June 6, 1999 – Kevin Cywinski Runs To Career-High Third At Bristol

Kevin Cywinski, #31 Auto Trim Design Ford F-150:
(started 19^th, finished third) “This Auto Trim crew gave
me a super truck last year and they gave me the same thing this
year. I couldn’t be happier. This is my one-year anniversary with
Brevak Racing and we had a bunch of fans in the stands tonight from
Auto Trim Design. They saw a good show. The crew did a super job
getting this Ford F-150 out front all night long. My crew did a lot
of the passing for me. I have to give it all to them. This crew is
fabulous. They could go work for any Busch or Winston Cup team.
They get me out probably as fast as anyone is the truck series right
now. They love to practice pit stops and they take pride in it.
Every race when we start, I tell them what they have to give me and
they usually do it. We had a really fast truck. We knew it after
happy hour last night. It’s just one of those things where we have
to pick up our qualifying efforts a little bit. Maybe we can start
from the front instead of coming from the back all the time. The
team is on a high right now and we’ll just carry it on down the
road.”

Kevin Cywinski: DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE GETTING PRETTY CLOSE
TO YOUR FIRST WIN? “We really do. We set our goals pretty high
this year and we wanted to run in the top 10 in points and win a
race. We’ve gone to quite a few tracks this year where we thought
we could do that and Bristol was one of them. I think that if we
consistently finish in the top five and top 10, we’ll get our win
here shortly.” ARE YOU STILL LEARNING WITH THIS TEAM? “Yes we are.
This is our one-year anniversary. Bristol was our first race with
the team last year. We’re finally starting to get back to some
tracks that we’ve been to before. The team is starting to see what
I like and our communication is getting a lot better. You can
really tell that things are getting better. We’ll be a team to
contend with in the near future.”

Kevin Harvick, #98 Porter-Cable Power Tools Ford F-150:
(started fifth, finished sixth) “It was a pretty good
day for the Porter-Cable Ford. We’ve been off a little bit the past
couple of weeks on these banked tracks. We’re really looking
forward to going to Texas. But it’s Bristol and we didn’t wreck so
we’ll take the finish and the points. It’s been a long weekend and
the guys carried us through it. They worked their tails off
yesterday to get me out to qualify and they did a super job on our
stops today. We had to change a lot on the truck this weekend, so
my hats off to them.”

Lonnie Rush, #27 Hastings Premium Filters Ford F-150:
(started 18th, finished eighth) “This is a just like a win for me
with this team. When we left I-70, the Hastings Ford team was
lacking a little bit on manpower. I realized after that race that I
was driving for a real racer in Mike Albernaz. We needed some help
and we got it today with our pit crew guys. We knew that we could
run in the top 10. We might not have qualified on the pole but we
did a great job in the race.”

Greg Biffle, #50 Grainger Ford F-150: (started first,
finished ninth) “It was definitely an up and down day for us. I
thought I was done making all the rookie mistakes but I got turned
around on the green flag. Mike (Wallace) was pinching me really low
and my teammate Mike (Bliss) told me that I got held down so low
that I got one wheel down on the apron. That’s what got the truck
turned around on the green flag. I thought it was just me. Things
happen so fast here. I was gauging my position off of where Mike
(Wallace) was. I was not going to hit him. But the Grainger guys
did a great job getting the toe reset and getting the toe boards
out. I just drove my butt off to get back on the lead lap and to
take care of my tires. When I was back in 15^th, I was
just back there riding because I knew the guys would make it up on
the pit stops. I just tried to stay on the lead lap and have a
chance at the end.”

Mike Wallace, #2 Team ASE Racing Ford F-150: (started
second, finished 14^th) “There is not much to say.
Those of you that watched it on film can see what happened. Early
in the race we were trying to race smart. We’ve got a lot of
experience and we know that you can’t race every lap. I moved up
the racetrack to leave a blue truck underneath me and he turns me
getting into (turn) three. And that got us to the back. I guess
that black truck that got turned us around at the end of the race
got spun out early. But he came back with fresh tires and I was on
the bottom of the racetrack blocking the bottom of the track like
you’re supposed to do. He could have gone to the outside very easy
but it was cheap shot for him to turn us around and wreck us. I
feel really bad for Team ASE and our Ford F-150. We had a good
truck. They say that this series is full of tough trucks and tough
drivers so we’ll just have to see what happens later on down the
road.”

Ron Barfield, #55 Icehouse Beer Ford F-150: (started
14th, finished 11th)”We survived Bristol. That’s the story tonight.
We didn’t have the best truck. We were loose from the time the
truck came off the hauler. I got tighter but it never fixed the
problem of getting off the corners. I just couldn’t carry any
speed down into the corner. This Icehouse team made some changes
this week. My new crew chief, Chris Andrews did a good job and
we’re looking forward to Texas.”