Food for Thought – Locally famous Charlotte restaurant, Red Rocks Café will once again appear as the primary sponsor on Boston Reid’s No. 25 truck for this weekend’s Con-Way Freight 200. But co-owners Ron and John aren’t the only faces you’ll see on the Raybestos Rookie Contenders truck. NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series driver, Michael Waltrip’s face, will join the two restaurant owners on the hood of the No. 25 Dodge. Red Rock’s is famous for its “celebrity” menu items which include many local friends and NASCAR drivers. “Michael Waltrip’s Filet and Crab Cakes” are a favorite of the driver when he comes into the restaurant to dine. Michael’s brother, Darrell is also a frequent diner at the restaurant, which has a menu item appropriately named the “D.W. Boogity Burger.”
Reconfigured Nose – Last weekend was the first race that the Dodge’s came to the track with a reconfigured nose. The new template was designed to take part of the concave portion out of the top of the nose, in theory, making a smoother nose which should create more down force and less drag. After last weekend’s race in Texas, crew chief Mark Nelson said the team was happy with the performance of the trucks with the new nose but the trucks were definitely more aero-sensitive when they were riding behind other trucks.
Chassis No. 04 – Mark Nelson and his Woodard Racing team will take Chassis No. 04 to the track this weekend in Michigan. The team tested this truck at Lowe’s earlier in the season, but this truck has never been raced before.
Quotes:
Reid on racing at Michigan…
“Michigan is another track that I’ve never been to before. So I’ve been racing on my simulator all week at home to learn the track and I’m going to watch last year’s race to see what I can learn from the other driver’s. We’re taking a new truck this weekend that we tested at Lowe’s; we’re expecting big things from this truck so I’m excited to see how it’ll run when we get to Michigan.”
Nelson on the challenge of his driver never seeing the track before…
“Boston’s confidence in the trucks has grown so much in the last couple of races, that I really don’t think it’s even an issue anymore. It takes him the first 15 laps of practice to get used to the track, work on his line and then he tells me what he needs to run fast.”
Nelson racing at Michigan…
“I really like Michigan. I’ve ran there with an ARCA and a Cup car, so I feel really good about the set-up that we’re going to the track with. This is a new truck with new suspension, the new Dodge nose so I think this truck is going to race really well. We learned a lot about our intermediate truck program at Texas last week, so I’m hoping we can apply that to the race this weekend in Michigan.”
