PIR BITES WOODS AS TEAM REGROUPS FOR COLORADO

Source: Gene Woods Racing
Date: 10/05/2004

Gene Woods went into the Subway 150 for the NASCAR Grand National Western Division looking forward to seeing what the new Monster Energy Drinks / Circle K Food Stores Dodge Intrepid could do on the famous one mile oval. Unfortunately, he never really got to find out as a mechanical failure in qualifying left him starting from the rear of the field and while moving up through the pack he got caught up in somebody else’s mess and ended up whacking the wall, damaging the car and leaving the team scrambling to get their old car ready for Colorado.

"We went there with high hopes," Gene said. "The car was good during practice. We didn’t make any qualifying runs, we were just working on race set up and we got the car very good. During qualifying we had a coil fail that cost us our qualifying laps so we had to start in the rear. It was looking very good as we were able to pick off about ten cars in the first eight laps and we re gaining on the next pack of cars very rapidly.

"The car was just getting better the more we ran but the problem with starting that far back is sometimes you get caught up in things and we did. A couple of guys spun coming off turn four just as we were catching them on the outside and we were committed to the line. I thought we were going to make it but we got up in the marbles and it just went straight right into the wall.

Woods continued, “I knew it was bad, it was a hard hit. Then when I looked at the firewall and saw it was pushed in I knew there was no fixing it, so we loaded up and headed for the shop to put our good engine in our original car, the one we ran last year. That is what we will run for the balance of the season. With the races so close we have no other choice.”

"Out of the four times we have been to Phoenix we have had two engines blow up and one bad crash. The funny thing is I still like the place, it just doesn’t seem to like me," said Woods.

See Also .:

• Gene Woods Driver Card
• Phoenix International Raceway Track Page

News Index | E-mail to a Friend