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Indy IRP: Compton, Pressley race notes

Cogswell, ST Motorsports Look for Answers at Michigan Following Race at Indianapolis Compton 18th at Kroger 200; Pressley Finishes 22nd CLERMONT, Ind. - The trucks carrying the cars and equipment for ST Motorsports didn't head south to the ...

Published: Aug 13, 2004, 3:56 PM

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Cogswell, ST Motorsports Look for Answers at Michigan Following Race at Indianapolis
Compton 18th at Kroger 200; Pressley Finishes 22nd

CLERMONT, Ind. - The trucks carrying the cars and equipment for ST Motorsports didn't head south to the team's shops in Locust, N.C., following last Saturday's Kroger 200 at the Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Instead, they went north to the Michigan International Speedway for a two-day test session in preparation for the Aug. 21 NASCAR Busch Series race at the two-mile raceway.

The team planned the test long before Stacy Compton finished 18th and Robert Pressley finished 22nd at IRP, but the extra track time will be most beneficial for new crew chief Gary Cogswell as he tries to explore all the nuances of the 2004 Ford Taurus.

"We made the car better with each pit stop at IRP, but we weren't satisfied with running 18th," Cogswell said after completing his first race as Compton's crew chief. "Indianapolis is like most of the tracks we go to: Track position is so important. We were stuck in the middle of the pack and it was so hard to break free of all that traffic.

"We're going to Michigan to learn ways to be up front - and away from all that traffic - the entire race."

Cogswell takes over for Chris Carrier, who had been serving in an interim basis for nearly a month. Carrier now will work with chassis setups for both Compton and Pressley.

"We could just never get going like we needed to," Compton said of last Saturday's short-track race. "We stayed tight the whole night and I'm a little disappointed. We've always run good here, and I think that's the worst I've ever finished running. It's real frustrating, but still, the Kingsford Ford was OK. We just have some work to do."

While the 18th- and 22nd-place finishes weren't what ST Motorsports had expected, it had little impact on their chances of finishing the Busch Series season ranked among the top 10 teams. Compton and his Kingsford/Bush's Baked Beans/Bubba Burger/Winnebago teammates are 12th in the standings, 49 points from the Top 10, while Pressley is 17th in the standings, 160 points from the Top 10.

"We were like Stacy, we just couldn't get the front end to stick at IRP," Pressley said of his Clorox/Wisk/Duck Head Footwear Ford. "It's something everyone on both teams are working on, and hopefully we'll get some more answers during our test at Michigan. The good thing is, we didn't lose any ground in the standings. A top-10 finish is still well within reach."

Cogswell started the season as Tim Fedewa's crew chief at FitzBradshaw Racing. He left to accept an engineering role at Richard Childress Racing, only to briefly return to FitzBradshaw before accepting a new challenge at ST Motorsports.

"Gary is another important piece of the puzzle we've added at ST Motorsports," said team owner Tad Geschickter. "He brings a lot of experience and knowledge, and along with the other people we have working on both cars, we will be able to find solutions a lot quicker. It never hurts to have a fresh prospective."

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