STOCKTON, California -- Brian Richardson and the Puskarich Racing crew were dissapointed with a 21st place finish in Saturday's Grand National West race at Stockton 99 Speedway after having what seemed like a top 5 car. The Bakersfield, California based #4 Rich-Pak Chevrolet Monte Carlo was steadily moving up through the field from an 18th place starting position.
"This was a last minute effort to come here," said Richardson, "so we missed Friday's practice. I have never been to this track before so I had about 25 laps of practice going into qualifying. The car was a little tight in qualifying, but once the race started and I was in heavy traffic, it was handling great."
After quickly closing in on the top ten, Richardson was completing a pass on the 86 of Troy Shirk when the 77 suddenly slowed in the middle of turns 3 and 4.
"My spotter told me that the 77 was up high in turn 4, but just as I was coming out of 4 he tried to get to the bottom of the track and there was just nowhere to go. I had to decide whether to get on the binders and get freight-trained from behind, or stay in it and try to make it through."
Richardson got squeezed between the 77 and the 86, causing enough damage to end the night. "The front got knocked in enough to punch a hole in the radiator. We were done at that point," said crewchief Greg Puskarich. "Brian did an excellent job, especially for his first time here. We are really pleased with his driving. I think we would have started up front and avoided this kind of stuff if we were able to practice on Friday. It's just dissapointing to have a good car and not be able to finish."
"The Puskarich Racing crew did a great job and gave me an awesome car," said Richardson. "Dan Puskarich built a real strong engine. It's unfortunate, but this kind of stuff happens on a 1/4 mile track. I really enjoyed racing here, but I hate to have to bring home a wrecked racecar."
