McFarland and Navy Team ready to return to Nashville
Nashville Notes
* On Saturday, NASCAR Busch Series driver Mark McFarland will
drive the JR Motorsports No. 88 Navy Accelerate Your Life Chevrolet Monte
Carlo SS in the Federated Auto Parts 300 at Nashville Superspeedway.
* Saturday's race will mark McFarland's second Busch race at
Nashville Superspeedway. In April he started 20th in the Pepsi 300 and
was on his way to a solid finish before he was pinched between two cars
on Lap 96. The car sustained significant damage as all the suspension
components on the left front were bent, broken or gone when the crew
brought the car into the garage area. The team launched a massive
recovery effort to get the car back on the track and McFarland was able
to pick up three positions before finishing 33rd.
* McFarland is scheduled to participate in the 16th Annual City
of Hope Celebrity Softball Challenge at Greer Stadium in Nashville,
Tenn., on Thursday. The game is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. and a number
of Country Music artists, including Vince Gill, Chris Cagle and Bryan
White are scheduled to play.
* The team is bringing chassis No. 10 to Nashville this week. The
car was last raced two weeks ago at Lowe's Motor Speedway. McFarland
started that race from 36th position and finished 13-laps down in 33rd
position after the team repaired the damage sustained when McFarland hit
the wall on Lap 130.
* McFarland and the JR Motorsports team picked up their best-ever
finish of seventh last month at Talladega Superspeedway. The run also
marked the team and driver's first-ever top 10 as well.
Mark McFarland, Driver of No. 88 Navy Accelerate Your Life Chevrolet
Monte Carlo SS
"I thought we were going to get our first top-10 finish of the year at
the first race at Nashville back in April, but we got caught up in a
wreck. I'm looking forward to getting back there this weekend to finish
what we started the last time out."
Rich Hubbs, Crew Chief of No. 88 Navy Accelerate Your Life Chevrolet
Monte Carlo SS
"Our results from the Nashville race in April don't quite reflect how
well we ran. We had a good qualifying run and Mark was making his way up
through the field when he got sandwiched in between two cars. Despite the
damage, the team pulled together and we got the car put back together as
best we could and. Mark was able to get back out there, pick up a few
spots and finish the race.
"We're bringing back the same car this time around and we plan to bring
home the finish we should have gotten on our first trip."
Navy Notables
* The fleet honoree for Saturday's race at Nashville
Superspeedway is the USS Tennessee SSBN 734 (BLUE). The ship was launched
in 1986 and is the ninth Trident submarine and lead ship with the Trident
II D-5 missile. In 1993, the Tennessee was named the U.S. Atlantic Fleet
Ballistic Missile Submarine of the Year. The Tennessee's homeport is
Kings Bay, Ga., where it is an operational unit assigned to Submarine
Squadron Twenty.
-jrm
