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Brian Brown Overcomes Vibration to Make 10th Career Knoxville Nationals Main Event

(Photo by Paul Arch)

Inside Line Promotions – KNOXVILLE, Iowa (Aug. 15, 2018) – Brian Brown earned a spot into the famed Knoxville Nationals A Main for the ninth time in the last 10 years and the 10th time in his career, but it couldn’t have been much more of a struggle to accomplish that feat last weekend at Knoxville Raceway.

Brown kicked off the 58th annual 5-Hour Energy Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey’s General Stores last Thursday by qualifying 38th quickest after being one of the final drivers to hit the track.

“It started off with a not so great pill draw, but the track was still around there when we went out to qualify,” he said. “Before that we went out to hot lap and had ran this car a month ago at Knoxville. We had a bad, bad vibration. We came in and changed all four tires. It was as bad or worse where we couldn’t even see. We felt like at that point we might have had an engine issue. Being 38th quick wasn’t normal for us either. We called it a night and knew we had the Hard Knox Night on Friday.

“The guys went to work and changed the engine, rear end, driveline, anything that could cause a vibration. We went out to hot lap on Friday and the vibration was still there. We changed the fuel pump, the fuel tank, anything we could try to find. We went out to qualify and it was still vibrating. At that point we were still scratching our head.”

Brown opened Friday’s Hard Knox Night by setting quick time in his group, but the vibration persisted.

“Someone recommended we look into the front tires again,” he said. “We spun the tires and they were out of round. We had three sets of out of round tires in the same batch. It was very, very disappointing. It was something that was out of our control. We have to run the tires they give us and they were out of round. We’ll just have to balance them and keep better track of them. Hoosier has been great. They came and got the tires, but that doesn’t help the fact that it hurt our qualifying night.”

Once the problem was remedied Brown quickly charged from fourth to win a heat race, which lined him up on the outside of the front row for the A Main.

“I think it showed that we had car speed,” he said. “Even in the feature me and Logan (Schuchart) had a really good race going. It got to a point where I felt like I’d been running the tires pretty hard and I should calm down. You never want to settle for second, but second was just as good as first on that night.”

Brown led part of the race before finishing in the runner-up position, which locked him into the 18th starting position for Saturday’s 50-lap finale.

“Starting 18th we had to keep our car free to not be too tight in dirty air,” he said. “We overcompensated and weren’t any good. Then we looked down at the gauge (during a caution) and the engine was overheating so at that point there was no sense in continuing. We had enough stuff happen that weekend.”

Brown pulled off the track early and was credited with a 25th-place finish.

“Our goal was to get ourselves in the top two or three rows come Saturday night and see what happens, but it didn’t work out this year,” he said. “As a car owner I couldn’t be more proud if we won the race than to continue chasing down a problem and to not get negative. It’s easy after the first wave of changing everything to throw the towel in. Not one of our guys did that. I’m proud of the whole team for not giving up and continuing working. I’ve never seen a group of guys change as much and work as hard in a two-hour period as they did on Friday. At the end of the day we did make the A Main at the Knoxville Nationals. The sun came up on Sunday and life goes on. That’s the way we have to look at it.”

QUICK RESULTS –

Aug. 9 – Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa – Qualifying: 38; Heat race: DNS (1); B Main: DNS (-).

Aug. 10 – Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa – Qualifying: 1; Heat race: 1 (4); Feature: 2 (2).

Aug. 11 – Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa – Feature: 25 (18).

SEASON STATS –

47 races, 8 wins, 23 top fives, 25 top 10s, 33 top 15s, 38 top 20s

UP NEXT –

TBD

MEDIA LINKS –

Website: http://www.BrianBrownRacing.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianBrown21

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Brian-Brown-Racing-200630163294222/

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – ButlerBuilt Professional Seat Systems

ButlerBuilt Professional Seat Systems was founded in the early 1980s and since has designed and built custom aluminum race car seats for nearly every racing application imaginable. For more information, visit http://www.ButlerBuilt.net.

“I’ve taken some rough tumbles over the years,” Brown said. “ButlerBuilt has been along for the ride and has always kept me safe so that’s why we choose ButlerBuilt Professional Seat Systems.”

Brown would also like to thank Casey’s General Stores, FVP, Impact Signs, Awnings, Wraps, Champion Brands, MC Power, Weld Wheels, Rams Racing, Ditzfeld Transfer, Maxim Racing, Fischer Body Shop, Smiley’s Racing Products, J.D. Welding & Machine, MSD Ignition, Housby, Next LED Sports, Hope for the Warriors, Factory Kahne Shocks, C & M Lawn & Landscape, Arctic Cat, Lincoln Electric, K&N Filters, www.HostIowa.net, FSR Racing Products, Ti64, ATL Tanks, Wolfe Eye Clinic, Bell Helmets, Hinchman Uniforms, Clem’s Helmets, Vortex Wings, Penray, All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads, AkzoNobel, Kenny’s Components, Snap-On Tools, Rod End Supply, KSE Racing Products, Winters Performance, Cometic Gaskets, Donovan, ISC Racers Tape, Kinsler Fuel Injection, Racing Optics, 5-hour ENERGY, Hoosier Tires, NGK Spark Plugs, XYZ Machining, Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, Red Devil Brakes, Schoenfeld Headers, 6B Apparel, Garrett Racing Engines and Fortress Wealth Management for their continued support.

INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –

Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations and media management for motor sports drivers, teams, sponsors, tracks, series, events, organizations and manufacturers. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and the return on investment for your sponsors.

To meet the media relations needs of your program by joining Team ILP, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or Shawn@InsideLinePromotions.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit http://www.InsideLinePromotions.com.

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