Bayer Consumer Care Racing Recap

Raines Forced to Sing the Blues in Nashville



As the Busch Series headed to the Nashville Superspeedway for the seventh event of the 2002 season, Tony Raines and his Bayer Consumer Care crew felt confident that they could gain some much needed momentum in the hunt for a solid finish in the Busch Series Championship point standings. The car had a new design for this Busch event, featuring Alka-Seltzer on the hood and main body of the car and Bayer customer, Dollar General on the quarter panel.

Raines and the team tested the 1.366 mile concrete tri-oval several weeks prior to the event and felt confident that the information gained from the test would prove to be beneficial to the performance of the car come race time. However, after a strong qualifying effort and a strong race performance, mechanical problems with 30 laps remaining in the race would regulate Raines and his team to a 30th place finish in the Pepsi 300.

On Friday, Raines had his eyes focused on securing the team a solid starting spot for Saturday's event after a strong early morning practice session. "When we unloaded we were in race trim and we were really tight," said Raines. "We changed some springs, a sway bar and a set of shocks. We got the car driving better and ran some decent laps during the morning practice. Once we got the car taped up and did a qualifying run, we were second on the board and ended up fourth in practice. I think because of the test, we know where we need to be ballpark wise, we just need to find out which side of that ballpark will be the best. A top-five or a top ten would be good, but a pole would be nice." Raines' confidence in posting a strong qualifying lap proved true as he piloted his No. 33 Alka-Selter/Dollar General Chevrolet to a tenth place starting spot with a lap of 29.994 seconds at a speed of 159.992 mph. "The car tightened up a little bit," said Raines following his qualifying run. "We ran on scuffs (broken in tires) and I think I wished we would have went on stickers (new tires), but that lap should get us inside the top-ten and put us in a good starting spot for the race."

With a great starting spot for Saturday's event, Raines tightened his belts and settled in for 225 laps around the tricky Nashville Speedway. Through the early laps of the event, Raines battled drivers Mike McLaughlin and Jamie McMurray as he worked his way into the eighth place position when the caution flag flew for rain on lap 18. Although Raines was gaining positions, he was still fighting a tight handling condition on the car from the middle of the corner off the turn. "I am tight in the corner and tight in the throttle," Raines told crew chief Michael Kadlecik. "My biggest problem is getting the car to turn in the middle of the corner." On lap 41, Kadlecik instructed Raines to hit pit road to correct the tight handling condition on the car. The team raised the track bar two rounds and placed a spring rubber in the right rear to fix the car's handling problems. Raines re-entered the track running in the 36th place spot.

Only 15 laps after the re-start, Raines had already worked his way up to the 19th place position when the yellow flag flew for Greg Biffle's wreck on the front stretch. Under the caution, Raines elected to stay on the track and moved up the third place position. Raines would run third for the next 18 laps until the caution flag flew for the third caution of the day. Raines once again decided to stay out on the track instead of pitting. This pit strategy landed Raines at the front of the field when the race re-started on lap 88. However, Raines would quickly drop to the sixth place spot after being overtaken by cars with fresher tires. Raines would continue to run in sixth until he was forced to pit for fuel on lap 123. "I am out of gas," Raines relayed to his crew. The team had calculated the car to be able to run until lap 124 but fell one lap short in their calculations. Once on pit road, the Bayer Consumer Care team slapped on four tires, made another track bar adjustment to correct the still tight handing racecar and filled the car with fuel. By having to pit under the green flag, Raines went one lap down to the leaders. Raines was now being shown in the 22nd place position.

On lap 132, Raines caught the break he needed when the caution flag flew for a wreck involving Hank Parker Jr. Raines would now start on the tail end of the lead lap with the chance to make up the lap he had lost while pitting under the green flag. Only two laps into the restart on lap 140, the caution once again was waved to the field for an accident on the backstretch. This timely caution allowed Raines to gain his lap back and placed him in the 20th place position. "We were a top-ten car and had to pit under the green," said Raines. He continued, "Of course the caution came out, but we were able to get our lap back."

With the car back on the lead lap, Raines brought his No. 33 car, which featured a special one-race partnership with Dollar General, down pit road for fresh Goodyear's, fuel and a wedge adjustment. Over the next 55 laps, Raines would patiently race his way into the 12th place position until the first sign of trouble would make its presence known on lap 191. "I think the motor is going away on this thing," Raines radioed to his crew. NASCAR would then force Raines to pit road to find out why the car was smoking. The problem turned out to be a broke fitting on the transmission. The mechanical failure ended Raines' day with only 30 laps remaining in the race and credited him with a 30th place finish after running in the Top-10 for most of the afternoon.

"We scrapped and clawed and fought and still got knocked out," said Raines following the race. He continued, "So what do you do? A fitting on the transmission broke. The car actually wasn't that bad, we were a little tight, but I still think that we had a top-ten car."

With that finish, Raines remains 16th in the Busch Series point standings with 716 points to his credit. The next Busch Series race is Saturday, April 20th at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama. The next race event featuring Bayer/Alka-Seltzer racing sponsorship will be in Fontana, California at California Speedway on April 27th.



Events of the Week

On Thursday, Raines was at the grand opening of a Dollar General in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Raines signed autographs and posed for photos with customers. Dollar General also gave away two tickets to the Nashville Busch Series event during this special promotion.

On Saturday, the No. 33 Bayer Consumer Care team played host to four special guests prior to the race. Debbie Watts, Bruce Taylor, Pam Christy and Ken Smith of Dollar General took in the sites and sounds of the garage area.