Race 2 Win: MBNA RacePoints 400 - Scott Wimmer Notes

Nextel Cup Series

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MBNA RacePoints 400 - Scott Wimmer Notes

Scott Wimmer No. 22 CAT Racing Event Preview

Track: Dover International Speedway (one-mile oval) in Dover, Del.
Race: MBNA NASCAR RacePoints 400 Date: 09.25.05

NASCAR Nextel Cup driver points position: 33rd (same as last week) Owner points: 33rd (same as last week)

Notes:

The No. 22 CAT Chopper Dodge Charger at Dover International Speedway this weekend is Chassis No. 86. The chassis competed in both races at Pocono Raceway this year. The July Pocono event had Scott Wimmer and his CAT Racing team feeling a little bit of déjà vu as they matched their best qualifying effort of the season, grabbing the 11th-place starting position just as they did at the Pennsylvania track earlier in the year. The July race even started to take on a little resemblance to their June run as they encountered some of the same tight-handling hurdles. They rebounded from an early-race setback to bring home a 25th-place finish. Their top-11 start in June was tarnished by a broken left-front control arm, which led them to a disheartening 36th-place finish.

CAT Chopper races at Dover … Some may have to do a double-take at the No. 22 Nextel Cup car this weekend at Dover International Speedway, because it will have the CAT Chopper riding alongside it … well, on the side of it. Earlier this year on the Discovery Channel hit “American Chopper” series, the father-and-son duo—the Teutuls—created the “CAT Chopper.” The bike was featured on the popular series during the months of April and August and has been touring the country since its completion, traveling to CAT dealers for open houses, bike rallies and more. The original CAT Chopper will be on display at Dover International Speedway this Sunday just outside the Caterpillar hospitality tent. Go to cat.com and click on “showcases” to learn more about the CAT Chopper, but don’t forget to check it out for yourself this weekend at Dover.

Past actions prove Wimmer likes Dover … Wimmer has raced at Dover International Speedway nine times in his young NASCAR career in both the Busch Series and Nextel Cup Series. In his six Busch Series starts, he scored a win in September 2002 (started 26th) and a fourth-place finish in June 2002 (started 30th). He never finished outside the top 15 in all six Busch Series starts, as his worst Busch Series finish at Dover was a 15th in May 2003 (started 16th). Altogether, he scored one win, one top-five finish, one top-10 finish and three top-15 finishes in the Busch Series at Dover International. Last June, he scored a top-nine finish (finished ninth, started 21st) in the Nextel Cup Series race at Dover, then followed it up with a top-23 finish in September (finished 23rd, started 29th).

More testing ahead … Wimmer and the No. 22 CAT Racing team tested at Lowe’s Motor Speedway Tuesday, Sept. 20, and today (Wednesday, Sept. 21) to prepare for this October’s UAW-GM Quality 500 at the Charlotte-area speedway.

Wimmer and Earnhardt Jr. team up at LMS … This Thursday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Wimmer will team up with some of his fellow Nextel Cup competitors to help award the first grand-prize winner of the Sunoco 5000 Sweepstakes with some fast laps around the Charlotte-area speedway and even some racing tips. As stated in a Sunoco release earlier this month, Sunoco—the Official Fuel of NASCAR—selected Troy Drewry of Tampa, Fla., as its first grand-prize winner of the inaugural Sunoco 5000 sweepstakes. Drewry won a trip for four to the Richard Petty Driving Experience. He and his friends will get the opportunity to hang out and race with Wimmer and other Nextel Cup drivers including Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Richard and Kyle Petty.

Meet Wimmer at Dover … Wimmer will stop by his merchandise trailer on souvenir row just outside Dover International Speedway to meet fans and sign autographs from 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m. ET, Saturday, Sept. 24.

Watch and Listen … Qualifying for the NASCAR Nextel Cup MBNA NASCAR RacePoints 400 is scheduled to start at 3:10 p.m. ET Friday, Sept. 23, and will broadcast on SPEED (TV), MRN (radio) and XM Radio Channel 144. The MBNA NASCAR RacePoints 400 is scheduled to start at 1:10 p.m. ET Sunday, Sept. 25, and will broadcast LIVE on TNT (TV), MRN and XM Radio Channel 144.

Scott Wimmer Quotes:
Looking ahead to this weekend at Dover International Speedway, what are your thoughts heading back to the Monster Mile? “I’m looking forward to going back to Dover. That is always a fun place to run, and I love racing on the concrete. We had a loose-handling car at the beginning of the race the last time we raced at Dover, but the guys made a lot of changes on pit road and really got the car to come around to me. We got up to 19th before getting caught up in that midway accident. That kind of turned the day over on us completely, but we were making progress and I think we learned a lot the last time we raced there. We have been running a little more on the tight side lately, so maybe we can find a happy medium this weekend.

“We are taking a great car with us. It is the same car we raced at both Pocono races earlier this year. We scored an 11th-place start both times we visited Pocono, and that is still the best start we hold so far this season. I would really like to beat that this week.”

Where is your focus, along with the entire team’s focus right now? Is it still looking at this season or are you already looking ahead? “I think a lot of us who are no longer in contention for The Chase or that 11th-place position in the standings are focusing on next year. We are still trying to improve as much as we can in these last nine races, trying to better our standings as well. But I wouldn’t be telling the truth if I said we weren’t looking to 2006. We are definitely taking notes and taking time to observe a lot more and focus on some things we probably wouldn’t be paying much attention to right now if we were higher in the championship standings.”

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