Fuente: © Wood Brothers Racing
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NASCAR: WOOD BROTHERS RACING: Atlanta Review

SLOW LEAK RUINS SCHRADER'S DAY AT ATLANTA

/noticias.info/ As if the race weekend at Atlanta hadn't been long enough already, a slow leak in the right rear tire following the final pit stop must have made it feel longer to Ken Schrader than anyone else at the race track.

Rain all day Sunday postponed the race until 11:00 a.m. Monday morning.

It took until well past the midway point of the race before the #21 Little Debbie Ford Fusion was adjusted to the colder race day temperatures. Schrader moved from 27th to 16th and appeared to be headed for a possible top-ten finish when the final caution flew on lap 265. For that last pit stop the Wood Brothers Racing crew made one small air pressure adjustment, gave him four tires and enough fuel to finish the 325-lapper.

Ken took the green flag to restart the race on lap 267 in 16th place. Three laps later he started to lose positions and told the team, "The right rear tire feels weird. Something has happened. There's no grip at all." A few laps later he suggested a yellow flag would be needed to resolve the issue. Spotter Dave Atkins had trained his binoculars on the tire, and said it wasn't flat, but did look low on air.

During the final laps when others came in for fresh tires the Little Debbie car stayed on the track in hopes of picking up a few positions, and it did ? going from the last car on the lead lap in 29th to a finish 24th.

After the race Ken said, "We adjusted all day and the car reacted. We had a slow leak there on the last run. We restarted 16th and wound up 24th, but it could have been a whole lot worse. I was thinking maybe with 25 to go that we should come in and cut our losses, but we would have lost two laps so we did the right thing by staying out."


Qualifying for the Golden Corral 500 was held Friday evening, and Schrader recorded the 25th fastest lap. After the run he explained, "We thought we were going to have a little front end issue and we did, but if we were gonna be one way or the other we wanted to be a little bit tight in qualifying. It's only like 23rd now, but if you were riding in there you would still think it's really fast."

Following the final practice session on Saturday, Crew Chief David Hyder knew the car would take some massaging during the race. Ken was 39th on the speed chart. Kasey Kahne won the race over Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

Jimmie Johnson retained his lead in the points, and Schrader remains 26th, 61 points out of the top-20, going to the race in Bristol, Tennessee next week.

The Food City 500 is scheduled for a 1:30 p.m. start on FOX. The race will also be broadcast live on the Performance Racing Network (PRN) of radio affiliates.

Atlanta top-ten 1. Kasey Kahne 2. Mark Martin 3. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 4. Jeff Gordon 5. Tony Stewart 6. Jimmie Johnson 7. Paul Menard 8. Kyle Petty 9. Dale Jarrett 10. Reed Sorenson 24. Ken Schrader

Points following Atlanta 1. Jimmie Johnson 690 2. Kasey Kahne 640 3. Matt Kenseth 612 4. Mark Martin 600 5. Casey Mears 554 6. Jeff Gordon 539 7. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 534 8. Kyle Busch 530 9. Dale Jarrett 490 10. Clint Bowyer 471 26. Ken Schrader 348 notas_de_prensa_archivo