BUSCH: Dover II: Ashton Lewis preview

Civil Air Patrol to participate in patriotic event at Dover International Speedway.

Concord, NC (September 16, 2002) -- Ashton Lewis, Jr. and the Civil Air Patrol Chevrolet crew are headed to Dover International Speedway for the MBNA All-American Heroes 200 on Saturday, September 21. This weekend will be about more than just racing, as the members of the NASCAR community pay special tribute to the many American heroes.

Dover International Speedway and MBNA have teamed up to honor civilian and military heroes this weekend. The race was recently renamed the MBNA All-American Heroes 200, and the speedway has planned special events to honor Americans in what promises to be a memorable weekend. The Civil Air Patrol will take a part in this when the Dover Composite Squadron Color Guard, located at Dover Air Force Base, presents the colors before Saturday's race. Cadets Philip Harris, Ben Johnson, Mick Johnson and David Teal make up the color guard.

Driver Ashton Lewis, Jr. would like to make this a memorable weekend for his team. Lewis looks forward to battling 'The Monster Mile', and offers these thoughts.

"I really like racing at Dover. It's a place, kind of like Bristol, where you get a good idea of just exactly how fast you are going.

For me as a driver it's a lot more fun, a lot more exciting to drive at this track.

We struggled with the car a lot here in June. It's actually the same car we struggled with in California. However, it's the car that was killed a few weeks ago in Richmond, so we obviously won't have that same car there. Now we are taking our car from Darlington, so we should have a good package. I definitely have confidence in that car."

Due to a string of bad luck, and being in the wrong place at the wrong time, the rain shortened Darlington event is the only non-DNF for the Civil Air Patrol Chevrolet team in the last five races. Lewis has finished 16th and 19th in the last two events at Dover, and looks forward to improving upon that this weekend.

The events this weekend will be broadcast live on TNT and MRN starting at 1:00 pm ET. The next event on the schedule is the Mr. Goodcents 300 at Kansas Speedway on September 28, 2002.

Civil Air Patrol, the official Air Force Auxiliary, is a nonprofit organization with over 61,000 members nationwide. It performs more than 85% of inland search and rescue missions tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center in the continental United States. Volunteers also take a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to the over 25,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs.

On the Web: www.capnhq.gov capraceteam.com

-lm-