Circuit City 250 - Rookie Friday Notes

RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY NOTES ON THE CIRCUIT CITY 250 PRESENTED BY FUNAI

RICHMOND, VA -- Two Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidates were forced to back-up cars for qualifying for the Circuit City 250 here Friday morning in the first practice session of the day.

Danny O'Quinn, driver of the #50 Stonebridge Life Ford and Joel Kauffman who drives the #12 Olympia Steel Buildings Dodge, both sustained damage to the left and rear of their Busch Series cars. The damage was sufficient to force their teams to pull the back-ups and put their teams under the gun to get them ready for qualifying later in the day.

Kauffman lost control in Turn one. "I just got into Turn One a little too hot and got up into the grey stuff and it came around." O'Quinn echoed Kaufman's explanation in his own wreck. "I think I got a little piece of the apron and it upset the car and that was it. It was totally my mistake and I feel sorry for putting the guys under this kind of pressure. Really though, it's kind of like Phoenix. We had to start 41st there because of a bad qualiyfing lap and we came back to finish well. So, hopefully that will be the case today." (O'Quinn finished 11th at PIR).

O'Quinn is currently 5th in Raybestos Rookie of the Year Standings (82 points)while Kauffman nails down the seventh spot (47 points). West Sacramento, California driver Burney Lamar holds the lead through 10 events with 107 points.