David Green, Brewco Kleenex® team score top-15 finish in Richmond

Richmond, Virginia (May 7, 2006) – In the early hours of Friday morning, the Brewco Motorsports No. 27 Kleenex® team and driver David Green had more to contend with than a few rain delays. For the majority of the race, Green wheeled a car with a broken right front shock, while he and the Brewco team fought through the fatigue of a long day. The entire Brewco crew stayed focused, and scored their second-best finish of the season – a 12th place effort – in the Circuit City 250 presented by Funai at Richmond International Raceway.

Rain delayed the event for nearly two hours and the green flag racing began at about 10:30 pm eastern time. The delays, coupled with the compressed schedule on Friday - including two practice sessions, qualifying and the race - made it a long day for everyone involved. However Crew Chief Stewart Cooper kept the Brewco group alert and on task.

“It was a real solid effort by Stewart and the guys,” Green said. “We unloaded very competitively right off the truck and throughout practice the team was able to make some good changes to our set-up. It was maybe one of the most productive practice sessions we’ve ever had at Richmond and possibly the best yet this season.”

The work in practice paid off, and the No. 27 Ford qualified well, in 16th place.

“Qualifying went well also. We were able to make some changes there which really helped my car for the two lap run,” Green said. “But having somewhat of a tough qualifying draw (ninth) with the hot temperatures made the track really greasy for us. The guys going out late took advantage of the cooling track conditions, and some of the late cars qualified better than we did. But that’s OK. My car did what I needed it to do, which made me very confident in qualifying and for the race.”

Once the green flag dropped for good, the No. 27 Kleenex® Ford Fusion was making gains until Green felt something in the right front of the car.

“The race started awesome,” he said. “My car was great, but after the final rain delay, something popped and my car darted around and was bouncing around the rest of the race.”

”David and I talked about coming in to look at the car,” Cooper said. “We knew we’d lose a lap and we were trying early on to win the track position battle. But David thought he could work with the car and we decided to stay out.”

The team would learn after the race that the right front lower shock bracket snapped around lap 40.

“Well, we lost the right front shock, and the car was a handful to hang on to,” Green said. “It was still pretty darn fast which made it a lot of fun to try to go as fast as possible.”

“It’s amazing that David ran the entire race with the shock issue that we had,” Cooper said. “It’s a testament to his talent as a driver for sure.”

“I was trying my darndest to get another top ten for my team, but we came up just a little short,” Green said. “My team and I are looking forward to taking this car to the Milwaukee Mile in June. We hope we can celebrate a win with it up there in Kimberly-Clark’s territory.

“I have to say a big ‘thank you’ to Stewart and the Brewco guys for preparing a fast Kleenex® Ford Fusion,” said Green. “What we learned at the Richmond test in March and at the test in Phoenix a few weeks ago was instrumental in our performance this weekend.

“I really feel a sense of positive momentum in terms of the information we’re gathering on our set-ups and tires,” Green said. “This is allowing us to unload at each track with faster and more competitive Ford Fusions every week. The competition is sky high here in 2006, but we’re gaining on it and getting closer to where we know we should be. And I promise you – we’re not slowing down till we drive into Victory Lane!”

Green and the Brewco team will participate in the final scheduled test session of 2006 for the NASCAR Busch Series today through Wednesday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The next race for the No. 27 Kleenex® Ford will be the Diamond Hill Plywood 200 on Friday May 12, 2006 at Darlington Raceway. Television coverage begins at 8 pm on FX.