|
|
|
Houston Gears Up For Mansfield Madness
MOORESVILLE, NC- (May 10, 2004) -As the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
makes its second straight visit to a short half-mile oval, Mansfield
Motorsports Speedway in Mansfield OH, Andy Houston readies himself for the
rigors of close quarters, side by side action that short tracks provide.
Houston, the driver of the No. 2 Team ASE/CARQUEST Dodge, learned his
trade on the short tracks across the South, and he clearly understands the
pitfalls as well as the benefits.
"At times you enjoy it and at times you hate it," Houston said. "It can
get you in trouble from time to time. If you get in certain situations
where you get the fenders beat in or cut a tire down or something like
that it can hurt you. There are a lot of variables on short tracks that
don't come into play with intermediate or superspeedway tracks. If you
beat and bang too much, it can easily adversely affect the performance of
the Team ASE/CARQUEST Dodge. We are going to keep it as straight as we can
for as long as we can."
The upcoming race marks the first visit for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck
Series to the new venue. Houston, like all the other NCTS competitors, has
limited knowledge and zero truck series experience on the Ohio layout.
"I am kind of going into it with the frame of mind of it being kind of
like South Boston." Houston claimed. "It might be a little bit bigger. The
banking seems really similar with a progressive banking to the turns. I
think it is going to be real close to South Boston. We have a NASCAR open
test day set up for the end of next week ,and that is going to help us
determine what we need for a plan of attack. We will have a chance to
baseline our set up on that day and that will certainly help. All race
tracks are unique and a little bit different, but I think that if your
short track program is good and you handle good at a place like South
Boston then you should be pretty close on your setup."
Houston knows that his short track pedigree is not unique in the NASCAR
Craftsman Truck Series garage. Many of the drivers on the circuit cut
their teeth on short tracks across the United States. That leads to tight
fields bunched close together and plenty of action.
"Most everyone in the race will have a significant amount of short track
racing under their belts and that makes it extremely competitive," Houston
said. "All these trucks run real close to the same speed. It will be like
Martinsville where everyone runs real close to the same lap times. We have
a good short track program. I have always run real well on the short
tracks and we have been pretty competitive on those type tracks. I look
forward to running at new race tracks, especially a place like Mansfield
where the grandstands have been sold out for a long time. It is going to
be a very excited crowd that is looking forward to having the NASCAR
Craftsman Truck Series come to their area. Anytime you go to a track and
the grandstands are packed and the fans are excited, it makes for a great
weekend. Our sponsors, Team ASE and CARQUEST, are excited about the race,
and they have a large group of guests that will be there. I would love
nothing more than to win the inaugural event there at Mansfield and try to
put on a great show for the fans."
The UAW-GM Ohio 250 at Mansfield Motorsports Speedway is set to take the
green flag on Sunday May 16th at 2 pm ET. The race will be broadcast live
nationally on the Speed Channel, MRN Radio and XM Satellite Radio. For
more information on The Team ASE/CARQUEST Dodge and driver Andy Houston
visit
www.TeamASE-CARQUEST.com.
|