Tony Raines Bristol Report

Bristol, TN-"What do you expect, this is Bristol," Raines said as he climbed from the No. 33 Aleve machine after the Food City 250 Friday night at the Bristol Motor Speedway.

Raines and the Bayer Consumer Care Racing crew had the car dialed in for the first practice session on Thursday and posted the 11^th overall fastest time. In qualifying Raines confirmed the 24^th spot for Friday night's race and had an explanation for the middle of the pack qualifying effort. "I got the car a little loose in the turns on my qualifying lap," Raines said. " The car is good and will be great for the race. We just need to stay out of trouble and we will have no problem getting to the front." However, staying out of trouble on a very fast .5-mile oval with 42 other cars is a challenge.

With 150,000 people watching from the stands, the race was underway around 8:15pm. Raines was able to avoid one of the biggest wrecks of the evening that occurred on lap six, when six cars pilled up in turn two. With those competitors eliminated, Raines moved up to the 18^th spot.

The racing was very close on this high-banked bullring track, and Raines was only capable of passing one car at a time. By lap 101, Raines had avoided five other incidents and was in 11^th. While under caution, Raines was called in for a pit stop. Although some of the leaders opted to remain on the track and was taking the chance of not making a pit stop for the entire race. After a 17-second pit stop, Raines rejoined the leaders in the 17^th spot.

Close to the halfway point of the race, Raines was having no problem picking off the cars ahead of him. By lap 170, Raines had worked his way back up to the 11^th place. Lap 193 brought out the seventh caution and several cars that had not pitted came down pit road. Raines stayed out and took over the sixth place. With 50 laps to go at the restart and several top competitors behind him, Raines knew it was going to be a fight to the end.

Raines moved up to the fifth spot, but on lap 215 he was involved in a four-car accident in turn four. Raines came in to pit and the Bayer Consumer Care Racing crew went to work mending the damages on the right side of the car. Raines went back into the race and was in the 20^th spot.

On lap 222, Raines was running in 17^th when his car spun in turn two. Fortunately, the car did not make contact with anything, but this put him one lap down. Raines fell back to the 19^th spot. Even with the damage done to his car, Raines was able to pass the cars in front of him and get behind race leader Kevin Harvick. With minimal laps remaining, Raines was not able to get past Harvick to regain his lap. Raines went on to finish one lap down in the 17^th place and moved back to sixth in the point standings.

"This race is a perfect example of doing everything right," crew chief Michael Kadlecik commented after the race. "We and (Greg) Biffle were the two fastest cars all night. The car was very fast and Tony did everything right. It's just sometimes the circumstances aren't right. We were in the position to win tonight, and we could have, it just didn't happen."

"If there were a little more time left in the race, there is no doubt that Raines would be in the contingency of winning," team manager Joe Pelham said. "These guys do an excellent job every week. They deserve a win more than anyone else, and it's coming. When it does come (the win), it's going to be big."

The Bayer Consumer Care Racing crew will be at the Darlington Raceway in Darlington, SC for the South Carolina 200 this coming Saturday.