Track Schedules

Brian Brown – Tenth to Second at LOS Nationals!

(Bill W) September 5, 2011 – The FVP #21 was rolling on Sunday night at the Lake Ozark Speedway, as Brian Brown drove from tenth to second in the finale at the LOS 360 Nationals.  A busy weekend lies ahead, as ASCS regional action finds the Grain Valley, Missouri driver at three different venues in three nights.

With 42 cars in the field, Brian drew the pole for Saturday’s prelim heat.  Even though he won, he only registered enough points in the passing points system to start eleventh in the feature.  “It seems like we have a hard time drawing well, but when we do, it has its drawbacks as well,” he says.  “The way the passing points work, you don’t necessarily want to start on the pole.  I wouldn’t have minded being in the second or third row where we could get some passing points.”

There was plenty of racing action on Saturday, and Brian jockeyed for position much of the way.  “We just missed it a little bit,” he says.  “We just weren’t as good as we needed to be.  We weren’t bad, but not up to where we needed to be.  We were anywhere from sixth to fourteenth during the feature.”

Though he ended ninth, Brian felt good about his prospects for Sunday’s finale.  “We were still right there at the speed of third through eighth or so,” he says.  “It was promising going into Sunday and knowing that we weren’t great, but we were still close to the speed of some of the top guys.  Our job was to get locked in, and we weren’t able to get there.”

Another draw at the front of the heat greeted the team on Sunday for the finale.  Brian would win it and start tenth in the main event.  “It definitely didn’t help the situation in trying to start up front,” he says.  “It is what it is.  You have to play the card that is dealt you and do the best you can.  I was a little worried because Randy Martin has been going good, and we were on the front row together.  Brady Bacon and Zach Chappell were behind us.  The last thing you want is to get passed and end up second or third in the heat.”

It was time to set up for the finale from outside row five.  “Bryan (Sundby) and Chaddy (Cypert) did a great job like they always do,” says Brian.  “The car was rolling around really nice.  We’re really getting the Super Shox to where I like them.  We seem to be finding out more and more about them.”

Brian began his charge forward.  “We slowly worked our way up,” he says.  “We had some restarts where we could move up a couple spots here and a couple spots there.  With ten laps to go, we had a yellow or a red, and I was able to pass Jason (Johnson) on a restart.  Then, Dustin Morgan and I were racing hard for a couple laps and I was able to get second.”

Soon, Brian was within sight of the leader, but fell a lap or two short of getting a serious look at the lead.  “Jack (Dover) got out there on me about a straightaway or so with about six to go,” he says.  “We ran as hard as we could for six laps and closed within a car length.  I would have liked to be a little closer when I tried to slide him after the white flag, but I worried that I’d be a little tighter right behind him without the air on my wing.  I thought that may have hurt me in three and four.”

He would settle for second.  “I tried it, and I probably could have used us both up,” says Brian.  “Jack races me clean, and I think we try to race each other as clean as we can.  I checked up and figured that tenth to second was a pretty good run for us.  After Saturday’s run, we hit it pretty good on Sunday.”

This weekend, the ASCS-Warriors will be at the Valley Speedway in Brian’s hometown of Grain Valley.  Saturday and Sunday, the ASCS-Midwest will compete in Nebraska at the Junction Motor Speedway near McCool Junction on Saturday and at the Eagle Raceway in Eagle on Sunday.  “Hopefully, we can use the momentum heading into this weekend,” says Brian.  “It will be fun.  It’s good to see the three tracks working together to pay a little extra to the drivers running all of them.  Valley is close to home.  Danny (Lasoski) got us there a few weeks back, so we’d like to redeem ourselves a bit in front of the hometown crowd and the folks from FVP and Factory Motor Parts.”