NASCAR

BES: Adirondack: Sean Caisse race notes

matt@dsportsgroup.com Sean Caisse Back In Victory Lane, This Time at Adirondack After Two-Straight Runner-Up Finishes Caisse Wins for Third Time in 2006 CONCORD, NC (August 1, 2006) -- Sean Caisse and his new team, Andy Santerre ...

Edited: Aug 2, 2006, 2:20 AM

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matt@dsportsgroup.com

Sean Caisse Back In Victory Lane, This Time at Adirondack
After Two-Straight Runner-Up Finishes Caisse Wins for Third Time in 2006

CONCORD, NC (August 1, 2006) -- Sean Caisse and his new team, Andy Santerre Motorsports, came out of the starting gate of the 2006 NASCAR Busch East Series season on fire. The Casella-sponsored number-44 team won both if its first races at Greenville and Stafford. Along the way this season, Caisse has earned three pole awards and led his fair share of laps.

Pretty much everything has been clicking for the team, but for a team that had championship aspirations at the season's outset, there was still plenty of work to do. It had been four races since Caisse was in Victory Lane as the ASM team ventured to Adirondack International Speedway (NY) on Saturday night. Even two straight second-place finishes in the series' last two events weren't enough to maintain a point lead as Caisse entered AIS second in the standings.

Everything got back on track at AIS on Saturday, as Caisse found his way back in the winner's circle for the third time on the season in the Edge Hotel 150 Presented by Casella Waste Systems and closed up the gap to the point leader Mike Olsen to in the process.

"When we won the first two races of the year, we kind of set the bar pretty high for ourselves for the rest of the year," said Caisse. "We then went four straight races without winning, but we still ran up front like our second-place finishes at Lake Erie and New Hampshire. We've only had one bad race so far at Thompson. We've won three races now and it's pretty awesome that we were able to win at Adirondack.

"If there was one track on the schedule that I wouldn't have thought we would've won at, it would be Adirondack. I didn't have that good of a car when I raced there last year and when you're car isn't good you don't like a racetrack. Now that I've had a car like I had on Saturday night at Adirondack, I love the place."

Unlike most of Caisse's strong finishes this year, he wasn't leading the way for the majority of the race at Adirondack. The 20-year-old New Hampshire-native had to earn his victory Saturday night. Caisse started second but patiently waited for the right time to pounce to the lead, finally doing so on lap 100.

"The biggest factor was having the four-time Busch East champion (crew chief and team owner) Andy Santerre on the radio with me. My whole learning experience this year has been through his teaching. He told me to save my car for the end. He said that you're always on your right-front tire at Adirondack, so saving those tires would be the most important thing to do. I was running only about 80- to 85-percent the first part of the race. Matt Kobyluck got about a full straightaway lead on me at one point, but I was just saving my car. I did everything that I could to just ride and save my car for the end.

"Kobyluck made a mistake with a lapped car and that opened up a hole for me. I took the lead and just kept riding but I never thought I had the race won. The announcer asked me after the race when I thought I had the race won, and I told him, 'not until I crossed underneath the checkered flag.' I knew I had a good car that could win, but I never expected the win until it was all over."

Caisse's victory and championship leader Mike Olsen's third-place finish closed the gap to just 34 points between the two as the BES heads into its final four races of the season. The tight third-mile bullring of Waterford Speedbowl is next up on the schedule, and Caisse is looking at Waterford as the start of a title run that will come down to himself and Olsen.

"We've only got four races to go. Waterford's up next and that's going to be a survival race. I don't care where I finish there; I just want to beat the number-61 car. Right now, unless Olsen and I falter, the championship is going to come down to the two of us. When we go to Loudon, each of us had good racecars there a few weeks ago and it's going to be a tough battle. I ran really good at Dover last year and I'm even more excited about going there with Andy, who won the race at Dover last year. Then we've got Lime Rock and anything can happen at that road course. So it's going to be a battle all the way until the end, that's for sure.

The Edge Hotel 150 Presented by Casella Waste Systems from Adirondack will be broadcast on SPEED August 10th at 5:30pm ET.

-www.andysanterremotorsports.com.

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