MBNA America 400 - Jason Leffler Notes

Jason Leffler will make his 39th NASCAR Winston Cup start and seventh for the NetZero HiSpeed racing team this weekend at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. Leffler will drive all of the remaining races on the 2003 scheduled for the Haas CNC Racing team.

JASON LEFFLER ON RACING IN DOVER…”I certainly can’t think of anything but nice things to say about Dover considering I won my first truck race there in June. Dover is another one of these places where you have to stay out of trouble to be around at the end because there’s just no telling what will happen in the last 50 laps. Dover’s tough; they don’t call it The Monster Mile for nothing.

“I’ve only raced in Dover four or five times, but I’ve had some pretty decent runs there. Being concrete, the track doesn’t change as much as some of the other tracks we race on. It’s a little like Bristol in that respect, but it’s really fast and smooth. You need to get the car working coming off the corners, which are pretty narrow, so you can keep your momentum up on the straightaways. As the race wears on there will be more than one groove so passing isn’t as big an issue as it is at some of the others places we go to. I think sometimes you forget Dover is only a mile long because it’s so fast.

“Pit strategy will be an issue again this weekend because teams will be making two and four tire stops. Tony is really good at making those kinds of calls. He picks us up an awful lot of places in the pits by making two tires stops when we can. Hopefully, we can get a good qualifying lap in so we won’t have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to pick up 20 spots. We haven’t qualified like we needed to for the last couple of races and we need to work on that before it gets us in trouble, though with the weather looking the way it is, we’ll be lucky to get qualifying in at all this weekend.”

DOVER FAST FACTS
• Jason Leffler has made one NASCAR Winston Cup start at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. He finished 13th in his first Cup race in Dover.
• Leffler’s best finish at the 1.0-mile track came in the Truck Series. Leffler was victorious in Dover in June. The victory was the first win for Leffler in the Truck Series.
• Leffler has earned one NASCAR Winston Cup pole position (Kansas Speedway, 2001) in 38 starts.
• The Haas CNC Racing team has prepared car No. 6 for this weekend’s event.
• The Haas CNC Racing team spent Wednesday and Thursday prior to the event in Dover testing at Kentucky Speedway.

JASON LEFFLER WINSTON CUP CAREER STATS…

TOTAL STARTS: 38
FIRST CAREER START: 2001 Daytona 500, Daytona International Speedway
No. 01 Cingular Wireless Dodge
Started 15th, Finished 34th – Accident
BEST QUALIFYING: 1st
2001 Protection One 400, Kansas Speedway
No. 01 Cingular Wireless Dodge
BEST FINISH: 10th
No. 01 Cingular Wireless Dodge
2001 Pennzoil Freedom 400, Homestead-Miami Speedway
Started 7th, Finished 10th – Running
No. 01 Cingular Wireless Dodge
MOST RECENT START: Sylvania 300 – New Hampshire International Speedway
Started 41st, Finished 27th – Running
No. 0 NetZero HiSpeed Pontiac
CAREER EARNINGS: $2,186,032

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