NASCAR O'Reilly
BUSCH: Texas: Billy Parker race notes
JUSTIN, TX (April 3, 2004)-Billy Parker and Duraflame RWI Racing may have finished 26th in last Saturday's O'Reilly 300, but Parker sees the event as having been a solid learning experience for the team. "We didn't run as well as we needed, that's ...
Edited: Apr 16, 2008, 12:40 AM
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JUSTIN, TX (April 3, 2004)-Billy Parker and Duraflame RWI Racing may have finished 26th in last Saturday's O'Reilly 300, but Parker sees the event as having been a solid learning experience for the team.
"We didn't run as well as we needed, that's for sure. On the other hand, the team and I really learned a lot about making changes to the car this week. I actually think we learned more during practice than we did during the race. We're a new team and we're still trying to develop good communication, especially between Blake (Bainbridge, crew chief) and me. We have the best team, the best cars and the best engines. It's just a matter of developing the chemistry we need to run well. The further along we go, the better this team will get."
Parker started the race in the 30th position. Although he was fighting a severe handling condition, Billy had progressed to 26th place before a caution flew on lap 33 for an accident involving the car of Clint Bowyer.
"It's a little loose in and really tight from the center off, Blake," commented Parker before the team's first pit stop on lap 34. In a ploy to gain track position, Bainbridge elected to take only two tires and make much needed chassis adjustments to the Duraflame Dodge. The resulting stop left Parker in 18th position for the lap 39 restart.
The combination of two tires and an ill-handling race car left Parker with his hands full on the restart. Several laps later, on lap 42, contact with another car sent the Duraflame Dodge spinning in turn two. Parker was able to keep the car off of the wall and the team made further adjustments to the car on the resulting lap 43 stop.
The Duraflame RWI Racing team would continue to fight an ill-handling race car all day, making three more pit stops throughout the race, in an attempt to help the handling condition. Unfortunately, the crew was unable to improve the condition much and the Duraflame Dodge would end up in the 26th finishing position, two laps down to race winner, Matt Kenseth.
The next race for Duraflame RWI Racing is the May 1 1-800-Pit-Shop.com 300 at the California Speedway. Qualifying for the event is set for Friday, April 30 at 1:00 PM local time. Busch Series Happy Hour will roll off the same day, immediately following the 3:10 PM qualifying session for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series. Saturday's race is scheduled for a 1:00 PM start with live coverage by FOX and MRN Radio.
POST RACE QUOTES:
BILLY PARKER, DRIVER-"We didn't run as well as we needed, that's for sure. On the other hand, the team and I really learned a lot about making changes to the car this week. I actually think we learned more during practice than we did during the race. We're a new team and we're still trying to develop good communication, especially between Blake (Bainbridge, crew chief) and me. We have the best team, the best cars and the best engines. It's just a matter of developing the chemistry we need to run well. The further along we go, the better this team will get. We worked and worked on this thing, but could never get it right. After the race, we found that we had a suspension issue that we couldn't have solved during race anyway. It's frustrating, because this team has so much potential, but we're still learning. It's not going to take very much to put this team in victory lane and I know we'll be there soon."
-www.rwiracing.com.
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