BUSCH: Rockingham: David Stremme preview

Anna Nicole to Visit TRIMSPA Team at Rockingham Race

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Feb. 17, 2004) -- David Stremme and the X32 TRIMSPA Dodge Team have a huge weekend on tap for the Rockingham 200 at North Carolina Speedway on Saturday. Stremme will once again have Jamie McMurray as a teammate when Braun Racing fields a second TRIMSPA sponsored Dodge for the fulltime Chip Ganassi Racing driver. McMurray will be gunning for an unprecedented fourth straight Busch Series win at the 1.1-mile oval, while Stremme will look to improve on his impressive fifth-place finish in his first race ever there last November.

"Rockingham is the first race we go to this year where I have run at the track before," said Stremme. "I am confident running there. Last fall we ran second and third all day until I made a rookie mistake by sliding through the pits on the final stop of the day. That was my first race with Braun Racing. We managed to finish fifth, but I believe we left something on the table there that we need to go back and get."

Adding to the excitement of an already big weekend, TRIMSPA spokesperson Anna Nicole Smith will be in attendance to cheer the two TRIMSPA Teams to a possible victory. Smith, who recently lost an incredible amount of weight on TRIMSPA's weight loss products and is celebrating her personal comeback, will have her picture carried on the hood of Stremme's X32 TRIMSPA Dodge. Smith will also handle the pit sign duties for the X32 TRIMSPA Crew during the race.

"I have never met Anna Nicole before so it's going to be exciting," said TRIMSPA driver Stremme. "She's good looking so we want her in our pits during the race. We may even distract guys from the other teams."

Helping Stremme keep his focus on the racetrack will be McMurray. He will pilot the No. 30 TRIMSPA Dodge in his first race for Braun this season. Stremme and McMurray shared driving duties last season in the Yellow Freight Dodge. Together the two led their team to finish eighth in Busch Series owner's points.

"I love being teammates with Jamie (McMurray)," said Stremme. "You can race so much better when you have a teammate to go to with questions. The problem last year was that we shared driving duties so we were never running at the same track in the same series. Now we will be on the track at the same time and can share more information."

Stremme is coming off an impressive run last weekend at Daytona International Speedway where he finished sixth in the Hershey's Kisses 300, behind five Nextel Cup Series regulars.

"From the very beginning I felt more confident about racing Rockingham than Daytona," said Stremme. "Daytona was a great race for the TRIMSPA team, but it is still important to focus on improving at Rockingham. We will always be going for the win, but we are also thinking about the big picture with the points."

Stremme and the TRIMSPA X32 Dodge team will hit the track Saturday, February 21, at 12:30 p.m. at the North Carolina Speedway for the second race of the 34-race Busch Series schedule. The 200-mile event will be telecast live on FX and broadcast worldwide on MRN radio.

-br-