Mesa Marin has a full field of cars ready to put on one of the best shows money can buy. Practice has started and quickest in first round practice is the #46 of Matt Crafton. The 01 of Steve Petty got loose coming out of four and backed it in the wall, but his backup is out and race ready thanks to a very capable crew. The 13 car got loose on the backstretch but didn't touch anything. On a more serious note the #59 of Auggie Vidovich was severely damaged when the #32 of Gary Matranga spun out in front of him.

Perhaps the luckiest alive at the track is a small Taco Bell style dog that jumped off the turn four wall in the middle of practice. The little fellow is now under the care of one of the officials. Life spared thanks to the heads up driving from one of our Southwest Series drivers.

A few prerace thoughts:

Carson Woods: Driver 39 Southwest tour we got a new shock program for this race the Penske racing shocks, that's our first time ever with them so we are trying to feel the car out if we could qualify in the top 15 that would be really good for us and then if we could get a top ten in the main that would be like a win for us! We are excited about this race. I like the track a lot it's real smooth in the straight-aways, the corners are a little rough so we have to set the car up for that.

Nick Joanides: Actually the car is running real good Jackson did a great job with the car it feels real good, if we get a good lap out of it we might get fast time with it, same thing about the running the race. We ran real good here last month thought we had a chance at the win, but got tangled up so if we can stay out of trouble we might find ourselves in Victory Lane.

Kurt Busch: We've been pretty good so far in practice. We are hoping to get an extra practice session in. If we do we will have to make the trophy dash. That's what we are shooting for to get in the top four and make a good guestimate for on what to use in the main event. And I think that tonight's competition is going to be Kevin Harvick and of course the local guy the #98 car, no matter who is driving it that car is always fast. We are looking to do good tonight.

Dennis Dyer and his team have worked fervently putting their car back together. Their car is handling well and they are looking forward to a good qualifying run followed by a good top-ten finish.

Second quick in first round practice was former race winner Doug McCoun; followed by Kurt Busch, Bryan Germone, Mike Ray, Scott Lynch, Dennis Dyer, Kenny Kinchen, Rocky Nash and Jason Fensler. But these were random times, so it is still anybody's game to win.

Source: RacingWest
Posted: 5/29/99