David Green, No. 27 Brewco Kleenex® team battle snow, grip issues for 25th place finish in Bristol

Bristol, Tennessee (March 27, 2006) – Amid a freak snow delay and frigid temperatures, the No. 27 Brewco Motorsports team and David Green were ready for a strong run Saturday at the world’s fastest half-mile, Bristol Motor Speedway. The team was able to avoid significant damage during most of the race’s 13 caution flags, on the way to recording their second-highest finish of the 2006 season – a 25th place effort – in the Sharpie Mini 300.

Qualifying was snowed-out and the No. 27 Kleenex® Ford started the race in 34th position.

“With some solid runs at Bristol over the past few years, I was extremely excited about getting to the speedway and getting our season back on track,” said Green. “At the start of race, the car was much better than where we ended in the limited practice session. We got it to the point where I could drive offensively, which is a must at Bristol.”

From early in the event, Green reported grip issues, but was making gains, moving up to the 27th position by lap 27. Racing was halted on lap 32 when white-out conditions overtook the track and a snowstorm delayed the event for more than an hour. When racing resumed, Green reported slick conditions on the track, as he narrowly avoided being involved in a wreck on lap 60.

Soon after, the No. 27 team was running in the 16th position, having moved up 18 spots since the drop of the green flag. Despite the gains, Green indicated that the car still needed more grip. Crew Chief Stewart Cooper noted that the condition would only get worse as more rubber was laid down on the track and the team pitted on lap 117 to make the necessary adjustments. By lap 144, the car was running in 18th place and Green told his crew that the balance was good. However, as day turned to night, and as the track lost even more heat, Green would again find himself having tire grip concerns.

“As our tires got more and more laps on them, the front-end just kept loosing grip,” he said. “In clear traffic, we could run good times, but in traffic trying to pass, I could not get where I needed to pull the pass off.  Obviously the cold winter temperatures aggravated the condition.”

The team made adjustments through the latter laps of the race, and kept the No. 27 Kleenex® Ford out of the many wrecks for the 25th place finish.

“It was very disappointing, but I know everyone on the team will put his abilities and talents to work 24/7 from here on out to turn our performance around,” Green said.

Cooper and other members of the No. 27 Brewco team will visit Goodyear’s corporate headquarters in Akron, Ohio this week to learn more about the new tire setup.

“We’ll educate ourselves on the data we receive from that visit and plug it into our cars for this week’s Richmond test and next week’s Texas race,” Green said. “We are winners and we never give up. I look forward to getting back up front where we belong.”

This weekend is an off-weekend for the NASCAR Busch Series, however the No. 27 Kleenex® Ford team will head to Richmond International Raceway from March 28 through 30 for testing. The next race for the Brewco team will be The O’Reilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway. Live coverage of the event begins Saturday, April 8 at 3:00 p.m. EST on FOX.