Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA

Walt Brannen Talladega preview

Walt Brannen Ready To Wrap Up 2005 Season In Style Superspeedway Race & Teammate Has Brannen Looking Forward To Talladega ELKO, GA (September 27, 2005) -- Walt Brannen and the ...

Walt Brannen Ready To Wrap Up 2005 Season In Style

Superspeedway Race & Teammate Has Brannen Looking Forward To Talladega

ELKO, GA (September 27, 2005) -- Walt Brannen and the #65 Brack Maggard Racing team have been picking and choosing races all year long with the ARCA RE/MAX Series. And the season has given Brannen its own ups and downs; from the lows of an early race mechanical problem at Daytona that resulted in a 37th-place finish to start the year to the highs of an 8th-place finish at Kentucky Speedway back in July, a season-best for Brannen and the team.

Now, it will all come to a conclusion as Brannen and the team makes their final start of the season by competing in this weekend's Food World 300 at the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway. Brannen will also have a teammate, as team owner Brack Maggard will drive a second entry in the event for the team.

"Talladega is one of the most different races we'll run all year long," said Brannen. "It is hard to explain what it is like to race at places like Talladega or Daytona. The truth about Talladega is, when you go out there for the first time by yourself, it is like a big interstate. You just hold it flat on the floor and go. It isn't really difficult when you are by yourself. When you throw a crowd into the mix, though, that changes things. The car really floats around. You have to know how to set up the guy in front of you. You just try to keep it right in line and keep it out of other people's cars."

Brannen's Daytona race back in February was the first restrictor-plate race he'd ever run. Brannen qualified an impressive 10th in the event and was as high as sixth early in the race when he had problems with the radiator as a result of some early bump-drafting.

Since that time, through plenty of testing, Brannen has been back on the restrictor-place tracks quite a bit.

"I feel at home out there because I have plenty of people who know what they are doing out there that give me information," added Brannen. "Every time I go on the track, people like Reed Sorenson (NASCAR Busch Series competitor) to Red Farmer (one of the all-time racing greats) are feeding me information and telling me stuff I need to know and need to try. At first, it was a lot of info, but we've been lucky enough to test there enough times; I've tried about everything you can try."

Last week, Brannen and Maggard tested both of their cars at Talladega.

"At the test, we pulled out all of the stops and showed what we had. I think we are going to have a top-10 qualifying run for sure. Brack and I both have great cars. We are taking the same car back to Dega that we raced at Daytona earlier this year. It just has a nice, pretty new paint scheme on it now.

"It will be really neat to have a teammate out there too. It will make us feel like we are a Cup team or something. We did a lot of drafting during out test. Brack has a fast car. He is going to be right there with me the whole day and that is going to be a big advantage considering you got the Hendrick cars and others out there. Hopefully, we can get more of the good Dodges, like Joey Miller, to team up with us and we can be there at the end."

The Food World 300 will take the green flag at 1:00pm CT on Saturday, October 1, and can be seen live on SPEED Channel.

-WaltBrannen.com.

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Ricky Gonzalez to debut at Talladega
Next article Hagans Racing Talladega preview

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA