When it comes to the actual Ford Fusion, there is a big difference between the road-course No. 95 Leavine Family Racing (LFR) Ford that finished 17th two weeks ago at Watkins Glen International and the short-track car that will race this Saturday in the Irwin Tools Night Race at the Bristol Motor Speedway.
However, when it comes to momentum, everything carries over.
Driver Scott Speed looks to improve on the young team’s best effort in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this weekend, during one of the most-popular short-track races of the season.
“When you are a young team and working with a limited schedule, you have to build a foundation,” the 29-year old Speed said. “We have been doing that, so at our last race at Watkins Glen we began building the structure. Now we have a baseline, something we can work from every time we come to the race track. Our goal is to leave Bristol Motor Speedway with another team-best finish.”
Speed has five career starts at the half-mile track, where his best performance came in 2009, starting third and finishing 15th. This weekend will mark Leavine Family Racing’s second start at Bristol Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Bristol has an additional challenge: it was recently re-configured since the last race on March 18 with the intention of moving the racing groove to the inside lane.
“When they re-paved Bristol last year, it moved the groove to the high side,” crew chief Wally Rogers said. “It really didn’t affect the side-by-side racing too much, but it took away the beating and banging, the bump-and-run. Fans wanted to see a little more action, so they re-did everything to make it more like it was.”
And that means bringing a car that’s equally adept in delivering bumps as taking them. Speed will drive the No. 95 Jordan Truck Sales (JTS) 500 laps under the lights with chassis No. 702.
“There’s a line you have to be careful not to cross at Bristol,” Speed said. “But when you race there for 500 laps it’s hard to keep that in mind. You’re going to get knocked around. But if you can keep your fenders on the car and be around for the last 100 laps, that’s when you’re attitude changes. That’s when you give a lot more than you take.”
Leavine Family Racing will make 17 selected starts this year. The Irwin Tools Night Race, which starts at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC, will kick off a season-ending stretch of nine starts for the team in the final 13 races for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
LFR PR
