NASCAR Busch - Wallace Family Tribute 250 from Gateway Intl. Raceway - Sat 7/30 at 8 pm EDT - TNT

NASCAR.com ^

[steveegg]

While the Nextel Cup teams enjoy a weekend off, the Busch Series and Gateway International Raceway, just on the other side of the Mississippi from St. Louis, honors the Wallace racing family, Rusty, Kenny and Mike, with the Wallace Family Tribute 250.

[steveegg]

WELCOME

to the

NASCAR Busch Series Wallace Family Tribute 250 presented by Shop 'n Save

TV menu -
Qualifying on Speed Saturday at 4:05 pm Eastern
Race on TNT at 8 pm Eastern
Green flag flies about 8:15

The rest of the race schedule

Gateway International Raceway Track Facts:
Banking/turns - 11 in 1-2; 9 in 3-4
Distance - 1.25 miles
Shape - Oval (more of an egg-shape, really, with 1-2 tighter than 3-4)

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[steveegg]

"We may not have 800 hp, but there's 4 wheels, 8 cylinders, and a race" ping.

[steveegg]

The qualifying order -

Order	Car	Driver	Make	Sponsor
1	64	Rusty Wallace	Dodge	Miller High Life
2	25	Ashton Lewis	Ford	U.S. Marines
3	58	Regan Smith**	Dodge	Glynn Motorsports
4	2	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	ACDelco
5	16	David Ragan**	Chevrolet	31-W Insulation
6	38	Tyler Walker*	Dodge	Great Clips
7	35	Jason Keller	Ford	McDonald's
8	1	Johnny Sauter	Dodge	Miccosukee Gaming & Resorts
9	5	Boston Reid*	Chevrolet	Lowe's/Spectrum Spectracide
10	36	Stanton Barrett	Chevrolet	National City Bank
11	33	Tony Raines	Chevrolet	Outdoor Channel
12	10	Brent Sherman*	Ford	Hickory Farms/Serta
13	60	Carl Edwards*	Ford	Charter Communications
14	186	Marc Mitchell**	Chevrolet	TBA
15	8	Martin Truex Jr.	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops/Tracker
16	11	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	Menards/PEAK
17	41	Reed Sorenson*	Dodge	Home123 Corp.
18	4	Kevin Hamlin	Dodge	GEICO
19	18	J.J. Yeley	Chevrolet	Vigoro/The Home Depot
20	185	John Hayden**	Chevrolet	Premier Motorsports
21	52	Eric McClure**	Ford	U.S. Cellular
22	27	David Green	Ford	Kleenex
23	34	Randy LaJoie	Chevrolet	Dollar General
24	173	Jimmy Spencer**	Chevrolet	Red Cactus Salsa
25	66	Aaron Fike	Ford	Duraflame
26	40	Paul Wolfe*	Dodge	Cottman Transmission
27	143	A J Fike*/**	Dodge	Cowboy Crush/Curb Records
28	59	Stacy Compton	Ford	Kingsford/Bush's Beans
29	44	Justin Labonte	Chevrolet	U.S. Coast Guard
30	72	Dale Quarterley**	Chevrolet	Denver Mattress Company
31	22	Kenny Wallace	Ford	Whelen Engineering
32	14	David Stremme	Dodge	Navy "Accelerate Your Life"
33	20	Denny Hamlin*	Chevrolet	Rockwell Automation
34	32	Jason Leffler	Chevrolet	Win Fuel
35	0	Kertus Davis*/**	Chevrolet	RaceGirl
36	23	Mark Green**	Chevrolet	BMAR Support Our Troops
37	167	Bryan Reffner**	Dodge	Panasonic
38	28	Shane Hall**	Ford	Jay Robinson Inc.
39	47	Jon Wood*	Ford	Clorox/Wisk
40	171	Ron Young**	Chevrolet	Young Racing
41	7	Jeff Fuller**	Chevrolet	Big Boar Customs
42	56	Tim Sauter**	Chevrolet	Lester Buildings
43	99	Michael Waltrip**	Chevrolet	State Fair Corn Dogs
44	12	Sterling Marlin	Dodge	Jani-King
45	6	Mike Wallace	Dodge	Ragu
46	26	Kim Crosby*/**	Chevrolet	Boudreaux's Butt Paste
47	21	Brandon Miller*	Chevrolet	Reese's
48	49	Steve Grissom**	Ford	Advil Liqui-Gels

* Denotes Rookie
** Denotes driver/team not in the top 30 in owners' points (except the #10 ppc Ford of Brent Sherman; the #90 Yates Ford, which is in the top 30, did not enter), must make the race on time (top 12 of 18 plus either Steve Grissom-1993 Busch champ or the 13th-fastest of 18)

[WestCoastGal]

Thanks for putting up the race this week Steve.

Nothing better than an egg shaped track. :-)

[WestCoastGal]

The following is actually from Stanton Barrett's race preview (courtesy of BGNRacing.com), but the description of the Gateway experience is priceless. Thank goodness for the break in the weather; highs may be only about 90, rather than over 100. But you know how much worse it is for the drivers and crews to begin with, and still will be. Anyway, thought you would enjoy the perspective. Send cooling thoughts to our teams.
*****

“Even with a night race, Gateway can be one of the hottest places on the planet, even when temperatures are in the 80s during the day” said Barrett, referring to the 250-lap event’s 7 p.m. start.

