Tim Bainey Jr. and Greased Lightning Racing Team Lose Engine at Shenandoah

Tim Bainey Jr. and the Greased Lightning Racing Team added another tough night to their 2006 season, suffering a blown engine during the “Farmer’s Foods 250” Thursday night in Shenandoah, VA.

“I think we’re having our share of what most people call ‘bad luck’ right now,” said Tim Jr. after the night’s event.

“It’s a tough way to start the season with 2 DNFs (did not finish) in 3 races,” Tim Jr. continued. “There isn’t much you can do about it, except take it – and look forward to the next race. We’ve had really good cars, we’re fast, and I feel good about that. But getting caught up in a wreck or having an engine let go, that kind of stuff is out of our control – so we have to just keep our heads up – and keep on going.”

After being in the top-10 for most of the afternoon’s practice session, Tim Jr. qualified the #15 Greased Lightning Ford 23^rd for the nights 250 lap event.

“We had a little problem with the air pressure,” said Crew Chief Dan Bainey. “We brought all new rims to this race, and by the end of the night we had a problem with 3 of them not holding air pressure. Our right rear lost pressure in qualifying and it really tightened the car up on Timmy. I’ve never seen that happen before, but it’s something we will make sure to keep an eye on in the future.”

 

The Greased Lightning Ford looked good in the early going. Tim Jr. was working his way through the field early in the race when contact with another car would cut down his left rear tire, forcing the team to make an early pit stop and start at the back of the field on the restart.

It wouldn’t take long for him to start working his way back up through the field.

“The car was really good,” Tim Jr. said, “but then it fell off real quick – so we brought it to pit road to find another tire loosing pressure. The guys got it changed, checked things over, and we were really good again. It was a busy night for the crew, but they did a great job doing what needed to be done.”

It was lap 147, just after a restart when the engine would let go.

“He was coming off turn 2 and radioed us that it shut off,” said Crew Chief Dan. “It was dumping water out the exhaust, so our night was over. It wasn’t what we wanted to see, but there isn’t much you can do about things like that – we’ll have to see what they tell us about the engine on Monday.”

The #15 Greased Lightning Ford would end the night with a 26^th place finish, dropping them to 21^st in the Championship Point Standings.

You can watch the “Farmers Foods 250” Wednesday Night at 5:00 pm est. on the Speed Channel.