Tim Bainey Jr.'s homecoming to the state of Pennsylvania was hoped to be a great one for the driver of the new Greased Lightning Ford Saturday Night in Jennerstown, PA.

Things looked good for the team in the afternoon's practice session. Bainey Jr. was 9th on the speed chart, and with a few adjustments before qualifying he looked to be within striking distance of capturing his first ever Advanced Auto Parts Pole Award in the series.

The team would also have the advantage of going late in the afternoon's qualifying round. As the track cools off late in the day it usually proves to give those teams with a late draw a little bit of speed, so things were really looking good for the team.

As the team rolled Bainey Jr's car down pit road onto the starting grid a trail of oil was noticed under the rear of the Greased Lightning Car. After an inspection by the team and the series officials it was discovered that a seal was leaking from the rearend of the car. The team's only option was to pull the car out of line and fix the problem, relegating them to take a provisional and start from the rear of the field.

Bainey Jr. would start from the 24th position for the evening's event. It wouldn't take long for Bainey Jr. to start working his way up through the pack. He quickly moved up into the top 20 and was working his way towards the top 15. Then on lap 20 as he made a move to the outside of Jimmy Spencer Jr. coming off turn 2, Spencer's #36 would bobble then slide up the track forcing Bainey Jr. up into the outside wall.

As the race went back to green it was apparent that extensive damage had been done to the front suspension of Bainey Jr's car. He would bring the Greased Lighting Ford to the attention of his crew and they would make a few repairs. The Greased Lightning Team would send Bainey Jr. back to the track and bring him in under the next few cautions to try and make minor repairs to fix the car. After all the work the team had done on the car, it was still not quite up to speed and Bainey Jr. brought the car behind pit wall for the final time after completing just 82 laps of the event.

Bainey Jr. would finish the event a tough 22nd for the night. "It was a tough night," said Bainey Jr. "The car was so good in today's practice, it was pretty disappointing that we didn't have a chance to take a lap in qualifying. When we started the race I knew it was fast, we just had to take our time. I was being pretty cautious and thought he was giving me a lane up off of turn 2, but I don't really know - he pushed up the track and then we were in the wall. It's disappointing but there isn't much you can do about it, stuff like that happens."

"It have to thank Greased Lightning for doing this deal with us, we had a
rough night but we will be back. I was pretty sure we could come home and put on a great show for everyone - so now we will just look forward to the next one."

You can watch the USAR 250 from Jennerstown this Thursday Night on the Speed Channel at 8:00 pm, and again Friday at noon. Keep up with Tim Bainey Jr. and the Greased Lightning Team at www.timbaineyjr.com for information on the team's upcoming events as well as pictures, articles, and updates.