Emerson Radio 250 - Travis Geisler Notes

Travis Geisler Notes, Quotes: Funai 250
“Short-track racing, at higher speeds”

This weekend Travis Geisler and the #36, # 1 Cochran Automotive team head to the .750-mile Richmond (Va.) International Raceway for Friday night’s Funai 250 NASCAR Busch Series race.

DCT Motorsports’ owners John McGill and Carl Natale are the first full-time owners from Cleveland, Ohio, NASCAR’s top three divisions have ever seen. Still, their marketing and business savvy is a breath of fresh air that has captured the imagination of the sport’s business minds. McGill and Natale have developed the sport’s most cost-efficient, sponsor-friendly marketing setup. It is based on giving full value to sponsors, and utilizing the many business-to-business contacts McGill, a developer, and Natale, a major earthwork contractor, have in place.

DCT Motorsports is seeking sponsorship for next year and the remainder of this season, is in the midst of a 25-race schedule for 2004, hitting all of the major NASCAR Busch Series events and markets. One of the most comprehensive sponsorship packages in any form of motorsports, DCT offers a complete package of top racing equipment, hospitality, public relations, publicity, appearances and show cars.

#1 Cochran is one of the top dealership chains in the country and the leading auto retailer in the Pennsylvania-Ohio-West Virginia market. With three locations, eleven brands and thousands of vehicles, #1 Cochran is widely known for bringing excitement and innovation into auto sales and service. The company’s new multi-franchise MegaCenter in Monroeville, PA, is the largest GM complex in the eastern United States and features separate brand-oriented showrooms, a stand-alone quick service center and a customer café. Its other facilities are located minutes from Downtown Pittsburgh in Robinson Township and the city’s South Hills. For more information, visit the #1 Cochran website at www.1cochran.com.

The thoughts of #36, #1 Cochran Automotive Team driver Travis Geisler heading into Richmond:

“I’m excited to get back to Richmond. We struggled there the first time this year and we feel most of that was because we really didn’t get any practice. I’d never been on the track before and really didn’t know what to expect, so we spent most of the weekend trying to catch up. That’s the main reason I’m excited to get back. That’s the case a lot of times as a rookie in a series. The second trip to a track is always better than the first, and that’s generally when you’ll see the most improvement.

“This time we know what to expect heading into the weekend. We’ll be able to get some practice time in and actually get to go out, concentrating on racing, and put forth a good, solid effort. We ended up 26th in the spring but I think it was a matter of tuning the car during the race, whereas this time, I look forward to getting the car tuned in during practice instead, then being able to focus on the race.

“Richmond is a racy little three-quarter mile oval. It’s such a fast race track, yet your corner speeds are still pretty low compared to your straightaway speeds. So, you end up using a lot of brake and really working the car all the way around the race track. You also use a lot of gear at Richmond. It’s not quite as hard as Bristol but it’s still a difficult track and you really have to ‘drive’ the racecar.

“The track really lends to some pretty good two-wide racing. The more rubber that builds up on the track over the course of the weekend, then the wider the racing groove becomes. Therefore, as the race goes on the track widens out so you can really get underneath people coming off the corners and kind of drag race down the straight-a-ways. It’s short track racing at a little higher speed.

“#1 Cochran Automotive is one of the largest dealerships in the Pennsylvania area. They’ve actually been involved with my family for over 23 years now where they’ve been the title sponsor on my Dad’s car throughout his career. They actually stepped on board with me five years ago. They decided to get involved for the Richmond race and we’re really excited to have them with us. Since the race is actually a GM-sponsored event, it’s neat to have a GM dealer sponsoring us for the weekend.

“As this team spends for time together and spends for ‘track time’ together, we continue to improve. We’re young, but we’ve got a good group of guys working for us. We’ll be looking for a good things this weekend at Richmond and hopefully give all the guys at #1 Cochran Automotive something to be proud of.”