Riding With A Rookie: Chris Bingham
by Chris Bingham-Staff Writer and Busch Series Driver
03/06/2003

Hello Race Fans -

The NASCAR Busch Series headed to Las Vegas Motor Speedway last weekend to compete in our third event of the season and the second race of my career. After our tough luck at Rockingham, we were hoping for the best in Las Vegas.

For the second week in a row, we had to deal with the weather. Rain had moved into the Las Vegas area on Friday, shattering any hopes of practice. We would meet the same fate in qualifying as rain had continued to come down and we would start 28th based on Jay Robinson’s 2002 Car Owner points.

The skies would open up and we would get on the track for some evening practice. We struggled with the car; we didn't hit the right set-up. When we came in the front of the car was planted too much causing the front valance to scrape. We made some shock adjustments, and some other adjustments to the car, but we never quite got it that night.

The accident between Jamie McMurray and Michael Waltrip put an end to the session early on. It did not leave us enough time to find the right set-up. We knew going into the race the next day the weather conditions were going to be different, and we were gambling on what would be the best set-up for the race. Really, we never had the right set-up for the car.

We would place 39th on the speed charts with a speed of 157.068 which was a lap time of 34.380

Heading into the race on Saturday afternoon we were optimistic. Really, not knowing what we had for a set-up, we spent the first fuel run staying out of the way of the other drivers and trying to figure out what adjustments we needed to make to get the car stable through the corners. The overall goal was to run the whole race. Second, we wanted to get valuable seat time and learn as much as possible. Finally, get the best finish possible.

We took the green flag shortly after 4:00pm EST for the Sam’s Town 300. From the start the car was terrible. We tried to make adjustments to it as we were going, but nothing we tried seemed to make much of a change to the car throughout the whole race. It was difficult, I was out there and I was very frustrated. People were going around me and with what I had to work with, I was just trying to stay out of the way

We made adjustments during the course of the first pit stop, hoping to improve the handling on the car.

While we were not having the best run, one of the goals was to finish the race. Unfortunately, we were not able meet that goal on Saturday.

On lap 109, all I know is I was coming out of turn 4, running down the straightaway, and suddenly I'm sideways looking straight into the wall. The last thing I knew is Bobby Hamilton Jr. took me out of the race. I know it was one of those racing things. He was there, racing me, and must have taken the air off the spoiler and got me turned around”.

We had a hard impact and obviously we were done for the day. I hate it for our sponsor Reality Entertainment and the entire team. We all deserved better than this.

The final standings left us 37th out of 43 starters, completing just a little over half way (109/200 laps)

The series takes this weekend off, but we return to action a week from Saturday as we head to Darlington Speedway. We will be there with a Yates engine; and will be running the car we ran at Rockingham.

We had a really good car after we got the ignition problem fixed on it. Once we were running on all 8 cylinders, we turned in some pretty good lap times.

We will be going to Darlington and do some testing this week and see what happens. I know it’s a tough track, a lot like Rockingham. I am excited because we will be taking the Rockingham car with the Yates engine and I have driven it before. I am especially excited because, I will be able to go there and test ahead of time.”

I am looking forward to having Yates power in the car. Our team is in a transition period. We are making some changes and we all have a lot to learn. I am looking forward to getting through this rain period, where we can get in some testing and getting in all of our practice time before having to go out and qualify It.

The Darlingtonraceway.com 200 will be run on Saturday Match 15th and will be starting at 1:00pm EST.

I’ll be back after Darlington with another column, hopefully with some great news from Darlington.

Take Care,

Chris Bingham

You can reach Chris Bingham at: cbingham@catchfence.com