FORT WORTH-DALLAS (Dec. 18, 2000) - Kenny Brack ushered in a new era at Texas Motor Speedway Monday as he completed a day of testing in preparation for the April 29 Texas 600 CART FedEx Championship Series race. By the completion of the test session, all parties expressed satisfaction that the 2001 inaugural race at "The Great American Speedway" would be an extremely competitive affair.


<small>Kenny Brack on the front stretch at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo from Texas Motor Speedway

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Brack turned in nearly 100 laps of testing in the 2000 model Team Shell Reynard/Ford Cosworth CART FedEx Champ Car. His fastest lap recorded for the day was 221 mph with most of the configurations being tested by CART officials having speeds posted in the 215 mph range. Supervising the test session was J. Kirk Russell, the CART Vice President of Competition and Chief Steward.

"As the teams get used to this type of track, it is going to result in an extremely competitive race," said Brack who just completed his rookie season with CART. "There is going to be a lot of side-by-side racing and a lot of overtaking during the race. It is going to be fun.

"The car felt very stable today even though the wind was pretty high," Brack continued. "The car felt good in all of the different wing configurations that CART wanted to test."

"We had a very good test today," said Russell. "The computer simulations showed the cars running faster than we found today. We were very pleased with some of the preliminary figures regarding downforce and the loads produced here. Kenny told us the car was very manageable all day long.


<small>Kenny Brack in the pits during the CART test at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo from Texas Motor Speedway.
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"Our rulebook will remain in force for the Texas race. We will put together a proposal from our test data today for our Board to review, but we will utilize 37 inches of manifold pressure and some form of our Handford Device (rear wing). We also received positive remarks from the Firestone tire engineers on site regarding their data."

"We were very pleased with the test results," said Eddie Gossage, Texas Motor Speedway vice president and general manager. "Kenny told me that it should be a spectacular race and he was really looking forward to getting back here. The Texas 600 should be one of the highlights of next season. Having every major sanctioning body racing at Texas Motor Speedway in 2001 should provide a great season for our fans."

Tickets for the April 29 Texas 600 are on sale at the speedway ticket office, by calling (817) 215-8500 or by visiting the speedway website at www.texasmotorspeedway.com.