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March News Archive
March 19th
Mooresville, N.C.-Mark McFarland had the fastest car and the lead in the late stages of the USAR Hooters Pro Cup season-opening race at USA International Speedway Saturday. Unfortunately, the driver of the No. 81 Sears Auto Center Chevy Impala never saw the checkered flag as an engine problem saddled him with a 25th-place finish in the event.
"We broke a valve spring," said McFarland. "That's pretty unusual. We've broken a valve or rod before, but we never had a valve spring problem before. The engine missed a long time before it finally gave up. We were still able to lead and be competitive. I was really hoping it would make it to the end, but it finally blew up with about 25 laps to go."
McFarland and his Pete Knight Racing team had the hottest iron on the block dominating the practice and qualifying sheets prior to the race on the .75-mile Lakeland, Fla., track. The Winchester, Va., driver and his No. 81s Sears Auto Center Chevrolet got off on the right foot turning in the fastest lap of Saturday's practice session with a lap of 21.460 seconds (125.815 miles per hour average) before backing it up with an even quicker 21.436-second clocking (125.956 mph) to win the pole position for the event.
"We had a real good car," said McFarland. "We tried some different things in practice to help us figure out this new tire we're using this year. I thought we actually left a little bit out there on our qualifying lap, but I knew the car was really, really close and that we'd be good in the race."
Unfortunately, McFarland knew from the drop of the green flag that all was not good with his red, white and blue Sears Auto Center sponsored racer.
"The engine missed all the way to the flag stand," said McFarland of the start of the race. "Michael Ritch got ahead of us on the start and I just fell in and tried to follow him for awhile. I knew right away that something was going on. It just took too long for the car to come up to speed on restarts. I thought it might make it to the end, that it might do it all night because it would always clear up after a couple of laps."
Despite the problem, McFarland was still very much in the mix, surviving slow restarts to battle for the lead. Eventually, McFarland was able to battle his way to the front on a late restart, but the good fortune was short lived as his car's engine expired on Lap 176, just a handful of circuits from the finish.
"I passed Benny Gordon for the lead and then the engine started to give up," said McFarland. "We were still able to lead for awhile, but then on another restart, it just didn't come up to speed. We were hoping to ride it out, but we didn't make it."
While McFarland was disappointed with the subsequent 25th-place finish, he was still upbeat about his team's Lakeland results.
"We have a great team," said McFarland. "We had a bunch of Sears Auto Center people with us in Lakeland and they were very happy to see us on top of the board in practice, win the pole, be competitive and lead the race. We were hoping to get them their first win. It was disappointing not to do that, but we still had a positive weekend. "
McFarland and his No. 81 Sears Auto Center Chevrolet Monte Carlo will next take the green flag in 2008 USAR Hooters Pro Cup action at South Georgia Motorsports Park on Saturday, March 29. The race at the Valdosta, GA area raceway will roll off at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
About Sears, Roebuck and Co.
Sears, Roebuck and Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ:SHLD), is a leading broad line retailer providing merchandise and related services. Sears, Roebuck offers its wide range of home merchandise, apparel and automotive products and services through more than 2,400 Sears-branded and affiliated stores in the United States and Canada, which includes approximately 935 full-line and 1,100 specialty stores in the U.S. Sears, Roebuck also offers a variety of merchandise and services through sears.com, landsend.com and specialty catalogs. Sears, Roebuck offers consumers leading proprietary brands including Kenmore, Craftsman, DieHard and Lands' End - among the most trusted and preferred brands in the U.S. The company is the nation's largest provider of home services, with more than 13 million service calls made annually. For more information, visit the Sears, Roebuck website at www.sears.com or the Sears Holdings Corporation website at www.searsholdings.com.
To find a Sears Auto Center location near you or to shop online, please log on to www.sears.com.
Mooresville, N.C.-Mark McFarland had the fastest car and the lead in the late stages of the USAR Hooters Pro Cup season-opening race at USA International Speedway Saturday. Unfortunately, the driver of the No. 81 Sears Auto Center Chevy Impala never saw the checkered flag as an engine problem saddled him with a 25th-place finish in the event.
"We broke a valve spring," said McFarland. "That's pretty unusual. We've broken a valve or rod before, but we never had a valve spring problem before. The engine missed a long time before it finally gave up. We were still able to lead and be competitive. I was really hoping it would make it to the end, but it finally blew up with about 25 laps to go."
