DENNIS FINISHES 8th IN STELLAR
FIELD AT NASHVILLE
Van Buren, AR
(October 6, 2010) - After a quick turnaround from travels to the
Gulf Coast, Dennis and crew headed to the Music City for Nashville’s
CRA All-American 400. The 200-lap race on the high-banks of the
historic fairgrounds speedway drew a stellar field of 35 super late
models which included such notables as Chase Elliott, Augie Grill
and Ross Kenseth.
During practice
Dennis suffered from a severe push in the front end as he entered
the corners. He and the crew made several changes in the rear
suspension to loosen his corner entry. After little improvement in
his handling, Dennis noticed the front coil springs were getting
into a “coil-bind” situation too soon in the corners creating a
significant push by the center of the corner. Just prior to
qualifying Dennis and
crew
increase the front spring rate which solved the problem. Dennis
qualified 22nd in the 35-car field but knew this
200-lapper usually came down to who had the best car in the final 50
laps. A mid-race break would also give Dennis a chance to fine tune
his setup for a run to the checkers.
As the green flag
flew, in typical Dennis Schoenfeld fashion, he started making steady
progress through the field from his 22nd starting
position. “Once we discovered our front end spring problem, we had
to go back and reverse some of the changes we had made to the rear
end during practice,” Dennis said. “I was somewhat surprised how
good our car was during the first 100-lap segment.” When the caution
came out for the half-way break, Dennis had moved to a very
respectable 15th. The team made the decision to change all four
tires to give Dennis the best performance in the final segment.
At the drop of
the green for segment two, Dennis started from his 15th
position and fell in line to see just how good his setup was. The
four new tires had made Dennis’s race car just a little tighter than
the first set. Dennis was able to find a line that would minimize
the tight condition and settled in until the last 40-50 laps. As the
laps wound down Dennis started making his move inside the top ten.
“Once you put front-runners such as Augie Grill, Bubba Pollard and
Mike Garvey behind you it feels pretty good,” Dennis mentioned in a
post race interview. “As we got down to 10-laps to go we were just
too tight to continue our move into the top five. Finishing 8th
in a field of cars this strong is a great feeling.”
Dennis and crew
felt good with their 8th place finish behind race winner
T. J. Reaid and second generation drivers Chase Elliott (son of Bill
Elliott) and Ross Kenseth (son of Matt Kenseth). “Three top ten
finishes in the last three races is a great confidence boost for the
Dennis Schoenfeld Racing Team as they prepare for the high-banks of
Winchester (October 16-17) and the North/South Shootout at Concord
(November 5-6). “We want to add two more strong finishes as we make
our final run to the 43rd Annual Snowball Derby in
Pensacola December 1-5,” Dennis said.
As always we
would like to thank all of our loyal sponsors, Five Star Bodies,
Kluhsman Racing Components, Rick’s Used Auto Parts, Frost Oil
Company, Comfort Inn of Pensacola Beach, Clickcom.com, Motorsports
Designs, CSM Corporation, Bad Boy Mowers and Schoenfeld Headers.
Stay in touch with our progress at
www.dennisschoenfeld.com.
