BUSCH: Mexico City: Hmiel pre-race notes

Shane Hmiel / Braun Racing Quick Facts:

* - BR19 is a brand new road racing car

* - Braun Racing tested Virginia International Raceway, February 22 & 23

* - Shane attended the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving with Chevrolet at the end of 2004

Shane Hmiel thoughts going into the Mexico City race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez: "People are picking all these guys to win the championship and they haven't picked us yet. California was a great run for the WINFUEL Chevrolet because it really showed how our team pulls together to compete for the win and the Busch Series championship. Our goal is to go down to Mexico, try to keep it on the track and finish the race. If we can come out of Mexico with a top-10 or top-15 we should be in really good shape because some of my strongest tracks are coming up, like Vegas, Atlanta, and Bristol."

Hmiel's thoughts on heading to Mexico:

"I am really looking forward to going to Mexico for the race. It's exciting to be a part of history and to be able to drive in NASCAR's first race outside of the United States. I hear that they have die-hard fans in Mexico, so I am looking forward to seeing what kind of response we get. The track is supposed to be amazing, so I am really looking forward to getting down there this week to see what everyone has been talking about."

Shane Hmiel on his experience with road racing:

"I haven't done any road racing since I used to race go karts. At the end of last year, Chevrolet sent me to the Bondurant driving school to try to get me some more experience. We took the WINFUEL Chevy up and tested VIR (Virginia International Raceway) last week. I got more comfortable in the car and ran some pretty fast laps. Unfortunately, I was messing with the brakes and backed in at the end of the day. We didn't mess up the car too bad and the Braun Racing guys fixed before loading it on the truck to Mexico."

-br-