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Brian Brown- California Swing Comes to a Close!

The western tour with the World of Outlaws came to a close for Brian Brown and the Casey’s General Stores/FVP #21 last weekend at the FVP Western Spring Shootout in Stockton, California. Things looked good for the Grain Valley, Missouri driver on Friday night, as he led much of the feature before checkering seventh. The team returns to the Midwest this week for the $10,000 Park City Cup/Air Capital Shootout this weekend at 81 Speedway near Wichita, Kansas.

You started out the night well with fourth quick in Stockton on Friday.

-I’ve said it a lot this year, but Charlie Garrett worked really hard on our engines and we’ve qualified better than we ever have. Hat’s off to my guys as well. Chad (Morgan), Michael (Williams) and Wyatt (Burks). We went out and hot-lapped and we were 25th quick. They made wholesale changes. To have three guys who haven’t worked together that long put their heads together…I was very pleased. Qualifying sets the tone for your whole night.

That put you on the pole of your heat.

-Stockton hasn’t been one of my best tracks. It’s a great facility and a great track, but to go out and get fourth quick was great. We were able to get the lead in the heat and then Shane got by us. We achieved our goal, which was making the Dash.

You won that from the front row.

-We were lucky enough to have a fan draw us the eight for inversion. That put us up front, and we were able to win that. The car was really good.

You definitely took off early in the feature.

-The track was predominantly around the bottom. We were able to get out into the lead. As the race went on, we were really good off the turn two and turn four corners. Not to make any excuses at all, but someone hit an infield tire and it got knocked about a half-car length into turn two.

And that changed your line?

-It changed my whole exit to the corner. It changed the way my car reacted. From that point on, it got worse. We got in behind traffic, and I really slowed my pace down trying to make the right decisions. I made some bad decisions, and with guys like Donny Schatz, Brad Sweet and Shane Stewart…those guys are the best of the best…anytime you hesitate, they are going to push the issue. Our car wasn’t as good as it should have been the last fifteen laps, and I definitely wasn’t as good as I needed to be.

Still, you were able to finish seventh.

-We were able to lead some laps. It just didn’t work out. Those are the nights that are toughest to swallow. Going from 15th to seventh would have been a good night, but going from the lead to seventh is something else. We learned a lot going forward. The tire coming on the track…everyone else figured out how to get around it. I just need to do a better job as a driver no matter what the circumstances are.

Things didn’t go as well in time trials on Saturday. You were 17th quick.

-We didn’t make it happen qualifying for the first time this year. The heats are a battle. Whether it’s a battle for the Dash, or any position. We were back battling for sixth, seventh and eighth. Any of those cars could have won the heat. It was tough. We were happy just to make the show (sixth).

Did you change the car for the feature?

-There have been a lot of things we wanted to try on the trip like the wide tire. We really haven’t. We’ve been in position for solid finishes, and we didn’t want to mess that up. This was a circumstance where we could try four or five things. We learned some things, made some laps, and went on down the road.

I know you look forward to the nights when FVP is sponsoring the race.

-We always want to do the best we can when the FVP folks are there. We had a solid night on Friday, and we were behind the 8-ball on Saturday and couldn’t dig ourselves out. That being said, it was great to have over two hundred FVP customers and employees there. The World of Outlaws do a tremendous job of hosting those people. There were “meet and greets” and some trailer tours. It was a great event again.

You have to be excited to be racing closer to home this Friday and Saturday.

-We’re looking forward to getting home and getting to Wichita this weekend. We’ve been on the west coast the last few years and haven’t been able to get back for it. It’s turned into a big event. It started at $3,000 to win, then moved to $5,000 and $7,500. Now it’s $10,000 and two nights. There will be a lot of tough drivers there and we’ll need to have our elbows up.

Follow Brian on the Web, Twitter and Facebook!

Follow Brian at his website located at www.BrianBrownRacing.com!

Also keep up with FVP, Casey’s and Brian on Facebook and Twitter at the following links…

Twitter Links – @BrianBrown21, @FVPRacing, @CaseysGenStores

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