Joe Bean thought that he had the car to beat after qualifying Thursday Night at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He put the # 77 Rudolph Foods Company Ford Taurus in the number 3 spot. After taking the lead on lap 4, Joe thought that it was going to be a repeat of his last win. "The car was flawless in qualifying and worked great during the race. This Bullring is small and it makes for close racing. Unfortunately you can lap cars very quickly and that is what happened to us. It's not the first time that we have been taken out of contention by a lapped car" said Joe Bean. All in all Joe led 62 laps and after coming in for repairs to his damaged car, was able to rejoin the race and finished in the 11th spot.
"We had a lot of damage, but the Performance Motorsports crew put the thing back together and got me back out on the track." said Joe. I can't say enough about my crew. We aren't the biggest buck crew out there, what we lack in dollars we make up in determination and heart. This year Car Chief Vic Reed has assumed the duties of Crew Chief. All the other guys are back. "We figured it out the other day that we have the oldest average aged crew on the Winston West Series." said Vic.
The Performance Motorsports #77 Team moved into 5th place in the chase for the Winston West Crown.
The next scheduled event is March 10, 2001 at Tucson Raceway Park.
