CLERMONT, IN (August 4, 2002) The last time Jack Sprague raced at
Indianapolis Raceway Park, the veteran driver took a trip to Victory Lane in
a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event. With that kind of winning experience
on his resume, you can understand why the driver of the NetZero Chevrolet
was disappointed with a 17th-place finish in the Kroger 200 NASCAR Busch
Series race at IRP Saturday night.
"I am sick of these bad finishes lately," said Sprague, who owns two wins
and a pair of runner-up Truck Series finishes at the track "Tonight's
finish totally blind-sided us. We've done so well here in the past
that we really
believed we were going to have a car that could win. Thank goodness
for our fourth-place finish at Gateway a few weeks back because that's
the
only
decent finish we've had for quite a while. I don't even know what to
say because I know I'm not the only one upset by it. We really believed
we
were
going to have a shot at this race. The car was great in practice, but
qualified and raced horribly. It was tight all night and nothing seemed
to play into our hands."
Sprague's day was action-packed as he practiced his NetZero Chevy before
catching a short flight to Indianapolis Motor Speedway to compete in the
final IROC Series race of the season. After finishing sixth and earning his
fourth Top-10 finish in as many event IROC events this season, Sprague was
transported back to IRP for qualifying. That's where things started to go
downhill as the Spring Lake, MI native turned in a speed of 107.815 (22.906
mph) putting him 14th on the starting grid.
Sprague battled an ill-handling car from the start of the 200-lap event. On
three separate occasions, he guided his NetZero Chevy into pits where his
Hendrick Motorsports team made wholesale chassis changes in an effort to fix
the problem. Unfortunately, the adjustments never fully corrected the
problem and Sprague found himself fighting to stay on the lead lap with just
50 circuits remaining. Eventually he fell a lap down and soldiered to the
17th-place finish. Sprague earned $14,030 in prize money and now has 2927
points, 287 markers behind the front-running Greg Biffle in the 2002 NBS
championship chase.
"I've always loved racing at IRP and still do," said Sprague. "It's
just been so frustrating these last few weeks. We've got a weekend
off next week.
Maybe that will help. My guys have been working so hard with these
cars and with our building and testing of the Winston Cup cars they've
been
putting
in a lot of time. Maybe this break will be a positive for this team
and go to Michigan rejuvenated and get back on the right foot."
Sprague and the NetZero Chevy will be back in action in the
Cabela's 250 at Michigan International Speedway Saturday, August 17 at 1:30
p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The event will be telecast live on TNT. MRN
Radio will also broadcast the race live worldwide on more than 400 stations
including the American Armed Forces Network.
ABOUT NETZERO.
