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Houston Ready To Tango With Texas
Team ASE/CARQUEST Dodge Driver Looks For First Longhorn State Win
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Emmett Byrd
704.792.2091 (office)
704.425.3262 (cell)
emmettbyrd@aol.com
MOORESVILLE, NC- (June 7, 2004) -Hoping to build momentum coming off a
seventh place finish at Dover, Andy Houston and his Team ASE/CARQUEST
Dodge crew cast a welcoming eye toward this weekend's NASCAR Craftsman
Truck Series event at Texas Motor Speedway. The 1.5-mile quad-oval has
been kind to the 33 year-old Hickory, NC native. Houston won the pole for
last fall's race and finished fifth, and he sees no reason for that trend
not to continue.
"In the past Texas has been very, very good to me," Houston said. "I have
never finished out of the top ten there in a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
race. We want to keep that streak alive definitely. We went there last
fall and sat on the pole and ran good during the race so all of that is
encouraging. Plus we had a great test at Texas a couple of weeks ago, so I
am really looking forward to getting back down there and seeing what this
team can do. We want to defend our pole and we are excited about getting
the chance to do that. One of the big reasons that you get excited about
Texas is because of the crowd. They always have big crowds with lots of
enthusiastic fans and that makes it fun to race there."
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has already made stops at Texas Motor
Speedway's two sister venues, Atlanta and Charlotte, during the course of
the 2004 season. While somewhat similar to those two quad-oval layouts,
Texas has subtle differences that Houston hopes will yield a better finish
this weekend.
"Texas has more grip than Atlanta and Charlotte," Houston claimed. "It is
a lot smoother than those two tracks. The groove usually stays on the
bottom. Some drivers like Brendan Gaughan have had some success running
the high line over the past few races. It does seem like the groove has
started to widen out a little bit but I think the fast way is going to be
right at the bottom of the racetrack. There are two separate grooves so
you can run with somebody side by side if you need to. I like Texas - it's
fast, really fast and smooth, and it is laid out very well and for some
reason I have just always been really really comfortable there. The
racetrack tends to tighten up especially off of turn four. You need to
have a truck that turns good up off the corner. Turns one and two are a
lot different. It has quite a bit of banking and there is a lot of room to
run off of turn two because the turn tends to sweep out. Turns three and
four are real tight and if you can get your truck to turn there, you can
make up a lot of time on that part of the track. That makes the front
straight real long and you can set people up to pass getting into one and
two."
Houston and his Team ASE/CARQUEST Dodge crew learned several important key
elements for success at Texas during their most recent test session at the
Longhorn state track. Even though things constantly change with body
template adjustments and varying tire compounds, Houston has learned
things can still remain the same.
"I learned that the things we have done there in the past still seem to
work pretty good there," Houston said. "We were pretty close set-up wise
to what we ran when we won the pole there last fall. The track hasn't
changed that much, the new body styles haven't changed how you drive it
that much and the tires haven't changed it that much, so it is still the
same old Texas Motor Speedway. I have a lot of confidence in my ability to
run well there and in this Team ASE/CARQUEST Dodge crew's ability to run
good there."
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway is slated
for Friday June 11th. The event will be broadcast live by the Speed
Channel, MRN Radio and XM Satellite Radio at 8:00pm ET.
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