.Race Review...

Following an off-weekend, the Busch Series teams loaded up and headed to one of the oldest tracks on the NASCAR circuit, Darlington Raceway. The "Lady in Black" continually challenges drivers in their skill and their patience as it forces them to "race the racetrack," then worry about racing their competitors. The motto of the weekend was a quote from Dick Trickle, "In order to finish first, you must first finish."

Darlington Raceway has seen some enhancements since the last visit in September of 2003. The first noticeable difference is the addition of lights to the facility. The second change (and most important to this weekend) was the addition of the "safer barrier" to the turns. Darlington is a race track that is traditionally run close to the wall, and by removing 30 inches from the racing surface, the race was sure to be exciting.

Practice began early Friday morning and the team unloaded in race trim. The #20 car was decent but the crew knew it could still be better. After battling a tight condition all morning, the team prepared the car for qualifying. The adjustments made on the car took it too far in the other direction, making the car way too loose. Bliss's lap would be good enough for the 18th starting position.

"I thought we had a really clean lap and it felt really good through (turns) one & two," commented Mike Bliss. "I just really struggled getting the car through three & four. We have some work to do on Saturday, but if we are patient, I am sure we can work our way up to a top ten finish."

Race-day arrived with beautiful spring conditions. As the temperatures soared in the 70's the crews made their final adjustments and set the cars on the starting grid. At 1:00 p.m. the green flag dropped and Bliss was immediately on the move to the front. During the first 20 laps, Bliss fought hard for positions driving as far up to 14th, but dropping back to 18th by the time the first caution on lap 22.

Bliss reported that the car was extremely tight. So on lap 23, when he followed the leaders to pit road, Crew Chief Steve Addington made some major adjustments by taking out some wedge, changing the air pressure & adding fuel. The #20 team turned around a great stop, picking up 5 positions in the pit and returning Bliss to the track in the 13th position.

"With the Busch Series only allowing three sets of tires under caution, we were going to have to be real smart on when to pit," commented Crew Chief Steve Addington. "Following the leaders was a good strategy and gave us a chance to see how our adjustments from final practice worked out. The pit crew gave us a real good stop. The easiest place to pass cars at Darlington is on pit road."

When the green flag flew again, Bliss went on the move and immediately picked up a position. As he hunted down the 11th place car he continued to increase his lead over the 13th place car. When the caution flew on lap 44, Addington chose to leave Bliss on the track and save the two sets of tires for later in the race.

The race restarted on lap 49 and Bliss patiently drove the #20 Spectrum Controls /Rockwell Automation Chevy around the famed 1.3 mile speedway. As the remaining laps started to wind down, another caution flew on lap 74 for debris. Bliss followed the leaders to pit road for service. Still complaining the car was tight, Addington chose to only to make an air pressure adjustment and return Bliss to the track. Once again the #20 crew was on top of their game and returned Bliss to the track in the 10th position (with 2 cars electing not to pit).

The racing restarted at a furious pace. Bliss had the #20 car on the move, quickly moving up to the 8th position. As he was setting his sights on the 7th place car, the car of Tim Fedewa made contact with the machine of Mike Wallace and the final caution of the day flew. Bliss followed the leaders for his final set of tires and adjustments. The #20 team preformed a good stop, returning Bliss in the 9th position.

The final 43 laps were exciting as several of the frontrunners battled it out. Bliss moved as high as 7th , but as the track conditions began to cool, the car became extremely loose. Bliss was able to hang on to it and bring the car home in the 10th position. The 2002 Busch Series Champion, Greg Biffle, brought his #60 Ford home in the first position.

"Our car was pretty good today," said Bliss after the event. " We seem to start each run extremely tight, but as the tires wore away, we would go to loose. Traditionally, this has not been my best track, but I will take a top 10 and get ready to get after them again next week at Bristol."