Race 2 Win: MBNA RacePoints 400 - Scott Wimmer Notes

Nextel Cup Series

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MBNA RacePoints 400 - Scott Wimmer Notes

Scott Wimmer CAT Racing Event Preview
Track: Dover International Speedway (one-mile oval) in Dover, Del.
Race: MBNA RacePoints 400 Date: 06.05.05

NASCAR Nextel Cup points position: 35th (dropped one position from last week)

Notes:

The No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge Charger at Dover International Speedway this weekend is Chassis No. 82. Although it looked like the CAT Racing team was going to grab at least a top-10 finish with Chassis No. 78 this past weekend in the Coca-Cola 600, Chassis No. 82 still holds the season-best finish for the No. 22 CAT Racing team so far this year, which is a 16th-place finish at California Speedway. Chassis No. 82 not only carried Scott Wimmer and team to finish just outside the top 15 but also helped them jump up seven-positions in the overall points standings at the time. Its most recent run was at Bristol Motor Speedway where Wimmer and team were strong contenders as they moved all the way from 32nd to 18th less than 50 laps into the April race, but their charge to the front was interrupted when a failed radiator took them behind the wall and into an unrecoverable 62-lap deficit. Still, Wimmer and crew recovered with a good-handling race car and hope to utilize the car’s capabilities this weekend in the MBNA RacePoints 400.

Past actions prove Wimmer likes Dover … Scott Wimmer has raced at Dover International Speedway a total of eight times in his young NASCAR career, including Busch and Nextel Cup. In those six Busch Series starts, he scored a win in September 2002 (started 26th) and a fourth-place finish (started 30th) earlier that same year in June. In addition to that, he never finished outside the top 15 in all six Busch Series starts. His worst Busch finish at Dover being 15th in May 2003 (started 16th). Altogether, he scored one win, one top-five, one top-10 and three top-15 Busch Series finishes at Dover International. Last June, he scored a top-10 finish (finished ninth, started 21st) in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Dover and followed up with a top-25 in September (finished 23rd, started 29th).

Make it two again this weekend at DIS and at MIS … Bill Davis Racing confirmed this Sunday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Scott Wimmer and Mike Skinner will team up at least two more times this year to compete in a couple of the upcoming NASCAR Nextel Cup Series races this month—at Dover International Speedway and Michigan International Speedway. Skinner most recently raced in the Coca-Cola 600 at LMS this past weekend, but fell out early due to engine problems (started 22nd, finished 41st). He also piloted the No. 23 BDR Dodge last month at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, where he was taken out of contention in the 25-car pileup on lap 132 of the 194-lap event (started 34th, finished 42nd). In February, he had an impressive performance in the No. 23 during the two weeks of Speedweeks competition, qualifying 13th during the time trials and finishing third—neck-and-neck with the Dale Earnhardt Inc. cars—in the first Gatorade 150 Duel, which lined him up seventh to start the 47th running of the Daytona 500. With barely 13 laps left to run in the 500, Skinner was collected in the ninth and final caution of the race, relegating him from a top-10 run to a 30th-place finish.

History and Goldberg making it happen … Skinner’s upcoming NASCAR Nextel Cup Series entries are part of The History Channel’s launch of its inventive new series—AutoManiac. Hosted by pro wrestling and feature film star, Bill Goldberg, AutoManiac episodes will focus on unique vehicles that have made a mark in history over the last century including gangster cars, muscle cars, extreme bikes and more. The AutoManiac series premieres on The History Channel tonight (June 1) at 10 p.m. ET/PT. The No. 23 History Channel AutoManiac Dodge made its NASCAR Nextel Cup competition debut this past weekend in the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, and will be highlighted on the No. 23 BDR Dodge again this weekend in the MBNA RacePoints 400 at Dover International Speedway as well as later this month in the Batman Begins 400 at Michigan International Speedway on June 19.

