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CONCORD, NC
(June 26, 2006) – Sean Caisse has been the force of the NASCAR
Busch East Series in the first two races. The 20-year-old dominated
both races, taking down wins at Greenville-Pickens Speedway (SC) and
Stafford Motor Speedway (CT) to kick off the 2006 season. When
Caisse and his #44 Andy Santerre Motorsports team unloaded Saturday
morning at Holland International Speedway (NY) for the Fuccillo Auto
Park HUGE 150 later that night, the Casella Waste Systems Chevrolet
was already the favorite for the win.
Then in
practice, Caisse showed that it was going to be a hard task if
anyone was going to break up his win streak. Right off the trailer,
Caisse was fast. He set a quick time in practice and followed it up
with his second-straight Busch Pole Award. Even at the start of the
race, Caisse was the car to beat, leading the most laps of all.
But that's
where the good news for Caisse ended. The #44 machine developed
handling issues as the 150-lap race wore on, forcing the Busch East
points leader to finish eighth.
"We practiced
in the heat of the day when the sun was out and we had about
two-tenths on the rest of the field," said Caisse. "The car was just
perfect, especially on the bottom. For some reason in the race the
bottom groove just wasn't good and the top groove had all the grip.
When night came, it didn't work out for us. When you set the car up
for the bottom and it was working good in the day, it worked against
us at night. When you set a car up for the bottom you have to free
it up to get the car to turn, which makes it really loose up top. So
when the race started, the car was way too loose up top."
"I thought we'd
be okay because usually the car will tighten up as the race goes on,
so we should be in pretty good shape. We led the most laps and ran
good, but the car kept getting free on me. I had a first place car
at the beginning that became a fourth place car and eventually
became an eighth place car. I don't even know if we had an eighth
place car at the end but we still managed to settle for a decent
finish. To come out with just minimal damage to the car is pretty
impressive because the people in that race were just maniacs."
Despite the
ill-handling car at Holland, having two wins and an eighth place
finish under his belt to start off the new season isn't a bad way to
kick off a championship run for Caisse and the ASM team.
"I'm not
disappointed with an eighth place finish, but we had way more of a
dominant car than I had in either of the first two races but we just
missed the race setup a little bit. I led the most laps and gained a
lot of extra bonus points that will go a long way towards the
championship."
Caisse's point
lead stands at 22 markers going into the series' next event, a
special Thursday night event at the historic 5/8-mile Thompson
International Speedway (CT) on June 29th. Last time he was at
Thompson, Caisse sat on the pole in the season-ending race of 2005
and led several laps before finishing fourth. Now as part of Andy
Santerre Motorsports, Caisse is looking at Thompson as his chance to
start a new winning streak.
"I'm really
excited to get back to Thompson. I won the pole up at Thompson at
the end of the year last year and I think that we can run really
well there this year.
Thompson is
probably my second-favorite race track. I've run so many different
types of racecars there, from Late Models and SK Modifieds to Tour
Modifieds and Busch Cars, so I know how to get around that place. I'm
confident that we can get a strong run there this week."
For more
information on Andy Santerre Motorsports and Sean Caisse, contact
Matt Kentfield at (704) 455-2051 and visit the all-new online home
of ASM, www.andysanterremotorsports.com.
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