Sauter sandwich ruins positive day for Green, Brewco Kleenex® team in Nashville

Nashville, Tennessee (April 15, 2006) – They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. At the NASCAR Busch Series race at Nashville Superspeedway Saturday, one man’s crash caused a whole team’s displeasure.

The No. 27 Kleenex® Ford was caught up in an accident initiated by Johnny Sauter, which sent the Brewco Motorsports’ car behind the wall for extensive repairs. The wreck, which also took out Tim Sauter, halted a promising day for the No. 27 team, and left driver David Green to pilot the wounded car to a 29th place finish.

Green qualified well in the Brewco Ford, putting his team in 12th place for the start of the Pepsi 300.

“After unloading off the truck and running seventh fastest in the first practice session, I was very excited about our chances,” said Green. “(Crew Chief) Stewart (Cooper) and the guys dug deep and dialed the car in for qualifying.  The car reacted very nicely and gave us a solid starting spot.”

Early on in the race, Green reported to Cooper that the car was a bit tight in the center. After an early pit stop for fuel, four tires and air pressure adjustments, Green was running in the tenth position by lap 38.

“I knew we could adjust our car to make it even faster with the 2006 Goodyear tires, and we’d put ourselves in a position to be a serious race contender,” he said.

The team made another pit stop to give Green the front grip and downforce he felt the car needed. Then on lap 110, in a foreshadowing moment, Cooper told Green over the team radio that the No. 00 car driven by Sauter got into the back of the No. 27. By lap 119, however, Green was running in 14th place and making progress.

“It seemed like we were inching up on correcting the car on each pit stop, but I was behind some cars that we were ahead of all day when all heck broke loose,” Green said.

On lap 124 – only 14 laps after the initial contact with the No. 00 – Sauter sent himself and his own brother Tim (No. 36) into a spin, collecting Green in the process.

“It all got ugly with Johnny spinning Tim out in turn one,” Green said. “I was right behind them and had elected to run the second groove (outside lane) through turns one and two because we were faster in that groove, and had been ahead those cars all day. Both cars came up the track right in front of me, pinning me between them and the outside wall.  Obviously it was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Cooper led the No. 27 Brewco team behind the wall, and they hustled to make the extensive repairs to the car, returning Green to the track by lap 157. However the damage was done, and the Kleenex® Ford finished the race 36 laps down in 29th place.

“It’s very frustrating because we unloaded well, and the team kept working hard to adjust the car to get better in race conditions, but we lost valuable track position which put us in a bad spot,” Green said. “My guys worked hard getting the car pieced back together so we could run the required speed and finish the event. With that we were able to gain several valuable spots back by the checkered flag, which helped us in the overall season point standings.”

“We came to Nashville to run our race and ended up being the victims of unfortunate circumstances,” Cooper said. “I’m proud of David and of the whole crew for sticking with it Saturday and for keeping upbeat throughout the tough start to the season. We’ve got 27 more races to go in 2006 – that’s plenty of time to turn things around, and we’ll start this Friday in Phoenix.”

The No. 27 Brewco team heads to Phoenix International Raceway this week for the Bashas’ Supermarkets 200. The team will run the chassis they won with last year at Pike’s Peak International Raceway and will welcome Ravenswood Winery as the primary sponsor on their car for the first time this season.