Raines Looks to Continue Hot Streak at Michigan
Previous Event: After notching a 20th place starting spot
for the Kroger 200 at Indianapolis Raceway Park, Tony Raines pushed and shoved
his way to a ninth place finish on the tight .686-mile speedway. Raines was
running in the fourth place spot with less than 15 laps remaining, however, a
decision not to pit in exchange for better track position cost Raines several
positions as cars with fresher tires were able to get by the No. 33 Aleve
machine in the final laps of the event. With that ninth place finish, Raines
moved up one spot to 12th in the overall NASCAR Busch Series point standings.
Sweet Ride: With their ninth place finish at IRP, Tony Raines and the
Bayer Consumer Care team have posted four top-ten finishes in their last seven
races, including three top five finishes at Kentucky, Milwaukee and Gateway
International. In all four of these top ten finishes, Raines has piloted the
same race car each time. The car is the first in-house BACE Motorsports chassis
that the team has constructed and has an average finish of 5.5 on the season.
Tony Raines will look to match last season stellar performance at Michigan
that featured Raines piloting his No. 33 Chevrolet to a third place finish.
Raines' third place performance was his best career showing in three visits to
the 2.0-mile facility. With the team's recent surge of successful finishes,
Raines feels confident in the team's ability to finish the season inside the
top-ten in the NASCAR Busch Series Point Standings. Raines' No. 33 Chevrolet
will carry the brand colors of the Bayer Consumer Care product of Aleve for this
weekend's event.
Raines' Thoughts On Michigan: "Last season was the best I have ever
run there, I believe we finished third and we are taking the same car back this
time around. It is a fairly easy track to drive. It's big, wide, semi-banked
and really fast, so it is important to get the car comfortable so that you can
drive the car aggressively. The race typically has long green flag runs and
always has the possibility of turning into a gas mileage race."
When it comes to Michigan, is it horsepower or handling that gets the job
done on the track? "I would say it is a little bit of both. You need to be
able to get down the straightaway good because you have a lot of it, but you
also need to get through the corner real fast as well. It will definitely take
a complete package to get the job done well on Saturday."
At the Helm: Doug Richert will once again call the shots atop the
Bayer Consumer Care pit box this week while regular Crew Chief Michael "Dover"
Kadlecik serves his final week of a suspension handed down from NASCAR following
the Pikes Peak event. Richert was impressive in his interim role as he helped
guide the team to a ninth place finish at IRP.
Raines had the following comments to say about working with Richert at IRP.
"He did alright. He obviously got thrown into a tough situation. He didn't
know the guys, know where anything was at or had ever worked with me before. He
kind of got thrown into the fire with me being over at the Brickyard and trying
to make that race so we didn't have a lot of time together. Considering the
short time we had to get that deal going it was a little tough on everybody, but
Dover (Michael Kadlecik) had went over all the notes with Doug (Richert) before
the race. We had a real good car and set it up much like we had in the past
four or five weeks that we have been running well and we went out and ran well
again. Doug (Richert) helped in delivering a ninth place finish at IRP and
hopefully we can go out and do more of the same this weekend."
Dip, baby Dip: For the fourth time this season, Raines will seek to
securely place himself in the field for the Winston Cup event at the Michigan
International Speedway. Raines will pilot the No. 74 BACE Motorsports entry.
Raines is one of ten drivers attempting a double dip at Michigan this coming
weekend.
So Far This Season: Raines currently sits 12th in the
overall NASCAR Busch Series Point Standings race with 2377 points to his
credit. Raines and the Bayer Consumer Care crew sit 300 points out of the 10th
place position held by Randy LaJoie with just 11 events left in the season.
Raines has posted three top-fives and seven top-ten finishes in 23 events so far
this season.
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