(Mar. 10, 2001) Mark Reed qualified his Food 4 Less Pontiac Grand Prix in the fifth position for today’s 250-lap race at Tucson Raceway Park. Unfortunately, when the green flag waved at 2:00 PM, Reed started the race from the back of the field. “We had a master cylinder fail during our qualifying lap”, said Reed. “It put so much rear brake in the car that the crew couldn’t push the car back to our pit area after the qualifying lap. Without the part failure, we might have had a shot at the pole again”. Reed had won the pole position for the first two Winston West Series races of the season. Fortunately the crew was able to change the master cylinder prior to the start of the race. However NASCAR Winston West Series rules do not permit a team to change parts on a car between qualifying and the start of the race without having to go to the back of the field.
Reed started his charge to the front at the drop of the green flag. By lap 60, Reed had put the Food 4 Less car in the 3rd position. “Most of the drivers were running in the top groove”, said Reed. “In order to pass, I had to run along the bottom”. Running on the bottom groove of the track eventually caused Reed to blister his right rear tire. By the half way mark in the race Reed had slipped back to 7th place one lap down. As there is no infield pit area at Tucson Raceway Park, the race was divided into two 125-lap segments with a five-minute break in between.
During the half way break, the Food 4 Less crew made massive changes to the car. “Jerry (Pitts) and the guys did a great job to make the car better during the pit stop”, said Reed. “They changed the left-front shock, took a spring rubber out of the left-front and the right-rear, and added a rubber to the right-front spring”. All of these changes were made to take pressure off of the right rear tire to eliminate the blistering problem. “The car was much better in the second half of the race”, said Reed. “We were able to keep the car on the tail end of the lead lap for quite a few laps”. Reed was hoping for an early caution flag that would allow him to get his lap back. Unfortunately, the early caution flag never came. The caution, which came around lap-235, was too late to do Reed any good. “Our right-rear started to blister again on lap-200”, said Reed. “If we would have gotten our lap back, we might have had a shot at another top-5 finish”. As it was, Reed finished the race in 9th position. Johnny Borneman won the race. Tony Schmidt, Brandon Ash, Sammy Potashnick, and Hershel McGriff rounded out the top-5.
“We’re disappointed with our 9th place finish, but it certainly could have been a lot worse”, said Reed. “The car doesn’t have a dent in it. All we have to do prior to the FOODSCO 200 presented by Pepsi next Sunday in Bakersfield is put in a fresh motor and do some regular maintenance”. Reed still leads the Winston West Series points after three events.