“From a driver’s standpoint, you can do better if you visualize – see yourself running an ice race or racing snowmobiles or something like that, instead of figuring out you are running in the Midwest’s answer to Death Valley,” Barrett said. “You start out the race feeling cool but, towards the end as the heat starts wearing on you, you tend to visualize an 1870’s wagon train going across the desert like in the old Westerns (movies). By the time you ‘see’ the old cow skulls on the side of the road, you need to be about 10 laps from the end.”

...

“When you have to remind your crew guys to drink lots of water, to rest when they can and to do whatever it takes to stay cool, you know you are in one hot place,” Pearson said. “Historically, Gateway in July is incredibly hot. That takes a toll on the performance of your race car for sure, as well as the crew and the driver.

“We start preparing for that as early in the week as possible. I’m all over the guys to drink as much water as they can starting Tuesday or Wednesday . . . slow down enough to make the plane flight to St. Louis in their seat instead of the men’s room . . . then start drinking water again as soon as they walk inside the terminal,” he added. “It’s not the type of thing you can start working on the day before the race. You have to start early in the week with the crew guys and the driver.

“Let’s face it. Nothing will slow a pit stop down like your tire changer falling out.”
BGNRacing.com

[WestCoastGal]

DEI's Meserve takes NASCAR break, seeks 1st Oxford 250 win


Stan Meserve can't remember exactly how many Oxford 250s he has run.
He does know he has never won it and he's hoping to rectify that when the 32nd annual Oxford Banknorth 250 is held Sunday evening at Oxford Plains Speedway.

It has been a challenging year for the former Unity resident, who is in his fourth year at Dale Earnhardt Incorporated.
Meserve does the race setups for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the Nextel Cup star is in danger of missing the chase for the championship. He is currently 14th in points, 537 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson and, more importantly, 110 points behind Dale Jarrett in the 10th and final points slot that qualifies for the chase.

....

"We've had better years. It has been a struggle. We've been just missing a little bit," Meserve said. "We've just got to keep digging. You go through spells. Things will go well for you [in one stretch] and then they won't go so well. We can't give up. It's like baseball. You've got to keep stepping up to the plate and try to hit a home run."

...
Meserve doesn't put any blame on Earnhardt Jr.

"I'll tell you, point blank, that Junior is not the problem. If we had the car dialed in right, Junior would win every race. He's not the weakness in our team," said Meserve.
[About time someone admitted that!!]



Follow the link for more. Good article about the Roush gong show at the bottom of the DEI article as well.

LINK

[tubebender]

I hope to join y'all about 2pm LCT (Left Coast Time)...

[SouthTexas]

Guess I better get busy, have a lot to do today. See ya'll later.

[baystaterebel]

""I'll tell you, point blank, that Junior is not the problem. If we had the car dialed in right, Junior would win every race. He's not the weakness in our team," said Meserve.""

When you are replacing the front springs during the race you have a problem and it is not the driver.

[WestCoastGal]

20 minutes in there have been no delays on track. The top 10 cars are: Truex, Edwards, Stremme, Denny Hamlin, Mike Wallace, Marlin, Labonte, Sorenson, Miller, Compton.

[WestCoastGal]

"When you are replacing the front springs during the race you have a problem and it is not the driver."

Exactly!! And when you don't even have those springs with you and have to send for them from NC it's even worse!

There may be a good reason for that, but I haven't heard it yet.

[fideist]

Thanks for starting the thread! I appreciate it.

[fideist]

I see Paul Menard has fast practice times.

At the risk of being called a DEI loyalist, is anyone else besides me impressed with how fast this kid is coming along? It seems to me last year he was wrecking a lot, and finishing at the back of the pack. This year, he is wrecking much less, and getting a lot of top-10s.

[steveegg]

Stealing Menard from Andy Petree was definitely a coup for DEI. Speaking of Paul, he'll be driving the #1 Kraft Cup car at Watkins Glen.

[steveegg]

Qualifying next (I'm limited to TP; Speed isn't in the same room, no laptop here, and no radio coverage of Busch Pole Qualifying).

[WestCoastGal]

He has done really well this year.

I'm happy there's another DEI fan here!!

[WestCoastGal]

Rusty went first, said it was really slippery which made him loose.

Flipper said he will have to start in the back because of the motor "thing" (didn't say what it was)

[WestCoastGal]

Some have been excused from their qualifying order for reasons unknown. Walker & Bowyer and one other which I didn't catch.

Sauter has pole for now.

[steveegg]

What happened to Rusty's time? TP is not showing it, but it's showing Jason Keller's 133.444 and David Ragan's 130.563.

Mini-Sauter clocks a 133.527 to take the pole from Keller.

[WestCoastGal]

132.622 for Rusty

Raines just ran 5th in the 33 owned by DeLana Harvick.