Woodward Racing Volusia, finale notes

Tatnell Races Past 11 Cars in Volusia Finale

BARBERVILLE, FL (February 11) -- Brooke Tatnell drove Woodward Racing's #2 Volcano Joe's Coffee Schnee past 11 cars in Sunday's 36th Annual DIRTcar Nationals Presented by Mopar Speedshop finale at Volusia Speedway Park.

Despite a slow start that saw the five-time World Series Sprintcar champion qualify 26th-quick in the 50-car field, Tatnell raced into 12th place from inside the 12th row in the 30-lap main event.

"The motor we took to Florida had a lot of runs on it to start with," Tatnell said, "and we just missed the setup on it a little bit in qualifying. One-tenth of a second -- which is basically nothing -- was the difference between 26th and ninth or 10th. It really didn't take much to hurt our starting positions. We made up for it in the heat race a little, but qualifying is very critical right now. We had a good run in the feature. Actually, we probably should have passed three or four more cars."

Tatnell drove the #2 Volcano Joe's Coffee Schnee past Jac Haudenschild and Steve Kinser during the third lap, then victimized Paul McMahan, Greg Wilson and fast-qualifier Tony Bruce, Jr., within the next three laps. He passed Randy Hannagan during lap eight. Tatnell and Jason Meyers exchanged positions during the race's middle stages and battled throughout the final 15 laps before finishing 12th and 11th, respectively. "I thought we had a good weekend," Tatnell said. "We almost met our expectations. We wanted to walk away with three top-10s, and we got two (actually averaging a 10th-place finish in the feature races).

"You have to be realistic about how you approach the first weekend, especially when you consider how little time we had to prepare. Now we have two weeks to get ready (for the February 23-24 event at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, CA). We'll just step up the pace. We expect to put some wins on the board soon."

-credit: woo