GFS Marketplace 400

August 20, 2006
Brooklyn, MI

Derrike and the McGlynn Racing team are back in action this weekend at Michigan. Derrike said, "After taking a few weeks off we are headed back to Michigan. This time off has provided the time necessary to get one of the Dodge Chargers ready that we have never run before. It is a really nice car with what I think could be one of the better aero packages that the team has in their stable of cars. We will be going there with the similar type of setups that teams are currently using. This is what they call a coil bind setup. We feel it is getting more competitive and to get back to where we were, we need to find some more speed. I am hoping that we will have the right balance in the car and we can get a feel for this coil binding with a minimal amount of problems. With not knowing the tendencies of this new Charger, we will have to be ready to make the right adjustments quickly to maximize the amount of practice time. We ran our first Charger at Dover with a lot of success. The car was a lot looser than I had expected there, so there is added down force in the front end, so hopefully it will be a positive element for Michigan.

"The crew has worked very hard to try and take all the necessary steps to ensure that we are prepared with this new combination. Additionally, we have a fresh engine in the car. We did have a problem with the engine at Pocono and did not know it. Hopefully the weather is good and we can have a good setup right off the truck. There is a lot of good competition going to Michigan so we will have to be very productive."

In the first practice, Derrike was 36th fastest with a time of 39.712 and speed of 181.305.

In Qualifying, Derrike produced his fastest lap of 39.304 with a speed of 183.188. At the end of the round, this put the #74 Dodge in 34th position where Derrike will start the race.

After qualifying Derrike said, "I have to say that I am very pleased with the effort today and the result of the lap that the Sundance Vacations/Royal Administration Dodge Charger produced. We unloaded pretty well. The first lap was decent and we worked hard throughout practice looking for a good balance. We struggled being good in 1 and 2 but too tight in turns 3 and 4. When it came to qualifying I maybe overdrove turn 1 a little trying to be aggressive but hit turns 3 and 4 pretty good, and I was pretty pleased with the result. The crew did a great job preparing the car and this new setup seemed to work well for us. I am looking forward to practice which starts at 9:00am on Saturday."

In the second practice, Derrike was 41st fastest with a time of 41.400 and speed of 173.913. In Happy Hour, he was 39th fastest with a time of 40.630 and speed of 177.209.

After Saturday's practices, Derrike said, "Both practice sessions were learning experiences for us. We started out very loose in the first practice. We had rain, but I feel that we just needed to find the cars tendencies in race trim and begin finding a balance and what it wanted. We picked up quite a bit in the second session. We never put any sticker tires on the car so I feel like we had another three tenths to half a second in the car as far as posting a fast lap on paper. For the most part, the car was turning pretty well. With the Busch race and probably some sun tomorrow the conditions will be quite different. We will have to assess the weather and make some calculated guesses and go for it! I am looking forward to racing here at Michigan tomorrow. Hopefully we will have a good solid day, and the crew will get to do some pit stops and we can produce a finish."

Derrike started the race in 34th position and finished in 34th.

After the race Derrike said, "Our effort at Michigan was surely a learning experience. We ran the coil bind setup in the race for the first time, and by our results we definitely have a bit to learn about how to adjust the car with it. Although I have to say that it was great to have figured it out for qualifying, but our choices for the race were compounded by a number of factors. One was weather. We practiced in all cool and cloudy conditions, and raced in sunny weather. I think we were too aggressive in some areas like shocks, that kind of boxed us in on the setup and we were unable to overcome it. The car was very picky and maybe we were making a number of changes to try and rectify the problems and kept over adjusting. But we need to start somewhere and this was it! We did finish...34th, so not all was lost. I am obviously expecting more out of us and hopefully we will continue to get better. But kudos to the team for the whole effort this weekend. It was surely an improvement over the prior weeks, so a little time off to regroup proved to be the right decision.

"It is off to Bristol this weekend. We will be taking the Dodge Charger that we ran successfully at Dover. It is a concrete car. We did not get the chance to qualify there in the spring because of snow, so hopefully we can continue the success we had at Michigan. I enjoy racing at Bristol. There the aero is not quite as important and the setups are a bit more conventional. I look forward to the task ahead of us. Friday night is qualifying so it will not be long. I cannot wait.

"It looks like at this point we will not go to California and will resume our efforts back at Richmond and Loudon, NH."