(May 14, 2001) Mark Reed and the Food 4 Less Motorsports team left Irwindale Speedway Saturday night with a 39 point lead in the Winston West Series over Austin Cameron who had taken the lead from Reed in the last race at California Speedway in Fontana on April 28th. Reed, with his 2nd place finish, also increased his lead over Johnny Borneman in the Rookie of the Year standings. Borneman finished the race in 7th place.
After testing at the ½ mile oval track twice in the last 30 days, the Food 4 Less Motorsports team struggled in practice Saturday. They were shown 10th on the speed chart after the 2nd practice session. “The temperature and track conditions were completely different Saturday than when we tested”, said Reed. Prior to qualifying Reed and his crew chief (Jerry Pitts) discussed some changes that might help the car in qualifying. When Reed made his qualifying attempt, the car had different springs, shocks and a different front sway bar. “We didn’t know what to expect”, said Reed. “The car was either going to handle better, or it was going to be junk”. Reed was the 7th car to qualify and he posted a lap time of 18.590 seconds which was .388 seconds faster than his best lap in practice. Reed’s lap was fast enough for him to capture his second Bud Pole award in a row and his 4th this season. His previous pole awards came at Phoenix International Raceway, The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and California Speedway where he set a new track record for the Winston West Series.
At the start of the Food 4 Less 250, Brendan Gaughan took the lead from Reed going into turn one. Reed was running in 3rd place on lap-82 when the first of five caution flags waved. As Reed tried to shift into a lower gear and slow down for the yellow, he realized the Food 4 Less Motorsports team would have to overcome adversity for the third week in a row in order to salvage a good finish. The transmission was stuck in 4th gear. “I was afraid to force it”, said Reed. “I thought we would be better off to just try to finish the race in 4th gear. The main concern for the team would be during pit stops and on restarts. After changing 4 tires and adding fuel, the crew pushed Reed out of the pits in the 9th position. By lap-123, Reed had moved into the 4th position. He made his final pit stop during a caution on lap-151 to take on right-side tires and fuel. Reed continued to run in the top-5 until lap-243 when two drivers running in front of him, (Sammy Potashnick and Mike David) got collected by the spinning car of Austin Cameron. That moved Reed into 2nd place behind eventual race winner, Brendan Gaughan. “I was lucky to avoid that mess in turn two”, said Reed after the race. “I had been running the high groove all night until just a few laps before that. If I would have still been running up high, I would have been been in the wreck too”. The race resumed on lap 252 with a green, white, checkered finish. “I knew Brendan’s tires were giving up, but there weren’t enough laps left for me to do anything about it”, explained Reed in a press conference after the race. “I’m just really proud of my team for all of their efforts tonight”.