McFarland and his Pete Knight Racing team had the hottest iron on the block dominating the practice and qualifying sheets prior to the race on the .75-mile Lakeland, Fla., track. The Winchester, Va., driver and his No. 81s Sears Auto Center Chevrolet got off on the right foot turning in the fastest lap of Saturday's practice session with a lap of 21.460 seconds (125.815 miles per hour average) before backing it up with an even quicker 21.436-second clocking (125.956 mph) to win the pole position for the event.
"We had a real good car," said McFarland. "We tried some different things in practice to help us figure out this new tire we're using this year. I thought we actually left a little bit out there on our qualifying lap, but I knew the car was really, really close and that we'd be good in the race."
Unfortunately, McFarland knew from the drop of the green flag that all was not good with his red, white and blue Sears Auto Center sponsored racer.
"The engine missed all the way to the flag stand," said McFarland of the start of the race. "Michael Ritch got ahead of us on the start and I just fell in and tried to follow him for awhile. I knew right away that something was going on. It just took too long for the car to come up to speed on restarts. I thought it might make it to the end, that it might do it all night because it would always clear up after a couple of laps."
Despite the problem, McFarland was still very much in the mix, surviving slow restarts to battle for the lead. Eventually, McFarland was able to battle his way to the front on a late restart, but the good fortune was short lived as his car's engine expired on Lap 176, just a handful of circuits from the finish.
"I passed Benny Gordon for the lead and then the engine started to give up," said McFarland. "We were still able to lead for awhile, but then on another restart, it just didn't come up to speed. We were hoping to ride it out, but we didn't make it."
While McFarland was disappointed with the subsequent 25th-place finish, he was still upbeat about his team's Lakeland results.
"We have a great team," said McFarland. "We had a bunch of Sears Auto Center people with us in Lakeland and they were very happy to see us on top of the board in practice, win the pole, be competitive and lead the race. We were hoping to get them their first win. It was disappointing not to do that, but we still had a positive weekend. "
McFarland and his No. 81 Sears Auto Center Chevrolet Monte Carlo will next take the green flag in 2008 USAR Hooters Pro Cup action at South Georgia Motorsports Park on Saturday, March 29. The race at the Valdosta, GA area raceway will roll off at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
About Sears, Roebuck and Co.
Sears, Roebuck and Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ:SHLD), is a leading broad line retailer providing merchandise and related services. Sears, Roebuck offers its wide range of home merchandise, apparel and automotive products and services through more than 2,400 Sears-branded and affiliated stores in the United States and Canada, which includes approximately 935 full-line and 1,100 specialty stores in the U.S. Sears, Roebuck also offers a variety of merchandise and services through sears.com, landsend.com and specialty catalogs. Sears, Roebuck offers consumers leading proprietary brands including Kenmore, Craftsman, DieHard and Lands' End - among the most trusted and preferred brands in the U.S. The company is the nation's largest provider of home services, with more than 13 million service calls made annually. For more information, visit the Sears, Roebuck website at www.sears.com or the Sears Holdings Corporation website at www.searsholdings.com.
To find a Sears Auto Center location near you or to shop online, please log on to www.sears.com.
Engine Woes Stop McFarland
March 19th
Not Even Blown Engine nor Two On-Track Incidents Can Keep Hunter from Lakeland Success
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The United States Postal Service and its carriers have, for years, stood by the oath that, "Neither rain, nor hail, nor sleet, nor snow, nor heat of day, nor dark of night" would keep packages and mail out of mailboxes across the country." No matter how brutal the elements may get, the carriers will make sure everything gets delivered.
While it may not have been weather-related, several elements tried keeping Hunter Robbins from scoring a strong finish in his first USAR Hooters Pro Cup start on March 15 at USA Int'l Speedway in Lakeland, Florida. Rather than letting a blown motor, contact with another car in a hot-lap session and a stack-up in the race keep him from a quality outing, Robbins persisted to score an impressive eighth-place finish as the race's highest-finishing Miller Lite Rookie of the Year Award competitor.
"Luckily we had tested there a while back and we were pretty good with all the things that happened to us," said Robbins. "We were just hoping to go out there Saturday and just shake the car down and feel it out to make sure nothing had really changed on it. It couldn't have been two laps, and the motor just grenaded. It's pretty rare for a Predator engine to do that, so there must have been a malfunction somewhere. But it wouldn't have been so bad if we had a spare motor. We had to pull the spare out of Benny's (Gordon, eventual race winner) car, then pull the blown one out of my car and put the good one in mine, so it took twice as long. We had just enough time to get everything done in time for the hot laps.
