Tony Raines California Report

Fontana, CA-Tony Raines and the Bayer Consumer Care Racing team headed west to compete in the Auto Club 300 at the 2-mile oval California Speedway. This is the longest trip to date for the Busch series cars-2,380 miles from their home based Mooresville, NC shop to Fontana, CA.

During the pre-race practice sessions, Raines and crew chief Michael Kadlecik worked together to find a setup that would allow the Aleve Chevrolet to run up front during Saturday's race. What they found not only allowed Tony to post the second fastest time in Friday morning's first practice session, but also allowed him to secure the outside pole for raceday.  With a time of 40.238-seconds, just .059-seconds off the pole sitter, Bobby Hamilton, Jr., Tony was elated with his qualifying run. "I am very pleased," Tony said after qualifying. "We made a few adjustments because the car was loose during practice, and that's all we really had to do. The car is very fast," Raines continued. "This car is the same car we used in Las Vegas and we finished in the top 10. Hopefully it will be good to us tomorrow."

As the race got underway, it appeared as though their preparations had paid off. Tony was quick to take the lead in the early stages of the race. With several cars battling behind him, one was able to sneak by, which left Tony in second.

Lap 79, the first caution of the day came out for debris. Tony and the rest of the leaders pitted. A 16.445-second pit stop, and excellent stop for the Bayer Consumer Care Racing team, put Tony back into the race in the sixth position and enabled him to still be a threat to the leaders. 

Tony was still holding the sixth position when the leaders began pitting under green for fuel on lap 125 of the 150-lap race. Kadlecik was hoping for a caution, but could wait no longer. He called Tony down pit road to take right side tires only and refuel. He rejoined the race to be in eighth .

Raines held his position against the rest of the field. He finished eighth to score his fourth top-ten this season. With the fantastic run, Tony has entered the top ten in the series points and holds the ninth place

Hank Parker, Jr. won the race by gambling on fuel mileage and staying out during the entire green flag.

 "I am really happy with the continued performance by the Bayer team," team owner Bill Baumgardner stated after the race. "Tony's qualifying has improved dramatically. We should have had a sixth place finish here, but two teams took a chance on fuel and it paid off for them. Looking back at Daytona and Rockingham, if we would have finished the races in the position we were running with 20 or 25 laps to go instead of being taken out by another car, no fault to the #33, we would be fourth in the points," Baumgardner continued. "I haven't seen a real change in the Bayer team, but rather constant continued efforts have been made. Both of my teams are moving up in the points, and I know that we will be in the Winner's Circle and at the banquet at the end of the year. 

Tony Raines and the Bayer Consumer Care Racing team will be racing at the Richmond International Speedway this coming Friday night.  This is the first of five night races for the series.