“T-time” for the 22 crew … Wimmer and his CAT Racing team will test at Chicagoland Speedway on Monday, June 20, and then test at The Milwaukee Mile on Tuesday, June 21.

Wimmer to visit families at Dover AFB … While racing in the Dover area, Scott Wimmer is planning to visit the Dover Air Force Base Friday to take part in the NASCAR Night festivities there. Wimmer will get to meet the base families and sign autographs for the special NASCAR Night event.

Don’t miss Wimmer in Dover … Wimmer will stop by his merchandise trailer on souvenir row just outside Dover International Speedway to meet fans and sign autographs from 12:15 to 1: 30 p.m. ET Saturday, June 4.

Don’t miss any of it … Qualifying for the NASCAR Nextel Cup MBNA RacePoints 400 is scheduled to start at 3:10 p.m. ET Friday, June 3, and will broadcast LIVE on SPEED (TV), MRN (radio) and XM Radio. The MBNA RacePoints 400 race is scheduled to start at 1:35 p.m. ET Sunday, June 5, and will broadcast LIVE on FX (TV), MRN and XM Radio.

S. Wimmer on racing at Dover International Speedway: “We’ve always run well at Dover as a whole and it’s been a good track to me ever since my first race there in the Busch Series. I have a Busch win there and got quite a few top-10 finishes, as well. In the Cup car, we’ve been alright. I still haven’t had quite the success there like I did in the Busch car, but we are getting closer. We got a top-10 finish when we raced there last year around this time. I think that was our second best finish in 2004. The other time we raced there last fall, we got a top-25 but I think we had a little better car than that. We should’ve been farther up.

“Dover is a place I adapted to real quick the first time I ever raced there and I always seem to be able to get a really good handle on it every time we go back there. Overall, it is just a fun race track because there are a lot of grooves you can run there. During the race, you can really work the entire surface of the track to your advantage. You can run up high and really make up some time getting up there, then you can run down low and get your car handling good on the bottom, too. I don’t know what it is about me and concrete tracks, but I seem to favor those the most. I’ve always run well at places like Dover, Nashville and Bristol. I really can’t tell you why. Those tracks have a lot of grip and are fast. Dover is a high bank race track, too, and that seems to suit my driving style, as well.

“The guys are working real hard and we’re getting better every weekend. Though our finishes aren’t quite showing it, our runs are getting stronger. We’re taking a car to Dover that has turned out to be pretty good to us this year, as far as its handling goes. I’m hoping that combined with everything Derrick [Finley] is putting together with the guys’ and my effort, we’ll be able to seal the deal this weekend and make the delivery we know we are capable of making.”

S. Wimmer was well on his way to a season-best finish Sunday night in a very long and exhausting Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, when he was hit from behind and spun around into the wall on lap 391 of the 400-lap event, relegating at least a top-10 for the CAT Racing team to a heartbreaking 23rd –place finish. “It was a pretty long race. The first 200 laps went by pretty quick, but it was that stretch between 200 and 300 that seemed like a whole other race in itself. We had so many cautions and the clean-up time for the track seemed like forever. I got to one point where I was thinking I was going to ask for something to eat. I got tired of just drinking the water and energy drinks, I wanted something solid, but it was exhausting. I was really upset immediately following the race, but after having a couple of days to think about it I am proud of what we did do and did accomplish that night. We almost completed all 600 miles and had a really good race going the entire time. We didn’t have any mechanical failures in the car and rallied back from a mid-race spin. We made a lot of changes during the pit stops, got laps down but made those back up and pulled right back up to the front with the leaders. We definitely couldn’t be counted out there until that late-race incident, but we really have a lot to be proud of in that performance and all of us really needed that. I think overall it was a great race for us. We had to overcome a lot and had a shot at a top-10, maybe even a top-five, and it just slipped away from us there at the very end. We’re getting stronger all of the time and I think that is something that is not going to go unnoticed in the weeks to come.”

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