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The team arrived in
Phoenix with its brand new car on January 28th and was
anticipating a great weekend. Mother Nature decided to throw a
couple of wrenches into the mix that proved to be hard to
overcome. With practice and qualifying wash out due to rain on
Saturday, NASCAR decided to set the field by last year’s points.
The team should have started 7th, but due to a NASCAR
technicality, the team was relegated to the 42nd starting
position.
On Sunday the team finally got to practice the new car, and with
zero laps on the car, the team was pleasantly surprised by turning
in the 9th fastest lap in practice. Which was the fastest lap that
the team had ever run in practice at Phoenix International
Raceway. “We were really excited about how the car performed,”
said Rip. “ We only got to run about 20 laps in practice, so we
knew that we could get the car a lot better for the race with a
few adjustments. Twenty laps on a brand new car and to be ninth
fast in practices, just shows how great this team is,” commented
Rip.
Rip lined up 42nd on the field and was looking for a great race.
Unfortunately, a first lap spin collected several cars including
Rip. The car sustained heavy damage and was unable to continue,
Rip finished in 42nd place.
Our next race is will be on March 12, 2005 at Irwindale Speedway.
Source: LRM Sports Marketing |
