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Brian Brown – Good Runs in PA!

Brian Brown and the Casey’s General Stores/FVP #21 team racked up a pair of good runs last weekend with the World of Outlaws with the always tough competition in central Pennsylvania. In Friday’s Williams Grove Open near Mechanicsburg, Brian was in contention for a top ten before finishing twelfth. Saturday at Port Royal Speedway, he surged from tenth to finish sixth. The WoO comes home this weekend, as the Grain Valley, Missouri driver will take them on Friday at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City. Saturday, they’ll move down the road to Oklahoma’s Salina Highbanks Speedway.

Williams Grove is always tough, but you came out and qualified sixth quick in your 24-car group.

I was really happy with the way we unloaded. We were second quick in hot laps. We just needed a bit more in qualifying. I think we went a .517, and second quick was a .485. We were sixth quick, and just missed the front row by a little bit. That place is tricky, and for us to go out and be in the hunt right away was a good thing for us.

That put you inside row two for your heat.

We knew we had to get going. We were actually catching (Lance) Dewease there for second. It seemed like he was a little bit better than us in one and two and we were better in three and four. He’s won everything in sight there lately, and to even be on the same straightaway was a good sign. At that point in the night, we were doing what we needed to do to stay in contention.

Finishing third in your heat set you up outside row six for the National Open.

The track was pretty narrow there, and we knew we needed to get going. We stayed in the eleventh and twelfth range and then we were able to pass for tenth. There was as 23-lap green flag run. When the caution came out, we had just lost tenth to (Daryn) Pittman, but we were catching eighth and ninth.

An open red followed, as well as several cautions in the next few laps.

I felt like if we had stayed green, we would have been in contention for a top eight or ten finish. We had the red, and those double-file restarts are a whole new animal. That was one of the things we were concerned about going out there. They take off in the center of the corner, and if you’re not in the top three rows, you’re taking off entering the corner (three). That’s not something we usually do, and it ate us up. We lost spots on three of the four restarts we had there. We were still able to come back and finish twelfth.

You had to feel good about the way the car performed.

Overall, that doesn’t look the best in the box score, but based on the conditions and the laps we have there, I felt it was a real solid night. I was proud of our team. With Champion Oil being the presenting sponsor, and being able to spend a lot of time with Charlie Garrett, our engine builder, it was just a good way to start the weekend for us.

Saturday marked your first ever trip to Port Royal. Despite coming out really late, you were fifth quick.

Everyone I talked to told me I was going to love Port Royal. It looked like a track that was going to fit my style and we unloaded really well there. We timed in fifth quick, and missed the front row of the heat by one spot again. The track wasn’t like I-80 or Knoxville. One end was a little flatter than the other. It was just a big half-mile, and one of the faster places we’ve been. We knew after qualifying, we’d be in the hunt there, especially after drawing 71 out of 75.

Again you started third in the heat behind Greg Hodnett and Lucas Wolfe.

We felt really good in the heat. We made a few changes that maybe we shouldn’t have, but we just didn’t want to get too tight behind those guys. We weren’t sure what the track was going to do. Hodnett and Lucas are two of the fastest there, so we knew our work was going to be cut out for us. They pulled away early, but I felt like we were running them down towards the end. Finishing third in the heat meant starting tenth in the feature, and we were looking forward to that.

You showed that by charging forward right away, passing several cars that had been in the Dash.

We knew with the double-file restarts that we needed to be aggressive. We were able to get up to eighth in the first two laps. We were able to get to sixth and they had another double-file restart. We were able to get to fifth on that one. We were able to pass Donny (Schatz), and at that point, I felt like we had a shot to win the race. We were able to pass him on a different part of the track, in one and two. We started to catch Hodnett for third in the middle part of the race. At that point, my wing was as far back as we could go. I had used my tires quite a bit. We started spinning the tires more late. Donny and Dewease were able to get by us with a couple laps to go on the bottom of the track. We ended up sixth, which was a really good feeling for us.

You had to feel good about your weekend.

To take our team out to Pennsylvania and be in contention for a top ten the first night and a top five the second night was tremendous. As a car owner, I’m really proud of how we performed. Chad (Morgan) and Michael (Williams) did a tremendous job. I’m thankful that our partners like Casey’s General Stores, FVP and Wormall Civil allow us to go out and run those races eighteen hours from home. We look forward to possibly getting out there again.

It will be a much shorter trip to Lakeside on Friday. How confident are you heading into the weekend?

We were able to with the ASCS National show there this year. We’ve been in position with the Outlaws to get a win there too, we just haven’t been able to get it done. I think racing with the Outlaws last weekend will help us keep our elbows up and be ready when Friday rolls around. I’m probably looking forward to Lakeside with the Outlaws more than ever. We’ve run in the top five with the Outlaws at Salina too, and we’ve run twentieth. It’s all about getting qualified and unloading well.

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