Riding With A Rookie: Chris Bingham
by Chris Bingham-Staff Writer and Busch Series Driver
04/04/2003

Hi Race Fans -

First, we have been reorganizing a little bit at Jay Robinson Racing. I have been testing a lot, and working with great new people. So, I apologize for the lack of columns recently. However, I am confident that everything at JRR is back to normal. The NASCAR Busch Series was off to Texas Motor Speedway last weekend and it was my first trip to TMS. Our goal was simple, I wanted to log as many laps as possible and bring the team a good finish in my first effort at Texas.

Coming from Road Racing, you enter the corners much different than you do in a Stock Car. We carry brakes into a corner, then get back in the throttle as soon as possible to carry speed through the corner, because of the downforce on those types of cars, it's important to carry the throttle through the corner. It's a lot different in Stock Car racing, where you carry the car into the corner, roll out of the throttle and then pick it up again past the apex.

We struggled in the A.M. session. However, It was during Happy Hour after watching the other competitors I picked up the right line and throttle points, which in turn enabled us to pick up a 1/2 second each of the four times we went out during Happy Hour.

I was pleased with the end of the session because I logged a time of 30.2 in the race trim. I think we could have run a mid 29 with what we had, but there is no sense of pushing it right before the race. We had a good race setup, and were hoping for the best in the race.

I wished we would have had the opportuinty to come to Texas Motor Speedway and test, before Thursday, as I felt it would have given us an advantage.

Again, we had one goal to run clean and to stay out of trouble and to finish the race. During the race, the only problem was there was a slight vibration in the tires so we had to make a green flag pit stop, which hurt us a ton. Unfortunately, when I came in the car fell off the jack and we lost six laps. Other than that, we were consistent.

We didn't have Yates engines at Bristol Motor Speedway, however we did have them at Texas. The motor at Texas was great and look forward to having them under the hood for the rest of the year.

The NASCAR Busch Series heads off to Talladega Superspeedway this weekend. I am disappointed that we are not going to be able to run at Talladega because at the beginning of the season, I ran the ARCA RE/MAX series event at Daytona and tested at Talladega hoping that NASCAR would approve us to race. Because, of circumstances last year NASCAR has decided to enforce their approval process. But, I'll be there cheering on Derrike and the team.

I'll be back in two weeks after the BGN race from Nashville to let you all know about my exciting experience at that incredible facility.

Until Then, Take Care

Chris Bingham

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