"The race under the lights has been a big deal since they started it five
years ago. The lights add a whole other element to the racing that wasn't
there before. We'll be looking to have a solid run like we did in Talladega
in April. If we stay out of trouble and run well enough to be in position
to lead in the end, we should have a shot at a solid top five run."
- Frank Stoddard, crew chief of No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
PEPSI 400
STODDARD ON PEPSI 400.
"I'm certainly looking forward to returning to Daytona. We didn't have a
great car in February, but we were going to be fine until we got a flat tire
towards the end. There was quite a lot of damage to the fender from the
tire and we weren't able to stay out there. Then the rain came and the race
got called. But, we hung a new body on car 51 before we went to Talladega
and then we went back there and ran good enough to win the race. It
certainly gives us a lot of encouragement heading into this weekend. Our
goal is to have a solid qualifying run and then run up front all day and
just stay out of trouble. If we do all those things, we're almost
guaranteed a good finish."
STODDARD ON THE CAT TEAMS RUN AT INFINEON RACEWAY.
"We really had a pretty decent car in Sonoma. We qualified decent and then
we were running good lap times until we pitted and had a problem with the
fuel pick up. We pitted when the caution came out and changed carburetors
and sent Ward back out, but that didn't fix the problem. When the caution
came out again, we pitted and found that the fuel line was too close to the
water pump and it may have been causing it to vapor lock the fuel. We tied
the fuel line up and sent Ward back out and we didn't have another problem.
We were using fuel mileage to get us track position (Ward restarted third)
and just couldn't hang in there until the end of the race. In retrospect,
it could have been a much worse day. We'll take it and hopefully go to
Daytona and have a good solid run and make up some ground in the points."
CAT EQUIPMENT.
· The Caterpillar team goes to Daytona International Speedway with car 51,
the same car they ran at Talladega Superspeedway in April. The #22 started
24th and finished seventh after making a bid for the win.
