Event Information: Track: Indianapolis Raceway Park (.686-mile oval); Race: Kroger 200 (Race No. 23 of 35 in the NASCAR Busch Series); Length: 137.2 miles, 200 laps; Date: Saturday, August 6th; Time: 8:15 p.m. ET; Broadcast Schedule: Broadcast live on TNT at 8:30 p.m. ET, radio coverage provided by MRN and XM Satellite; Qualifying: Qualifying will air live on the SPEED Channel at 6 p.m. ET, Saturday, August 6th.
Kevin Hamlin Posts Top-10 Qualifying Effort in St. Louis: Kevin Hamlin proved again that he has what it takes to be competitive and win races in one of NASCAR’s elite series, the NASCAR Busch Series, after posting a 10th place qualifying effort in the No. 4 GEICO Dodge for last Saturday’s running of the Wallace Family Tribute 250 at Gateway International Raceway. Hamlin, a two-time NASCAR Northwest Series Champion, showed consistency as he ran a lap of 33.697 seconds at a speed of 133.543 mph in qualifying, a lap just one-thousandth of a second off his final practice time. Hamlin’s effort was good for 10th on the starting grid. “Qualifying was real good,” said Hamlin. “Everything leading up to qualifying was good. Matt (Chambers, Crew Chief) and I are starting to get the way we talk to each other down, which is good after only two races together.” Hamlin, a developmental driver for Chip Ganassi Racing, strapped into the Biagi Bros. owned Dodge and quickly worked his way into 5th before the sun went down and he began to lose the handling on his GEICO Dodge. “We were really looking forward to the race but as the race started and the sun went down, the car just got tighter and tighter and tighter. We were running 9th at the first stop and we had to put a spring rubber in the right rear which is a pretty big change,” he explained. “We just fought the tightness of the car all night. We just started the race too tight to get the car good for the end. Track position was big there because it’s so hard to pass and we had a lot of ground to make up after making that spring rubber adjustment. We just couldn’t get the car quite good enough for the end.” Hamlin crossed the finish line on the lead lap in 23rd position and retained 29th position in Owner’s Points.
About the Driver: This weekend’s race at Indianapolis Raceway Park will mark the third start of the 2005 NASCAR Busch Series season for Kevin Hamlin. Hamlin, a native of Snohomish, Wash., won series’ championships in the NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division in 2001 and 2002 before moving to Concord, N.C. in June of 2004 to give him a better chance at a career in racing. That moved paid off when he was signed to a developmental deal with Chip Ganassi Racing this year.
Kevin Hamlin on Racing in Indianapolis: “It will be fun. It’s another track that I’ve never been to and never tested on. I grew up at Evergreen Speedway, which is flat, with little grip, and not a lot of banking to it, much like Indianapolis Raceway Park. It’s still a different track but hopefully I’ll be able to figure it out quick. We’re going to work hard on race setup. We don’t want to do what we did last week where we were really good in qualifying and then weren’t where we wanted to be during the race. We’re going to try and swap that and have a good race car and just run with what we have in qualifying.”
Kevin Hamlin on Short Track Racing: “It will be fun. It will be a long, hot race. It’s a short track so I hear there will be a lot of bumping and banging. I’ve got to get ready for that.”
Kevin Hamlin on Indianapolis: “It’s Indy. It’s the weekend of one of the biggest NASCAR Nextel Cup Series races of the year. The racing history in that city goes back quite a ways. There are a lot of teams located there that are not NASCAR related. With Chip Ganassi’s background and with his IRL teams being located there, we definitely want to run good at Indy. We don’t want to run good just because of that; we have high goals for every race. Our goals are getting higher and higher each week. We’re going to do all that we can do. We’ll work hard the whole weekend to get a good finish for GEICO and PetBrands.”
