Consistency Helps Raines Close in on Top-10

LAST RACE (Little Trees 300) - Tony Raines scored his third 11^th place finish of the 2002 season at Lowe's Motor Speedway.  Two 15 second pit stops by the No. 33 BACE Motorsports team allowed Raines to gain additional positions in the pits while he fought a tight race car on track. Raines qualified his Staff America Chevrolet in the 22^nd spot with a quick lap of 30.197 seconds.

LAST YEAR'S RACE AT MEMPHIS - Strategy should have decided the fate for Tony and the No. 33 Team at Memphis in 2001. Crew chief Michael Kadlecik decided not to pit with just 40 laps remaining in the race moving Raines into the third position.  As Raines made his charge at the leaders in the closing stages of the race, the transmission failed and the No. 33 was black flagged bringing their campaign to an early end. Raines finished the event in the 31^st position completing 219 laps out of the scheduled 250.

STANDINGS - With a recent string of strong runs by the No. 33 Team, Raines held onto the 11^th place in the Busch Series drivers' points standings pulling within 63 points of the top-10. BACE Motorsports team owner, Brian Baumgardner currently sits in the 13^th position in Busch Series owners' points standings just 11 points out of the 12^th spot.

THE CAR - Chassis No. 30, the car that Tony Raines will drive at Memphis was a new car for the 2002 season, the first chassis ever built in-house at BACE Motorsports. After being involved in an accident in its debut in Las Vegas, the car has been a workhorse for the 33 Team notching top-5 finishes at Milwaukee, Gateway and Richmond.

Consistency is Key . Tony has been outscored by only one Busch Series regular in drivers points over the past three races (Dover, Kansas and Charlotte). With one top-5 and two top-11 finishes to his credit, Raines stands second to Series points leader Greg Biffle by only 12 points.

Knocking on the Door . With the strong finishes noted above, Raines has been able to chip away at the top-10 in NASCAR Busch Series driver points. After tenth place driver Randy Lajoie suffered problems early in the Charlotte race, Raines was able to cut the gap from 144 to 63 points.  He also closed to within 100 points of Jamie McMurray who holds the ninth position.

TONY RAINES ON MEMPHIS . "We were running third when we lost the transmission with a little over 40 laps to go. Dover (crew chief Michael Kadlecik) decided earlier not to pit when most of the lead cars came in and it looked like it was going to be the right call.  We might have been able to challenge for the win in the closing laps but who knows.  I'm ready to give it another shot this weekend."

ON THE END OF THE 2002 SEASON . "We're still hungry.  We're hungry for a win and a shot at grabbing a spot in the top-10 in points.  Over the past six races we haven't finished below 11^th so we're not slowing down.  The team has put some great cars under me to drive and they've been outstanding on pit road.  We are going to approach the next five races just like they were the first five of the season."

CREW CHIEF MICHAEL "DOVER" KADLECIK on the NASCAR POINTS SYSTEM . "I'm not necessarily for or against a change to the system.  As it stands now, you can't argue it.  It awards consistency.  We've been consistent over the past fifteen races and it's shown in the points.  If you awarded the winner of a race more points or subtracted a driver's five worst races for the season, would it make a difference in the points? Sure it would, but I believe in the end that the cream will still rise and the strong teams and drivers will prevail."