PIR is final chance to get elusive COT victory in 2007

The Miller Lite Racing team is down to two races and looking to get another win before the season is over. This weekend in Phoenix marks the last COT race of the year, and we set a goal way back in February to win one of these races.

We feel we'll be strong out in the desert and look for the breaks to fall our way Sunday. We'll continue to focus on the positives from this season -- our 2 car has gotten the second most bonus points (125) of any driver, trailing only the 24 car (Jeff Gordon), and we've led laps in 20 of the 34 races and led the most laps five times.

It just shows how strong our cars have been all year. If we can only correct some problems and avoid the bad luck that has been plaguing us, we'll start seeing the results we expect ...

A Familiar Pattern

There have been quite a few races this year when we've had a better car than our finish indicated, and Texas was no different. We clearly had a top-three car for most of the race, but found our way into some bad luck again, this time with a couple of tire issues from the mid-point of the race on.

After all was said and done, we finished eighth and remained in ninth in the Nextel Cup points standings. Positions 5-12 are pretty bunched up, and we're looking to finish with a couple of strong races and sneak into the top-five.

After running well in practice Friday, we drew position one for qualifying, which was actually the first time I had ever gone out first in qualifying. The Miller Lite Dodge put in a really solid lap, and we held our position in the top three until late in qualifying, when three more cars topped our speed. We were definitely happy to be sixth after being first on the track to qualify.

We came back to the track Saturday and had a solid early practice, then got pretty dialed in during Happy Hour, so much so that we came in for the final twenty minutes of practice. We posted the second-fastest time of the session and felt good about where we were for Sunday.

Our Miller Lite race team knew in the first few laps the Blue Deuce could be a contender in the race. We moved from sixth to second pretty quickly, and when pit strategy relegated us to 20th on a Lap 39 restart, we methodically picked our way back to the front of the pack. The team had given me a stout car to work with and I did what I could to drive it to the front.

The cycling of green-flag pit stops had us in the lead for a few laps, but that is about when the day turned for the worse. After coming in for two tires, the Miller Lite Dodge hit some debris on the track, which caused a rear left flat and forced us down pit road the following lap. But we bounced back from that and had moved again into the top-five just 50 laps later, only to be hit with a loose front right wheel after a four-tire change. We got a lap down after having to pit under green 14 laps later to fix the problem.

At that point, Pat Tryson and I decided to focus on getting the "Lucky Dog" pass, which worked out when the 16 car scraped the back wall a few laps later. We took that opportunity to fix a puncture to our hood, and after the restart the Blue Deuce was really fast, climbing back into the top-five yet again. A loose handling car hindered us at the end of the race and we gave up a few spots, ultimately finishing eighth.

Until next time.
KB