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July 1, 2001 - Milwaukee Mile
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Milwaukee
Mile
July 1, 2001 |








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Milwaukee, WI -With five top-ten finishes in the last seven races of the 2001 season, Tony Raines, driver of the Bayer Consumer Care Racing Chevrolet, entered the GNC Live Well 250 at the Milwaukee Mile with momentum on his side.
Raines had the seventh fastest overall practice time in Friday's first practice session and qualified to start the race in the fourteenth position. "We have always struggled on the flat tracks," crew chief Michael Kadlecik said after qualifying. "We are going to make some changes that will put us towards the front in tomorrow's race."
When the green flag dropped on Saturday, Tony was moving towards the front of the pack. With the leaders racing very close, Tony was able to get up to the tenth place by lap 55. Around lap 89, Tony radioed into the crew that the car was "loose going into the turns." While running in the 12th position, Tony was called into pit to make some changes and service the car. After a 15.185-second pit stop, Tony was back out in the race.
By lap 190, Raines was up to the seventh spot, but the one question on everyone's mind was fuel mileage. It was a game of chance to many teams on whether they were going to be able to go the distance without making another pit stop. There was no doubt that the Aleve car was going to have to make another stop. "We are definitely going to stop or we will run out of gas," Michael Kadlecik said.
On lap 226, with only 24 laps remaining in the race, Raines made a three-second 'gas only' pit stop. While other teams took a gamble to stay out and try to finish with what gas they had left, some came up short.
Tony finished the race in tenth, making this his eighth top ten this season. Tony has also moved up to the fifth position in the series point standings.
"Another top ten," Raines commented after the race. "Every week keeps getting better and we're consistent. We had a great car today. It turned out to be a fuel mileage race. I'm very happy we moved up to the fifth spot in points."
"We had a car that was definitely a lot better than a tenth place car today," Michael Kadlecik said after the race. "Fuel mileage was what the race was all about at the end. We knew we were going to have to pit. We definitely could not make it to the end."
Tony and his crew chief, Michael Kadlecik, are looking forward to the road course race at Watkins Glen this coming Sunday. While Raines won an ASA race on a roadcourse in Topeka, Kadlecik started his racing career working on an IMSA team, which is strictly a roadrace series. "We kind of have the upperhand at road racing," Michael Kadlecik said. "This is where we started."
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