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DRIVERS, OFFICIALS PLEASED WITH USAC SILVER CROWN KENTUCKY TEST |
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INDIANAPOLIS - Drivers, teams and officials were pleased with Monday's
Hoosier Tire test for the USAC Silver Crown Series presented by K&N
Engineering at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Ky. Six drivers and seven cars turned 478 laps, with Bud Kaeding leading the way, touring the 1.5-mile oval at 173.684 mph (31.091 seconds), just a thousandth of a second faster than Brian Tyler, who came in right behind at 173.678 mph. "We were a little bit off to start the day, but to end the day with the fastest time - over Brian Tyler by a hair - it's a good feeling," said Kaeding, driving the No. 29 BK/Leffler Racing machine. "We're coming back here next month, so all in all we're pretty excited. We've got a little bit more speed in our car; we just didn't want to show our whole hand just yet." Homestead-Miami Speedway winner Tyler spent the majority of his time in the No. 21 Team 6-R Racing C&R/Chevrolet, but also logged several laps in the No. 98 C&R House car, subbing for P.J. Jones, who had qualified for the 90th Indianapolis 500 on Sunday. "I got close to 200 laps in here today, which I think will help," Tyler said. "When I was shaking his car down and shaking my car down, I got to play all over the race track. When I did the tire test, I just stayed in one lane, one groove, and just tried to give them consistent laps on every set of tires we tested. So I think I got a pretty good feel for the track today." Dave Steele, Tim Barber, Rich Tobias Jr. and Rodney Weesner also turned laps in the first official test for the cars at Kentucky. The prototype car was tested and tuned twice in 2004. Drivers will again compete on radial tires as they had in March at Homestead. Hoosier Product Manager Irish Saunders said the compound the company brought to the track will be conducive for racing when teams return for the 100-miler on June 16. "We brought a new compound here, new constructions; it's going to make for a very good race," Saunders said. "The cars should be locked down to where the cars can make passes here, not going to be hockey pucks and skating all over the place. It's going to be a good race; it's going to be a really good race." The Kentucky event - which shares the weekend with the NASCAR Busch Series - consists of practice, qualifying and racing, all on June 16. DRIVER SPEEDS: 1. Bud Kaeding 173.684 mph 2. Brian Tyler (#21) 173.678 mph 3. Dave Steele 172.452 mph 4. Tim Barber 171.931 mph 5. Brian Tyler (#98) 171.472 mph 6. Rich Tobias Jr. 170.880 mph 7. Rodney Weesner 147.000 mph SELECTED QUOTES: BUD KAEDING - (on his day overall) "We were a little bit off to start the day, but to end the day with the fastest time - over Brian Tyler by a hair - it's a good feeling. We're coming back here next month, so all in all we're pretty excited. We've got a little bit more speed in our car; we just didn't want to show our whole hand just yet." (on what it will take to win at Kentucky) "Patience. You've got to save your tires just like any race we've got. We worked with Hoosier all day, trying different compounds, and I think we came up with something good today. We're pretty excited about coming back for the race, and hopefully get that monkey off our back and get a win. We' ve all worked really hard in the last month getting the car better, and I know Brian Tyler and the whole Team 6-R Racing bunch has done the same thing." BRIAN TYLER - (on running two different cars) "I got close to 200 laps in here today, which I think will help. When I was shaking his car down and shaking my car down, I got to play all over the race track. When I did the tire test, I just stayed in one lane, one groove, and just tried to give them consistent laps on every set of tires we tested. So I think I got a pretty good feel for the track today." (on running Kentucky Speedway) "When we rolled in today, this was the first time I've ever been here. It's a beautiful place. I think it's going to be racy. Speeds are going to be up; it's going to be a pretty high speed deal, so I think there will be five, six, seven guys that will be beating on the door to win it. Anything can happen." RICH TOBIAS JR. - (on his day overall) "I think it's going to be a bit racier than Homestead. It's got long sweeping corners. I just feel really comfortable here. The track was really bumpy on the straightaways, but the corners were pretty smooth. But I think it's going to be racy. It was a good day for us; we learned a couple of things. It's really hard to tell with these cars. You can't make big changes, but we made changes there were going to help." DAVE STEELE - (on what he learned in the test that will help him next month) "We found a few things. Our ride height was off a little bit, and we did change some stuff on the car that made it better. We weren't the fastest; we 're still two or three tenths off. But if I can just get more physically comfortable in the seat, I'll think we'll be in better shape." TIM BARBER - "We played around with some different wickerbills; we think we found one that had less drag, or at least we think it does, based on the shape, but it didn't affect the handling. We're a little afraid to run it too many laps here and fine tune it because we only have one engine." (on running Kentucky Speedway) "The track's a ball. These superspeedways are awesome. It's a lot of fun trying to lay into these motors for a whole straightaway, versus running on a shorter track." |
