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echo: nascar
to: All
from: Mike Powell
date: 2006-06-25 08:24:00
subject: NCTS Milw GM Notes/Qu 1/2

Mike Bliss, No. 16 IWX Silverado and Ron Hornaday, No. 33 Kevin Harvick, Inc.
Silverado finished second and third respectively in the Toyota Tundra
Milwaukee 200. Dennis Setzer brought his No. 85 E85 FlexFuel Silverado home
in seventh position.

Johnny Benson (Toyota) won his second consecutive NASCAR Craftsman Truck
Series race. Jack Sprague (Toyota) and David Reutimann (Toyota) rounded out
the top-five.

***

MIKE BLISS, No. 16, IWX Motor Freight Silverado, Qualified 18th, Finished 2nd:

On surprise at finishing second: "If you would have told me three hours ago
that this IWX Silverado was going to finish second, Dave (Fuge, team owner)
and I were worried about getting lapped because we were so bad in practice. I
didn't think we could even finish on the lead lap because we qualified so bad
also. But he and the guys changed everything they could on this truck. We
probably had the best truck there at the end of long runs. It was a real good
truck at the end of the run, during the longer runs, it just got better and
better. I think that was the advantage. A lot of guys were really slipping
and sliding there."

Thoughts on catching race winner after final caution: "Johnny (Benson, race
winner) just got out there and I got trapped I would have liked to have seen
another 10 laps, but you know, second place is pretty good, it is our best
finish of the year. The guys did great on the pit stops, we are excited about
it, but I am like darn, 10-more laps. But this is really good for us.

"It is tough to pass here, but the tire Goodyear brought here was pretty
difficult to get a handle on and that is why we were so junk today. "This
truck here was second here last year with Jack Sprague, but that set-up
wasn't even close to the same. The tire threw a really big loop hole, so they
worked real hard, and we worked on some set-up. Sometimes you guess it right,
sometimes you don't, today we guessed right. There weren't many caution
wrecks, just piddly stuff, debris, and maybe a truck that spun, but yeah, I
don't think there was any big wrecks.

Did that change your strategy at all? Well, we were going to run out of fuel
if we didn't get another yellow, so we did have a yellow, which was good and
bad, it went a long time. Before that yellow, I was working on conserving
fuel, because we were two laps short, so that big yellow helped us there at
the end.

Great battles with Jack Sprague and Ron Hornaday near the end of the race:
Jack and I seemed like we were side-by-side for five laps. Whenever you pass
Jack or Ron, it is a pretty big feat. They are two of the more difficult
people to pass, if I wouldn't have gotten held up with Jack, maybe, I could
have come close to passing Benson. But catching and passing are two different
things. You know, Ron is a tough competitor, and he just got to block the
bottom, so I just went to the high side, and found some grip.

***

RON HORNADAY, No. 33 Kevin Harvick, Inc. Silverado, Qualified 1st, Finished
3rd:

"Kevin and DeLana Harvick have given me a great opportunity here in this
Chevy Silverado, and I have another great opportunity with the Outdoor
Channel Monte Carlo SS tomorrow (at Milwaukee in the NASCAR Busch Series
race). Wally Rogers started out as my crew chief over here in the trucks,
then he went over to the Busch side for KHI, but now he has come back to help
us out with our Silverado. I had an awesome truck tonight. If it wasn't for
him (Bliss), I would have drove the wheels off my truck, I just really made
my tires mad, and then Bliss got me, so that is what happens when you get
old. We just unloaded really good, the Silverado was awesome. Johnny was just
better in the center, and I knew that when he got around us that one time on
the lap traffic, and seemed to learn a little on that, but we just tried to
make the truck better through the center, and we just freed it up to much
getting in and off. We pretty much messed ourselves up, but we'll take it, I
mean that is what we need to do, we can aplly what we have learned in the
Truck Series today to the Busch car tomorrow.

Did you notice your tires wearing off towards the end? I have a couple years
on Benson, that's why. Yeah, I found out during the last seven laps of the
race when Bliss got by me and we just kept getting looser and looser, so I
put about five turns of front brake in it, and had we done that about 30 laps
before that, I think we would have had a pretty good truck. I learned a lot
and will apply it for tomorrow."

What did you change after practice? We didn't change anything since we have
been here. The left front A-arm up and 1/8 inch, and that was the only thing
that we changed, and a little bit of air pressure during the race. We just
knew that we had a good truck. We only ran seven laps in the final practice,
and made a qualifying run and a mock qualifying run, and we just knew it was
a good truck. You run at night here, and as long as the truck is really free
enough, and you are going to be good here when it cools down, and we were
really free. We learned a bunch, and like I said, we will be using a lot of
that tomorrow. We definitely need another win in the Truck Series, these guys
deserve it. We have a young group of guys that Kevin and DeLana have hired
and to see what they are doing in such a short amount of time is great. All
the guys that worked on the team last year went over to the Busch Series, so
they hired all new guys, Wally (Rogers) steps in, and Todd Berrier helps out
once in a while. Wee don't have a crew chief yet, but I am so proud to come
out of here with a top ten. I love coming to Milwaukee to race, the fans are
great, the races seem to be getting longer though, we didn't need all those
yellow flags.

This truck series is a learn your pits stops, to learn your radial tires, but
you know, Johnny and myself, need more trophies in my house. Every lap, I
drove like I qualified tonight, and I probably shouldn't have done that. It
was probably my fault for taking a winning truck and finishing third, but you
will just have that."

***

DENNIS SETZER, No. 85 E85 FlexFuel Silverado, Qualified 25th, Finished 7th:

Not a bad finish after where you guys started tonight? "No, not bad from
where we started up tonight, but I'm still not happy with it. You know, we
adjusted on the truck a lot tonight and tight in the center seemed to keep
biting us in those long runs. We just couldn't get it freed up through the
center of the corner tonight. Our FlexFuel Silverado was pretty good on new
tires but then we got on the right front so hard on the longer runs that the
truck would just get tight in the center of the corner and we would lose a
few positions then at the end of one of those long runs."

On the last run you had about seventy or so laps on the tires, was that the
problem in the end? Yeah, but most everybody did. Several of the trucks (that
finished) in front of us had even more laps on their tires. It was mainly the
issue that we abused that right front tire."

***

JOHNNY SAUTER, No. 51 Bowen Family Homes Silverado, Qualified 3rd, Finished
12th:

"Obviously we wanted to put on a great show fore the hometown crowd, but we
lost track position when we flat-spotted our tires avoiding one of those
spins and it took the rest of the race to get back up to where we did. Its
great to be back home though, and hopefully we'll be able to repeat with Team
Yellow tomorrow night (in the NASCAR Busch Series race)."

OTHER SILVERADO FINISHERS:

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 75 Spears Manufacturing Silverado, Qualified 5th, Finished
13th

CHAD MCCUMBEE, No. 07 Green Light Racing Silverado, Qualified 31st, Finished
14th

RYAN MOORE, No. 40 Key Motorsports Silverado, Qualified 27th, Finished 21st
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