BUSCH: Mixed Results at Texas Test

Drivers get mixed results in Texas By Shawn A. Akers DALLAS/FORT WORTH (Jan. 21, 1999) Texas Motor Speedway is still meeting with mixed reviews from various NASCAR drivers. A pair of drivers, Randy LaJoie and Ron Barfield, met with mixed results last week when they tested at the 1.5-mile superspeedway. While LaJoie may have some harsh feelings about the track after crashing the Irvan-Simo NASCAR Winston Cup Series Chevrolet there after only four laps of testing, Barfield came away from the test session with a positive outlook and enthusiasm to return when the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races there -- first on June 11 and then on Oct. 15. "On my fourth lap on the race track, my car bottomed out and I lost it and hit the wall," LaJoie told a local reporter while testing earlier this week at Daytona International Speedway. "They fixed the race track pretty nice, except this. "It's something that just came up. I hit a little sinkhole, a dip. I felt terrible (wrecking the car). It was not a good way to start off. I haven't been in a race car for three months and on my first four laps I crash. It doesn't do a lot for your morale." LaJoie, however, bounced back to be the fastest in both days of testing, two days after the crash, at DIS. Barfield, on the other hand, was pretty upbeat after two truck tests. "I think we accomplished what we wanted at Texas," said the driver of the Gloy-Rahal Racing No. 55 Icehouse Beer Ford. "We had our problems there last year and never really seemed to hit on anything we tried. I wanted to go and test there because I think it's a place where I really need to improve. I feel like we had a very good test, and hopefully we can go back there and put the No. 55 Icehouse Beer truck in a good position at the end of the race." Barfield finished 30th in the Pronto Auto Parts 400 at Texas Motor Speedway last June after suffering engine problems. Barfield has been hopping around the country lately. He also tested earlier this week at California Speedway in Fontana. It's still many months before the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at the two-mile Roger Penske-owned track (Oct. 30), but Barfield said he and the team wanted to get in a few laps at California to take notes on what they'll need to know later in the year. Barfield finished a disappointing 28th in last year's even at California Speedway, driving Charles Hardy's No. 35 Ortho Lawn and Garden Chevrolet. "That's one of the tracks we really had some trouble with last year," Barfield said of California Speedway. "We went out there and worked on a lot of things. We came away from there very pleased with the test, though, and hopefully we can pick up our performance there this year." Barfield said he also used the test at California as sort of a tune up for next month's ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series season opener on the 2.5-mile trioval at Daytona. He said he'll drive his own car, which will most likely be unsponsored, in the 36th annual FirstPlus Financial 200 on Sunday, Feb. 7.

Source: NASCAR Online