Tony Raines Darlington Report

Darlington, SC-Tony Raines and the Bayer Consumer Care Racing team captured another top-ten finish for this season after struggling in practice and in qualifying at the Darlington Raceway this past weekend.

Darlington Raceway is one of the trickiest tracks on the series schedule, and is known as the track that is "too tough to tame." With turns one and two being wide and sweeping, while turns three and four are narrow and less banked, it can be challenging for drivers to adapt to the drastic change. The track's surface is also bumpy and can result in tire wear and an ill-handling race car.

Raines got out of the No. 33 Alka-Seltzer Plus Chevrolet shaking his head after qualifying in the 36^th position on Friday.  "For some reason I can not get a hold on this track," Raines said. "I have never been able to get a good qualifying time nor a good finish here. This track is tough." In the spring race, Raines started in the 26^th place and finished 22^nd.

After the race got underway on Saturday, Raines had passed seven cars to be in 29^th on the first lap. By lap 10 he was in the 23^rd spot before the caution was thrown for rain. The race was eventually red flagged while the rain passed.

After an approximate 35 minute rain delay, the cars were restarted. After being given the one-to-go signal, the car of Steve Park darted out of line after something broke in his car. This shot him to the inside of the track. After Park veered to the left he was struck by Larry Foyt who was racing to the inside of the leaders to get to the front (lap cars start on the inside at the front of the field next to the leaders). Park had to be cut out of his car and was airlifted to the nearest hospital. He did not sustain any major injuries and was out of the hospital after being kept of observation Saturday night.

After the lengthy caution, the race was restarted. Raines had dropped back a few positions from 23^rd and was running steadily in the 26^th spot when the caution was thrown again. Raines was called into pit with the leaders. The Bayer Consumer Care Racing team was able to get Raines back into the field in the 19^th place after putting on four new tires and refueling. 

Raines had moved up to the 16^th position when the leaders started making their routine pit stops under green on lap 126. With only 21 laps remaining, crew chief Michael Kadlecik made the call for Tony to stay out on the track. Raines was among just a few of the other teams that opted not to pit. After those who pitted cycled through the pits, Raines had gained several track positions and was in seventh.

Raines had moved up to sixth when the third caution came out on lap 132. While Raines was racing his way back to the starting line to get the caution flag, he was passed by the race leader and went a lap down. Raines pitted under the caution and came back out in 13^th. After green flag racing resumed, Raines had worked his way up to the eighth place by lap 138.

Two laps later, on lap 140, the fourth and final caution came out. This time while racing back to the starting line to get the caution flag, Raines was able to get around the leader and regain his lap.

With only seven laps remaining, Raines was in the sixth spot and on the lead lap. Raines knew that everyone behind him would be beating at his back door to get around him. Intense side-by-side racing in the final laps of the race resulted in Raines loosing a few positions and finishing the race in the tenth spot. Jeff Burton went on to win the race.

Unfortunately, even with the top-ten finish, Raines dropped back one more spot in the series point standings to the seventh place. However, he is 25 points behind sixth place Mike McLaughlin, and 68 points behind Elton Sawyer who is in fifth.

Tony Raines and the Bayer Consumer Care Racing crew will be at the Richmond International Raceway this coming Friday night, which is also the last night race on the schedule for this season.