"Then we went out there to shake the car down and my spotter had a malfunction with the radio, so I didn't know that another car was right on me. We ended up getting together, but nothing really got messed up. Pit strategy worked out the way we wanted it to, and we got up front. We were just going to ride up there and let the laps count down. Then the guy in front of us missed a shift. We tore the right-front off. We came in and made as many repairs as we could, but the car just wasn't the same. It knocked the toe in and messed up the down force. The car just slowed down tremendously. We still were able to make it up to eighth. If we could've had a few more laps, we probably could've gotten another spot or two."
With all the things that could have spelled doom for Robbins in Lakeland, to come out with a solid top-10 finish in his first-ever Pro Cup race and leading the Rookie of the Year standings, Robbins left the track considering it a success.
"We didn't qualify where we wanted to, but I'm still learning the car. I figured we'd have a good racecar, though, and we did. We want to try to get top-10s. If we can't get top-fives, then we want to say top-10s are what we can fall back on. We were the highest-finishing rookie, so we came out of there leading the Rookie points, so that's a good start to things. It's a good momentum builder for the whole team to say we finished eight, but we all also know we were capable of finishing better than that. Everyone's outlook on the year is pretty bright now."
Next up for Robbins is the March 29 Pro Cup Southern Division event at South Georgia Motorsports Park. For more information on Hunter Robbins, contact Jason Buckley at (704) 788-2134 or visit HunterRobbins.com for more information.
Not Even Blown Engine nor Two On-Track Incidents Can Keep Hunter from Lakeland Success
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The United States Postal Service and its carriers have, for years, stood by the oath that, "Neither rain, nor hail, nor sleet, nor snow, nor heat of day, nor dark of night" would keep packages and mail out of mailboxes across the country." No matter how brutal the elements may get, the carriers will make sure everything gets delivered.
While it may not have been weather-related, several elements tried keeping Hunter Robbins from scoring a strong finish in his first USAR Hooters Pro Cup start on March 15 at USA Int'l Speedway in Lakeland, Florida. Rather than letting a blown motor, contact with another car in a hot-lap session and a stack-up in the race keep him from a quality outing, Robbins persisted to score an impressive eighth-place finish as the race's highest-finishing Miller Lite Rookie of the Year Award competitor.
"Luckily we had tested there a while back and we were pretty good with all the things that happened to us," said Robbins. "We were just hoping to go out there Saturday and just shake the car down and feel it out to make sure nothing had really changed on it. It couldn't have been two laps, and the motor just grenaded. It's pretty rare for a Predator engine to do that, so there must have been a malfunction somewhere. But it wouldn't have been so bad if we had a spare motor. We had to pull the spare out of Benny's (Gordon, eventual race winner) car, then pull the blown one out of my car and put the good one in mine, so it took twice as long. We had just enough time to get everything done in time for the hot laps.
"Then we went out there to shake the car down and my spotter had a malfunction with the radio, so I didn't know that another car was right on me. We ended up getting together, but nothing really got messed up. Pit strategy worked out the way we wanted it to, and we got up front. We were just going to ride up there and let the laps count down. Then the guy in front of us missed a shift. We tore the right-front off. We came in and made as many repairs as we could, but the car just wasn't the same. It knocked the toe in and messed up the down force. The car just slowed down tremendously. We still were able to make it up to eighth. If we could've had a few more laps, we probably could've gotten another spot or two."
With all the things that could have spelled doom for Robbins in Lakeland, to come out with a solid top-10 finish in his first-ever Pro Cup race and leading the Rookie of the Year standings, Robbins left the track considering it a success.
"We didn't qualify where we wanted to, but I'm still learning the car. I figured we'd have a good racecar, though, and we did. We want to try to get top-10s. If we can't get top-fives, then we want to say top-10s are what we can fall back on. We were the highest-finishing rookie, so we came out of there leading the Rookie points, so that's a good start to things. It's a good momentum builder for the whole team to say we finished eight, but we all also know we were capable of finishing better than that. Everyone's outlook on the year is pretty bright now."
Next up for Robbins is the March 29 Pro Cup Southern Division event at South Georgia Motorsports Park. For more information on Hunter Robbins, contact Jason Buckley at (704) 788-2134 or visit HunterRobbins.com for more information.
Nothing Keeps Hunter Robbins From Delivering Eighth In Pro Cup Debut
March 21st
DuBois, PA - Winning the opening race of the 2008 Hooters Pro Cup season Saturday night at Lakeland was an important step for Benny Gordon's effort to repeat as the Pro Cup Champion. Previous runs at the three quarter mile track have been very frustrating for Benny resulting in less than desired outcomes. None of his previous 24 wins in Pro Cup have been at the USA International Speedway. Benny's best finish has been fourth on two occasions. The win on Saturday night could be a predictor this will be a good year for Benny.
