No. 11 Sweet Baby Ray’s Chevrolet / Jason Keller

Texas II Post-Race Report

Date: Saturday, November 3, 2007
Event: O’Reilly Challenge
Track: Texas Motor Speedway, Ft. Worth, Tex.
Pole Sitter: David Reutimann, 28.177 sec.
Keller’s Qualifying Position: 29th, 29.029 sec.
Race Winner: Kevin Harvick
Keller’s Finishing Position: 22nd

Handling Proved to be a Challenge at the Lone Star State, CJM Racing Finishes 22nd

(November 3, 2007) Ft. Worth, Tex. – Despite a constant battle with the handling conditions of the No. 11 Sweet Baby Ray’s Chevrolet, Keller was able to keep the momentum going and finish out the O’Reilly Challenge in the 22nd position.

CJM Racing made their way to the Lone Star state for the first time this season in hopes of garnering the team’s fifth top-10 of the limited season. As they unloaded chassis #01 for the first of two practice sessions it was apparent that the handling of the Sweet Baby Ray’s Chevy was not where it needed to be. The team worked relentlessly to get the No. 11 machine turned around and by the end of final practice Keller was satisfied with the results.

Taking to the track 30th for qualifying; Keller turned the 29th quickest lap, 29.029 seconds, and placed the No. 11 Sweet Baby Ray’s Chevy firmly in the 43-car field.

“We’re in the field and that is always our biggest concern heading into these events. With a limited schedule and no owners points you have to be consistent in your qualifying runs. Granted we wish we qualified a little better than this but we’ll take it,” remarked Keller.

As the race action got under way at Texas Motor Speedway, Keller took a few laps to assess the handling of the No. 11 Sweet Baby Ray’s machine. Within a few laps, Keller reported in, “I am loose on entry. The car is lacking rear grip.”

Knowing that track position is key at the mile-and-a-half facility, crew chief Todd Gordon opted to keep Keller out on the track until a caution flag fell again on lap 21. The crew began the first of several aggressive changes with four fresh tires, fuel and a major wedge adjustment.

Keller restarted in the 29th position and was able to maintain track position until he fell victim to the leaders on lap 67. Unfortunately the Sweet Baby Ray’s Chevy would fall one lap down running in the 25th position.

The team never gave up in their quest to the front and regaining their lap back. In an effort to improve the still finicky race car; the No. 11 would return to pit road three more times for major adjustments. Changes ranged from a track bar, wedge and air pressure adjustments to dropping the left side track bar on a final pit stop on lap 138. The extreme adjustments cost the team some valuable time and would eventually put them another lap down to the leaders.

“I got to the point where we needed to figure out what was causing the handling problems. I didn’t just want to make an adjustment that would solve the problem in the short term. We’ve struggled with our mile-and-a-half program so we did a lot of adjustments to try and get a better understanding of what is going on,” explained Gordon.

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