DANNY O’QUINN, JR. FINISHES 18TH AT KANSAS SPEEDWAY AFTER LATE RACE CRASH

Danny O’Quinn, Jr. and the No. 50 Transamerica Ford Fusion with Associate Sponsor Barr-Nunn Transportation

KANSAS CITY, KS -– Danny O’Quinn, Jr. came to Kansas Speedway with no experience on the track and a lot of eagerness to get back in the car.

After running ninth in the final happy hour practice on Friday evening O’Quinn, Jr. felt good about his car and the race ahead of him.

He qualified 22nd on Saturday afternoon, but anticipated that his car could easily run in the top-15.

The Yellow Transportation 300 got underway just after 2:00pm CDT on Saturday afternoon.

O’Quinn, Jr. almost immediately let his crew chief, Drew Blickensderfer know that the car was extremely loose getting into the corners and a bit tight coming off.

A wreck involving the No. 66 and No. 20 car brought the caution out on lap 27 and O’Quinn; Jr. brought the No. 50 Transamerica & Associate Sponsored Barr-Nunn Fusion down pit road. The crew quickly gave him four fresh tires, fuel and a track bar and air pressure adjustment and sent him back out with a gain of five spots.

O’Quinn, Jr. radioed to the team that the car was improving a lot and that they did an excellent job in the pits.

The No. 50 team’s luck turned on lap 43 when the No.66 car got into the left rear of the Transamerica Ford, which sent it spinning through the grass. O’Quinn, Jr. brought the car into the pits once again on lap 47 to assess the damage.

They made another track bar and air pressure adjustment as well as put on four tires and topped off the fuel tank. Blickensderfer saw no need to make any repairs to the mangled left rear fender as it was not rubbing the back tire.

Twenty laps later O’Quinn, Jr. had moved up to 19th position and radioed to his crew that the car was handling really good and was only getting better with every lap.

By lap 90 the car was a little tight coming off the corners, but with the concern of over adjusting they made no changes to the No. 50 during the green flag pit stop on lap 100. This stop put O’Quinn, Jr. back out in 25th at the halfway point in the race.

Thirty laps later the report on the Transamerica Fusion from O’Quinn, Jr. was “Good on entry, but extremely tight on the gas, especially aero. It is very hard to drive around these other guys.” At this point the No. 50 car was one lap down and when the caution came out on lap 128 O’Quinn, Jr. got the lucky dog and returned to the lead lap.

The No. 50 team made what they thought would be their final stop of the night on lap 166 for tires, fuel and a slight wedge adjustment. However, on lap 194 running 13th and with only six laps to go the No. 50 car fell victim to a crash in turn one. By the time O’Quinn, Jr. got the car into the pits there were only a few laps to go. They had two flat tires and a mangled smashed in rear end. The team worked feverishly and was able to get the Transamerica and Associate Sponsored Barr-Nunn Ford back out onto the track just as the field took the green.

O’Quinn, Jr. crossed the finish line in 18th position.

"We had a good top-15 spot there at the end until they all wrecked going down into one on that green-white-checkered,” said O’Quinn, Jr. “They checked up and there was nowhere to go. The people behind me had nowhere to go. I got turned and we're lucky to finish where we did, I guess, as bad as the car got tore up. We had a pretty good car today. We were moving up through there pretty decent all day. It was just a lot different from yesterday, and thought we were going to have a decent finish, but just unfortunate luck."

Danny O’Quinn, Jr. and the No. 50 Transamerica and Associate Sponsored Barr-Nunn Transportation Team will compete next at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, NC on October 13th.

To find out more about the racing program at Barr-Nunn Transportation or to become part of the Barr-Nunn team call: 1-888-999-7576.

Roush Racing is a subsidiary of Livonia, Mich., based Roush Enterprises which operates 14 motorsports teams; five in NASCAR Nextel Cup Series with drivers Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards, six in the Busch Series with Martin, Kenseth, Biffle, Edwards, Todd Kluever and Danny O'Quinn, and three in the Craftsman Truck Series with Martin, David Ragan, Erik Darnell and Michel Jourdain, Jr. For sponsorship inquiries, contact Robin M. Johnson, Roush Racing, (704) 720-4645.