"I wanted to start this year out with a strong effort and we had one tonight," said Benny. "I have not started a season with a win, so this is an important accomplishment for our team and our goals for 2008. We have worked hard to be ready for this race and the results tonight show that effort has been rewarded. We did not have the fastest car all night, but we had a strong car that was good on the long runs."
The trip to Lakeland for Benny and the North South Motorsports team started Monday with an early departure from a very cold Pennsylvania, the home base of the team. With only the tractor that pulls the hauler for transportation Benny and four of the crew crammed into the cab and headed south. On the way, they stopped in Mooresville, N.C. to have the new hauler wrapped with the Samuel Metals sponsor colors before departing for Florida. Arriving in Florida on late Tuesday the team had just enough time to catch a few hours of rest before hitting the track on Wednesday assisting with the setup of the No. 6s Goodson Consulting Ford of Hunter Robbins. "We built the car last year for Tracy Goodson and asked me to help get it ready for this race. Wednesday was spent getting it dialed in," said Benny.
Thursday was spent working on both of the No. 66n Samuels Metals, Johnny's Suzuki, ADG, Predator Performance, Murray's Freightliner cars brought to Lakeland. Each car spent time on the track under the careful eye of new crew chief Dan Glauz. "We set both cars up in the shop nearly identical with just a few differences to see which was the better car," said Dan. "After running both we found one has a bit of an edge over the other on this track so we concentrated on tuning it with shocks and springs for the race on Saturday."
Friday was spent getting both cars through technical inspection. "Technical inspection went smoothly with both cars passing on their first trip through. Having both cars inspected puts us ahead of the power curve when we go to South Boston," said Benny. "We know that we have no major issues to fix. We can concentrate our time preparing the cars and testing both at South Boston to find the quicker of the two."
As the team found out it was a very good idea to get to the track early in the week to test because Friday's practice was rained out. "I originally planned to come down Friday and get a few hours on the track after tech inspection. With the rain out it would have been a big problem for us because we would have had just a short time on Saturday's practice to work on only one car."
Clear weather prevailed on Saturday allowing all scheduled events to take place on time. Practice for Benny went well with the No. 66n leading for a brief time and remaining in the top six throughout the 2 hour event. "The car felt good all through the practice," said Benny. "Dan and I continued to work on different combinations until we found a point where the car was solid all around the track and I felt comfortable."
Unfortunately not the same could be said for the No. 6s of Hunter Robbins. An engine failure early in the practice sidelined him in the pits. Members of the North South team split duties between the Gordon pit and the infield helping the Goodson Team with an engine swap. The engine came out of Benny's second car.
After practice, "Dan, my brother Todd and me studied the fuel numbers and came up with several pit strategies," said Benny. "With the new fuel rule of not being able to return to the pit for gas under the same caution flag after changing tires, we had to have several plans that we could adapt as the race played out."
On lap 26, just the second caution flag of the night Benny pulled into the pit for tires. The No. 66n was the first of the top ten cars to stop. "Only one or two others in the field came in with us and this worked out well for us," said Benny. "We had a problem with the jack and it took us longer than normal to change all four. Luckily, it did not hurt us since only a few cars came in at the same time."
On lap 64 the Samuels Metals No. 66n visited pit road for what turned out to be the last stop of the night. "We came in for fuel when many of the others came for tires and that cycled us back near the front of the field ready to go the distance," said Benny. "I was concerned that our tires may not hold up through the end of the race and we may have to come back in to change tires again, but they were great. These BF Goodrich G-Force radials are fantastic. We ran 178 laps on them and they were just about as fast at the end of the race as they were when we put them on."
"This is a great way to start the season," said Benny. "We lead at the half-way, lead the most laps and won the race. I want to thank all of the sponsors; Samuel Metals, Johnny Dangerfield - Johnny's Suzuki, the Automotive Development Group, Predator Performance and Murray's Freightliner for the very important role they play in this team and its success. Without these fine sponsors none of this would be possible."
Benny and the North South Motorsports team will be heading to South Boston for the Northern Division opener April 19th.
About Samuel
The Samuel Company is a family owned metal processing and distributing company headquartered in Ontario, Canada with more than 80 facilities located throughout Canada and the United States and more than 4500 employees. For more information about Samuel, please visit www.samuel.com.
