Raines Looks to Snag a Little "White Lightening" in Dover

Previous Event: After posting a 34^th place qualifying effort for the Funai 250 at the Richmond International Raceway, Tony Raines patiently piloted the No. 33 BAYER Chevrolet through the field in route to a fourth place finish, his third top-ten finish in as many races.  As he worked his way through heavy traffic, Raines was able avoid track trouble to the tune of 11 cautions on the evening, including a personal run-in with the No. 2 machine of Johnny Sauter, to bring home his fourth top-five finish of the season. 

"It was a good night for this team," replied Raines following the race.  "We had some trouble in the pits during the early going, but we were able to rebound to come out of here with a top-five finish. The car was strong and we put ourselves in a position to win, that's all we can ask for."

Climbing the Ladder:  With his fourth place finish at Richmond, Raines has moved even closer to positioning himself back into the top-ten in the NASCAR Busch Series driver point standings after finishing a career best sixth in the points battle in 2001. 

Since the Kroger 300 at the Kentucky Speedway in June, Raines has quietly posted four top-five finishes, seven top-ten finishes and has climbed from a point position of 18^th to 11^th in just 11 events.  With 1,469 points to his credit over this span of events, only Greg Biffle, Jason Keller, Scott Wimmer and Jamie McMurray have accumulated more points than Raines and the No. 33 BAYER Consumer Care Team.  Raines currently sits just 170 points behind Randy LaJoie for the tenth place position in the NASCAR Busch Series Point Standings with eight races remaining this season.

Up-Coming Event:        MBNA All-American 200

                                    Dover Downs International Speedway

                                    Sponsor:  Alka-Seltzer Plus

In seven previous visits to the "Monster Mile", Raines has posted two top-ten finishes and one top-five finish at the one-mile, concrete oval. 

During the spring event at Dover this season, Raines qualified his No. 33 machine in the 19^th place spot.  However, by lap 35, Raines had worked his way into the 11^th place position when the first round of pit stops occurred on lap 45.  It was on pit road that Raines' day came to an abrupt end when he collided with the No. 47 machine of Shane Hmeil while exiting his pit stall.  The incident severely damaged the right front fender of the No. 33 machine and regulated Raines to a 27^th place finish on the afternoon.

Tony Raines Dover Performance

            Average Start:           23.1

            Average Finish:           15.0

            Best Start:                  8^th (Spring '01)

            Best Finish:                  4^th (Fall '99)

Raines on Dover:  "It is definitely a track I like.  It is a fast track and things happen really quick at Dover.  It keeps you on your toes all day long.  Hopefully we can capitalize on some of the things that we learned from our first trip here this year.  It is really important to have a good run this weekend and try to carry our momentum through the end of year.  It is always nice to end the season and head into the off-season with a positive feeling about finishing the year on a high note."

Raines on the Team's 2^nd-Half Surge: "We aren't doing anything different than we were doing at the first of the year.  It just seems that since Kentucky, we really haven't had any weird problems come our way that seemed to hinder our program during the early part of the season. 

"Everyone and everything has seemed to pull together.  The team has worked hard to turn things around and I feel we are moving in a positive direction.  We have had some changes to the team recently but I think they have improved the performance of the team.  We just need to keep digging to get all we can get and end the season with our best foot forward."

Raines on Seeking his First Career Busch Series Win:  "That first win has eluded us so far, but I believe we are just around the corner from finding victory lane.  We take a winning attitude to the track with us and strive for nothing short of that.  We are going to a number of tracks that I enjoy and have run well at in the past, so we will have to see."