Bliss Rides Roller Coaster Day to Top-Ten Finish

Brooklyn, MI - The #20 Spectrum Controls / Rockwell Automation Team headed to the Irish Hills of Michigan for the Busch Series lone visit to the two-mile Michigan International Speedway. With a special paint scheme highlighting the 225 Years of Quality of Dodge & Reliance, the team was excited for their chances of the weekend.

The weekend would become a little more difficult as rain moved into the area early Friday morning. In addition to shortening the first practice, the rain forced qualifying and the final practice to be canceled. The #20 car would start according to owner points, in the 11th position.

"Tomorrow will be a challenge," commented Crew Chief Steve Addington. "Tonight we will take our small amount of notes from practice and put our heads together and come up with a plan. In a situation like this, you try to build as much adjustability as possible into your car. Also, everyone else is working from the same disadvantage."

On Saturday, the weather cooperated beautifully. As the cars got ready to take the green, the conditions were sunny with temperatures in the upper 70's. Bliss started strong, picking several positions in the first couple laps. But as the tires started to wear away, the #20 car started losing positions. By lap 20 when the caution flew, Bliss has backpedaled to the 22nd position. As Bliss followed the leaders to pit road, Addington threw a host of changes at the #20 car in an effort to tighten it back up.

Although Bliss picked up a couple positions after the restart, the problem with the car was far from solved. The team used the next set of cautions to continue to pit the car, fill it up with fuel and make several chassis adjustments to tighten the car up. On lap 64, the race restarted with Bliss in the 31st position. As the laps began to tick off, Bliss started to climb the chart. Within 22 laps, Bliss had worked his way up to the 13th position.

With the car now tighten up, Bliss turned to pit road for his final set of tires & adjustments of the day. Returning to the track in the 18th position, he quickly worked his way into the top ten for the first time since the start of the race. Battling hard with the 66 car of Rusty Wallace and the 32 car of David Stremme, Bliss was able to make some big passes in the closing laps and secure the 10th finishing position.

"You can't thank this team enough for their ability not to quit on this," said Mike Bliss following the race. "At the beginning of the race, this car was just horrible. But we kept working on it & came out here with a decent finish. This is my favorite car in our garage; I just think the limited practice car kept us from getting it dialed in."