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Kleenex® Coasts across the Finish Line

 

Nashville, TN (March 26) – With the Brewco Motorsports shop just down the road, many of the crew considered this week’s race in Nashville a hometown event.  This gave David Green and the Kleenex®/Scott® products team extra incentive to come primed and ready to deliver a win for their friends and family attending.  Starting 21^st for the “Pepsi 300,” the #27 unfortunately ran into a continuous string of bad luck with pit timing and a loose car.  Despite these set-backs however, the team pulled together, made the necessary adjustments, and the Kleenex®/Scott® products team was able to pull off a top 20 finish.  They ended the day in 18^th place with a recovery that more than made attending friends and family proud to be fans.

 

Qualifying 21^st with a lap time of 29.638 seconds, driver David Green, and crew chief Stewart Cooper knew right away that it was going to be difficult maintaining grip on Nashville Superspeedway’s hot concrete track.  “We were pushing on that run,” Said Green.  “After realizing how tight the car was on that first lap, I was a little worried.  Fortunately, I was able to adapt a little and improve our speed the second time around.

 

Racing in the middle of the field and looking to gain position, it didn’t take long before Green mentioned that the car was running loose.  On lap 30, the caution was out and Cooper was ready to bring it in to make the necessary track bar, wedge, and air adjustments.  Now, on lap 35, and equipped with fresh tires, the #27 was back out in 20^th position.  While Green indicated that the adjustments helped a little, it didn’t hold out for long.  Feeling as if he was going to slide into every corner, Green was trying to gain position and maintain speed, all while trying to keep out of the wall.  With no yellow flags, Stewart Cooper made the call to pit under green on lap 94, and brought the car in for fresh tires, track bar and wedge adjustments.  Regrettably, just after leaving pit road, the caution flag went up for debris and the #27 was now forced a lap down.

 

Set back to the 26^th position, the Kleenex®/Scott® products team knew they had to do something to try and gain positions.  When the caution flag came back up on lap 130, Stewart Cooper brought the #27 into pit road for its last set of fresh tires.  While changing tires, a lug nut fell off the left front tire, continuing the team’s string of bad luck.  The official noticed the shortcoming and made the Kleenex® Ford come back around to resolve the issue.  When the flag went green on lap 135, the #27 was now two laps down and in 24^th place.  Knowing they had and uphill battle ahead of them, the team refused to let their bad luck discourage them, and forged onward looking to gain positions one at a time.

 

Now on lap 214, David Green and the #27 Kleenex® team had remarkably inched their way up to 17^th place.  With only eleven laps now left in the race, and running low on gas, the team didn’t want to lose any positions taking a pit.  It was a huge risk, but the Kleenex® Ford Taurus stayed on the track.  Trying not to lose any positions and conserving his gas, David Green made it all the way to the last lap when the tank went dry, and the #27 Kleenex® Ford coasted across the finish line in 18^th place.

 

Stephen C. Kirby
SMC 500
155 W. New York Ave, Suite 300
Southern Pines, NC 28387
(910) 692-4600
Fax: (910) 692-4638