nationals. “It’s always good to get back to Knoxville,” he says. “Really, you are preparing for the next Knoxville Nationals as soon as the last one is over. Every time you go there, you are putting things in your data bank towards the next Nationals.” The new addition to the team is a welcome one. “We have Bryan Sundby on board now as crew chief,” says Brian. “He’s a huge pickup for our team in terms of experience, and knowledge. Chad Cypert and he have been working really well together, along with our other guys. It’s going to be a really good thing. If one night is any indication, we’re going to be tough to contend with from here on out.” Brian started the night out well, qualifying third quick in the 27-car field. “We qualified well,” he says. “Usually with us, it has been feast or famine, but Bryan had the car great. We rolled right around there. I wish this was two weeks before the Nationals instead of after, but we’ve got a lot of time to work on next August.” The Grain Valley, Missouri driver was quick in the heat race too. “We needed to go from sixth to fifth in the heat, but we were able to go all the way up to second,” he says. “I believe we were the fastest car time-wise in the heat races.” Brian was able to focus on the next task at hand, which was the feature. “It was nice to concentrate on what we had to do in the feature and lean on Bryan a little bit,” he says. “It was calming for me. Normally, I have done most of the setup stuff myself, so it was nice to have another set of hands.” Starting inside row three, Brian was quickly in contention in the main event. “We kind of settled into third while Ryan (Anderson) and Mark (Dobmeier) were racing pretty hard,” he says. “I was content to be there the first half of the race and stay within striking distance.” A caution helped Brian get to the runner-up spot behind Dobmeier. “There was a yellow when I was able to get into second,” he says. “I felt there was a time when it was slipping away from me. (Dobmeier) was running pretty well, and I was going as hard as I could go.” Another slowdown helped give Brian one last shot at the win. “Luckily, the yellow came out with three to go,” he says. “I played through my head what was going to happen, and it happened exactly the way I thought. He slid across one and two, and across three and four. I was on top of him.” Just when he was ready to strike, the nose wing collapsed. “As he went across the top one of the straps on the nose wing broke,” says Brian. “I don’t know if it was a clod or what. Despite that, I got a good run off of four and had a good run on him. I didn’t slide him in one and two the way I would normally do it with the nose wing the way it was. I didn’t feel I’d be able to turn the way I wanted, and that was the case.” Brian held his own and finished third. “At that point, I knew it was over,” he says of the failed slide attempt. “I was just trying to hold onto second. We were in the slickest part of the track the last two laps and unfortunately, Kevin (Swindell) got us at the end. (The nose wing) could have happened the first lap, and we could have struggled the whole race, so I was happy with where we finished.” The FVP #21 team is deciding where to race this weekend. The only definite is the Lake Ozark Speedway Nationals finale on Sunday. “We’ve got a couple of options this week, so we are deciding on that,” says Brian. “Tune in to our Facebook and we’ll keep it updated with where we’re going. I’m excited about racing right now as I’ve been in a long time.”
|
