Practice, Points and Problems

August 14, 2006

Denver, CO- Furniture Row® Racing failed to qualify for last weekend's race at Watkins Glen International in NY. After promising test sessions, the team was disappointed not to make the show with road course specialist, Max Papis behind the wheel.

Crew Chief Joe Garone explains, ”We didn’t expect to miss the race, but the practice session was limited for us. Max only had 40 minutes of the 1.5 hours of track time available to him. Due to the track being shut down for clean up of a wreck, we were only able to give Max one shot at a practice-qualifying run opposed to four, and it simply wasn’t enough time. The level of competition in Cup doesn’t allow for any second-guessing on how your car is going perform, and Max wasn’t sure how hard to push the car. He ran a conservative lap insuring he stayed on the track, with no mistakes.

The lap time just wasn’t there. He ran in the Busch Series after Cup practice and was able to get his lap times in order, and this helped him to sort his car out. If he could have run that Busch practice before the Cup practice, it would have helped him with his Cup qualifying effort.”

Practice wasn’t the only challenge facing the team. Transmission problems cost the team track time as well. Also, the lack of owner’s points dictated the qualifying time of 74.400 wasn’t fast enough to make the cut.

Although qualifying was problematic, Garone was very impressed with Papis. ”It was a great experience working with Max, he is truly an athlete and I look forward to running together more in the future.”
Michigan International Speedway is the next scheduled race for the CUP program. Kenny Wallace is back in action as the pilot of the #78 Furniture Row® Chevy Monte Carlo.

For those looking to meet Kenny Wallace in person, he will be signing autographs this Friday, August 18 from 7 to 9pm at the Furniture Row® Shopping Center located at Linden and Lennon in Flint, MI.
Also, watch for driver Jerry Robertson in the #78 Furniture Row® car in the Busch series at Michigan this weekend.

Furniture Row® Companies is one of the largest family-owned specialty home furnishings and bedding retailers. The company is comprised of five specialty store brands including: Sofa Mart®, Oak Express®, Bedroom Expressions®, Denver Mattress Co®, and Big Sur Water Beds®