Dallas, Texas (February 5th, 2001)- Eric Norris began his quest for the 2001 NASCAR Winston West championship in impressive fashion, starting the season-opener on the front row en-route to a career best 2nd place finish at Phoenix International Raceway. NASCAR Winston Cup Series veteran Ken Schrader won the race, beating Norris’s #32 Jani-King Ford to the finish by 1.153 seconds.
“We wanted to come out in Phoenix and set the tone for our season with a good, solid finish and we did just that” said Norris. “You need to get off to a good start if you want to win the Championship and that’s our primary goal this year. While we had the car to win, we’ll take finishing second to Schrader because it puts us in the points lead for the Championship in our series.”
Norris, who missed starting on the pole position by .060 of a second, took command of the 150 lap event early by overtaking pole-sitter Mark Reed at the start and setting a record-pace for the circuits first 61 laps. While Schrader decided to pit on lap 45, Norris and his team, led by Crew Chief Clinton Cram, stuck to their pre-race strategy of making the race with only one stop around the race’s midway point. The strategy looked brilliant when the yellow-flag waved at lap 70 allowing Norris to pit for fuel and right side tires under caution. Schrader stayed out and would have to pit again for fuel to finish the race. With a lap 188 caution, Schrader got his break and was able to pit for fuel and four tires. Norris, sensing Schrader’s advantage, also pitted for tires setting up the battle for the win between the race’s two most dominant cars. The race was decided when Schrader showed his veteran prowess with a terrific restart on lap 147, putting enough distance between him and Norris to hold on for his seventh victory in the Winston West Series.
“I can’t say enough about this team. We’ve had a lot of set-backs the past several years and this team just keeps on plugging away, getting stronger every day. With Clinton aboard as our Crew Chief I really believe we now have all the pieces in place to win a Championship. We are looking forward to another good run in Vegas.”
Norris and his team head to Las Vegas this Thursday to test their short track car in preparation for the Winston West Series’ first visit to the short track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, known as “The Bullring,” on February 28.
The Phoenix race will be broadcast on the Fox Sports Network at a date and time to be announced shortly.
For more information on Eric Norris, visit www.NorrisRacing.com.
