It has been a while since Brian Brown has taken the checkered flag in a 410 at Knoxville, but he got it done in the Casey’s General Stores/FVP #21 last Saturday night! A late race pass of Brooke Tatnell meant win #31 for the Grain Valley, Missouri driver at Knoxville. It also was the team’s eighth straight podium finish. Their run will be challenged again this weekend, as the National Sprint League is back in action for a pair of shows. On Friday night, the Folkens Brothers Trucking Spring Nationals will open the new Jackson Motorplex before the NSL makes their first appearance of the year at Knoxville Saturday.
You were laying it down again in hot laps Saturday!
Anytime the track is that good and you’re hot lapping at 14.5 (the record in 14.407), I’d like to say the driver is doing it all, but I’m just guiding it. We have great horsepower from Charlie Garrett, Maxim Chassis, FK Shocks and Vortex Wings, and that makes it easy on me.
Did you change anything for time trials? You ended up second quick.
We took a look at whether we could do anything to get faster. You want to do that anytime you’re that close to a track record. We made some changes that kind of slowed us down, and the track slowed down a little too. We did feel like we were off, and we were still able to get second quick. So our qualifying is on point right now.
You performed well in your heat again too.
You want to do as well as you can and have the mindset to be the fastest car every time you hit the track. We were able to go from sixth to win the heat. At that point, we felt our car was as good as it’s been in two or three years there. A lot of things go on during the week where you’re making decisions for race night and things we want to get better on. Chad (Morgan) and the whole team made some really good decisions this week with our shocks and our car. That really paid off.
You lined up fifth in the feature and ran third most of the way.
It was kind of a weird feature really; we were able to get to third pretty quickly. We were able to pass Matt (Juhl) a couple of times and the cautions didn’t fall our way. He was doing a good job. Twenty laps go really quickly at Knoxville. You’re just getting in your groove, and you look up and there’s five or six laps to go. We didn’t feel good in the middle stages. We were able to get by Matt there when the caution came.
What were your thoughts on the last restart?
Lining up second with four to go…as hungry as we were for a win, I felt like we needed to do whatever it took to win. Not to crash somebody, but to go where (Brooke Tatnell) wasn’t going. I hadn’t run the top very much, and we made a good corner in one and two, and then in three and four. I think the top was just as fast, and maybe I should have been up there the whole while.
Though you were awarded a win after a DQ last year, it had been 2014 since you’d actually taken the checkers.
It seemed like an eternity. Sometimes when you win, you take it for granted. When you don’t win for two years at Knoxville, you wonder when you’re going to win again. We’ll really enjoy this for a couple of days and turn our attention to this weekend. I’m just really proud of our team. Chad Morgan, Michael Williams and Wyatt Burks bust their butt all week long to make sure every detail is perfect. It’s good to pay those guys back with a win.
It will be a big weekend at Jackson and again at Knoxville.
We’ve had some success in the past at the Folkens Brothers Trucking Spring Nationals. We’ve been able to win two or three times. The way we’re operating as a team, we feel we can go anywhere in the country and be in the hunt. The NSL at Knoxville Saturday will bring some excitement and some extra money too. I hope a lot of fans come out and support us again this Saturday at Knoxville.
Follow Brian on the Web, Twitter and Facebook!
Follow Brian at his website located at www.BrianBrownRacing.com!
Also keep up with FVP, Casey’s and Brian on Facebook and Twitter at the following links…
Twitter Links – @BrianBrown21, @FVPRacing, @CaseysGenStores
Facebook Links
Brian Brown Racing – www.facebook.com/pages/Brian-Brown-Racing/200630163294222
Casey’s General Stores – www.facebook.com/pages/Caseys-General-Stores/112073528804354
FVP Racing - http://www.facebook.com/FVPRacing?ref=ts&fref=ts
- administrator on May 17, 2016
- Article Date: 5/17/2016