DuBois, PA - Winning the opening race of the 2008 Hooters Pro Cup season Saturday night at Lakeland was an important step for Benny Gordon's effort to repeat as the Pro Cup Champion. Previous runs at the three quarter mile track have been very frustrating for Benny resulting in less than desired outcomes. None of his previous 24 wins in Pro Cup have been at the USA International Speedway. Benny's best finish has been fourth on two occasions. The win on Saturday night could be a predictor this will be a good year for Benny.
"I wanted to start this year out with a strong effort and we had one tonight," said Benny. "I have not started a season with a win, so this is an important accomplishment for our team and our goals for 2008. We have worked hard to be ready for this race and the results tonight show that effort has been rewarded. We did not have the fastest car all night, but we had a strong car that was good on the long runs."
The trip to Lakeland for Benny and the North South Motorsports team started Monday with an early departure from a very cold Pennsylvania, the home base of the team. With only the tractor that pulls the hauler for transportation Benny and four of the crew crammed into the cab and headed south. On the way, they stopped in Mooresville, N.C. to have the new hauler wrapped with the Samuel Metals sponsor colors before departing for Florida. Arriving in Florida on late Tuesday the team had just enough time to catch a few hours of rest before hitting the track on Wednesday assisting with the setup of the No. 6s Goodson Consulting Ford of Hunter Robbins. "We built the car last year for Tracy Goodson and asked me to help get it ready for this race. Wednesday was spent getting it dialed in," said Benny.
Thursday was spent working on both of the No. 66n Samuels Metals, Johnny's Suzuki, ADG, Predator Performance, Murray's Freightliner cars brought to Lakeland. Each car spent time on the track under the careful eye of new crew chief Dan Glauz. "We set both cars up in the shop nearly identical with just a few differences to see which was the better car," said Dan. "After running both we found one has a bit of an edge over the other on this track so we concentrated on tuning it with shocks and springs for the race on Saturday."
Friday was spent getting both cars through technical inspection. "Technical inspection went smoothly with both cars passing on their first trip through. Having both cars inspected puts us ahead of the power curve when we go to South Boston," said Benny. "We know that we have no major issues to fix. We can concentrate our time preparing the cars and testing both at South Boston to find the quicker of the two."
As the team found out it was a very good idea to get to the track early in the week to test because Friday's practice was rained out. "I originally planned to come down Friday and get a few hours on the track after tech inspection. With the rain out it would have been a big problem for us because we would have had just a short time on Saturday's practice to work on only one car."
Clear weather prevailed on Saturday allowing all scheduled events to take place on time. Practice for Benny went well with the No. 66n leading for a brief time and remaining in the top six throughout the 2 hour event. "The car felt good all through the practice," said Benny. "Dan and I continued to work on different combinations until we found a point where the car was solid all around the track and I felt comfortable."
Unfortunately not the same could be said for the No. 6s of Hunter Robbins. An engine failure early in the practice sidelined him in the pits. Members of the North South team split duties between the Gordon pit and the infield helping the Goodson Team with an engine swap. The engine came out of Benny's second car.
After practice, "Dan, my brother Todd and me studied the fuel numbers and came up with several pit strategies," said Benny. "With the new fuel rule of not being able to return to the pit for gas under the same caution flag after changing tires, we had to have several plans that we could adapt as the race played out."
On lap 26, just the second caution flag of the night Benny pulled into the pit for tires. The No. 66n was the first of the top ten cars to stop. "Only one or two others in the field came in with us and this worked out well for us," said Benny. "We had a problem with the jack and it took us longer than normal to change all four. Luckily, it did not hurt us since only a few cars came in at the same time."
On lap 64 the Samuels Metals No. 66n visited pit road for what turned out to be the last stop of the night. "We came in for fuel when many of the others came for tires and that cycled us back near the front of the field ready to go the distance," said Benny. "I was concerned that our tires may not hold up through the end of the race and we may have to come back in to change tires again, but they were great. These BF Goodrich G-Force radials are fantastic. We ran 178 laps on them and they were just about as fast at the end of the race as they were when we put them on."
"This is a great way to start the season," said Benny. "We lead at the half-way, lead the most laps and won the race. I want to thank all of the sponsors; Samuel Metals, Johnny Dangerfield - Johnny's Suzuki, the Automotive Development Group, Predator Performance and Murray's Freightliner for the very important role they play in this team and its success. Without these fine sponsors none of this would be possible."
Benny and the North South Motorsports team will be heading to South Boston for the Northern Division opener April 19th.
About Samuel
The Samuel Company is a family owned metal processing and distributing company headquartered in Ontario, Canada with more than 80 facilities located throughout Canada and the United States and more than 4500 employees. For more information about Samuel, please visit www.samuel.com.
Gordon Scores First Race Win of 2008
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