Monday
Brian Scott, No. 11 Shore Lodge Toyota Camry Road America Post Race Report
Press Release
Bucyrus 200 at Road America
June 25, 2011
Race Highlights:
- Brian Scott picked up the 13th starting spot for the Bucyrus 200 at Road America in Elkhart, Wis., on Saturday afternoon. A flat-spotted tire however forced the driver of the No. 11 Shore Lodge Toyota to start at the rear of the field for the 50-lap race.
- Scott didn’t let the pre-race setback hold him back as he quickly climbed through the field, moving into the top 25 by lap two.
- As is typical of road course racing, fuel strategies varied up and down pit road. Crew chief Kevin Kidd laid out his own strategy by having Scott stop during the caution on lap eight for a fuel-only pit stop. That pit stop was followed up with another stop for tires and fuel less than 20 laps later on lap 27. Scott returned to pit road one more time before racing resumed on lap 28 to top off the fuel cell. The strategy resulted in Scott being good to go to the end of the race.
- Scott was in the 23rd position when green-flag racing resumed at lap 30, and he steadily climbed through the field. He was up to the fourth position by lap 37 and drove to the lead at lap 39.
- Scott gave up the lead to the very fast Michael McDowell with only seven laps to go in the race. The No. 11 Shore Lodge Toyota team was sitting in third place and poised for a top-five finish when the driver of the No. 41 car spun and brought out the caution with four laps left in the race. The caution resulted in the first attempt at a green-white-checkered flag finish. When racing resumed Scott was punted by the No. 22 car which also took out a number of other top-10 running cars.
- Scott was able to stay on the lead lap and get to pit road for repairs to damage sustained by the contact with the No. 22 car. With four fresh tires, Scott was able to climb back to the 12th position during the last attempt at a green-white-checkered flag finish. Going into the sixth turn Scott was hit from behind by driver Josh Wise and finally limped his way home to a 16th-place finish.
- Reed Sorenson scored the win on Saturday. He was followed across the line by Ron Fellows, Jacques Villeneuve, Elliott Sadler and Mike Wallace to complete the top-five finishers.
- Scott remains ninth in the NASCAR Nationwide Series driver point standings. He is 12 points out of eighth place and 73 points out of the top five. With his win on Saturday Sorenson takes over the top spot in the championship point standings. He owns a five-point lead ahead of Elliott Sadler.
“I am really proud of Kevin Kidd and all of the guys on this Joe Gibbs Racing Team. They put me in a position to be a factor in this race. Unfortunately we just got wrecked by the 22 car while running third. We didn’t get the finish that we wanted but that has kind of been the story of our season. We were in good position though. I think we were going to make it on fuel. Kevin had a really good strategy for this race. It was good to lead some laps and the Shore Lodge Toyota was good all day. We just would have liked to have had a better finish than what we got.”
- Joe Gibbs Racing Press Release
Article Tags: Brian Scott, Bucyrus 200, Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Elliott Sadler, Jacques Villeneuve, JGR, Joe Gibbs Racing, Kevin Kidd, Michael McDowell, Mike Wallace, NASCAR Nationwide Series programs, No. 11 Shore Lodge Toyota Camry, Reed Sorenson, Road America (Wisc.), Ron Fellows
