O'Reilly 200 at Memphis Motorsports Park Preview

OVERVIEW

posted on June 24, 2008

Memphis Motorsports Park Fast Facts:
Marc Mitchell has never raced at Memphis Motorsports Park prior to the O’Reilly 200.
The O’Reilly 200 will mark Mitchell’s third start this season at a track one mile in length or less.
The last race Mitchell competed on a track one mile or less was at the Milwaukee Mile, which yielded a ninth-place start and 15th-place finish.
Mitchell has averaged an 8.5 starting position and a 20.5 finish at tracks one mile or less this season (Mansfield and Milwaukee).
Mitchell was the Raybestos Rookie of the Race last weekend in Milwaukee.
The #15 Ergon Hyprene Tundra will compete in 21 races in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2008. Mitchell is competing for Rookie of The Year Honors.

“It’s kind of funny—my sponsor, Ergon, actually provided the asphalt that Memphis used to pave the track.  Maybe that will give me some kind of advantage.   That would be nice because your usual suspects of (Johnny) Benson, (Ron) Hornaday and (Jack) Sprague are always fast wherever we go. I’d imagine it will be one of the veterans who will be the one to beat. Short tracks can be rough on the rookies.  The veterans always seem to know when it’s time to be patient and when it’s time to be aggressive.  That’s why they’re always there at the end of a race. I’d expect to see them shine in Memphis.  I think this can be a great week for the Ergon team, too.  We may be a new team, but we’re getting better each week.  I grew up racing short tracks and have a lot of experience on them.  This just might be our breakthrough week.
 
“If you take a look at the guys who’ve won at Memphis, they’ve all started from the top-10, most of them from the top-five. That just goes to show how important qualifying is there. It is like any other short track. Mansfield was the same way. We qualified up front, and as long as we stayed on the right pit strategy, we held our own track position. Track position is crucial, especially at the short tracks.  It’s a chore to race from the back of the field to the front, so I hope we make it easier on ourselves and start towards the head of the pack.
 
“I don’t think this race is going to be quite as rough as Mansfield or Martinsville, but it will have its share of bumping and banging. You will probably have to rub somebody to get by them. I think in Memphis there will be some trucks beating and banging, but not to the extent that we’ve seen on the half-mile race tracks.
 
“We are running the same chassis that we ran at Mansfield. It will be Chassis #17. It did a good job for us there. We qualified in the top-10 and ran in the top-10 and top-five all day. Hopefully we will be able to do the same thing at Memphis.”