Tim Bainey Jr. and the #00 Dream Machine Shine through a Tough Weekend at Mansfield

 

Tim Bainey Jr. and the #00 Aaron’s Racing Team were very impressive at times, but finally fell victim to a cut-down right front tire this past weekend in Mansfield, Ohio – for the USAR Hooter’s ProCup Series “Greased Lightning 250”.

 

“It’s hard to believe with a 33^rd place finish and a 34^th place qualifying time, but overall I was really happy with how we ran this weekend,” Tim Jr. flashed a smile.

 

“We were really good in practice, the car was great on long runs and we just kept tuning it a little. We were 24^th on the speed chart near the end of practice, and getting ready to bolt stickers on to do a qualifying run when we found a problem with a spring.”

 

“At that point all we had to do was pick up 1-tenth of a second to be inside the top-10, and with new tires that shouldn’t have been a problem. So we were really looking good.”

 

“But when we changed the spring, we just messed up and didn’t get the right number of turns put back in the spring. And well – we found that out in qualifying.”

 

Tim Jr. would only turn in the 34^th fastest time in qualifying, but the team would quickly realize the problem and make a plan to correct it early in the race.

 

“We made a mistake,” said Dan Bainey Crew Chief of the #00 Aaron’s Dream Machine. “It was just way too tight the way the car was set during qualifying – we talked it over and figured out that we put about 10 turns too many into the right front spring when we reset the car after practice.”

 

The Aaron’s Crew would bring Tim Jr. to pit road during the pace laps where they lifted the hood on the Dream Machine and made the adjustments needed to correct the problem.

 

It only took a few laps to see the adjustments proved to be right on. Tim Jr. took the Dream Machine all the way from 36^th to 24^th in just the first 40 laps before coming to pit road with most of the leaders on lap 42.

 

A great stop by the Aaron’s Crew would send Tim Jr. back to the track in the 14^th position. From there he would continue to climb, moving into the top-10 by lap 75.

 

“I don’t know why, but I just really like to race at Mansfield,” said Tim Jr. “We’ve always ran well here, guys say its hard to pass – but we were really making it work for us tonight. It’s a lot of fun when you have a car that works like it did tonight.”

 

Then on lap 84, while racing for position and trying to make their way through lapped traffic – Tim Jr. would make contact with the 9^th place car causing them both to spin, and sending them both to the back of the lead lap cars.

“That was tough,” said Tim Jr. “The lapped traffic was bad, but I was just following the cars in front of me. They trapped the #13 car on the outside and passed him 3-wide through the last corner, I figured he would know we were there, but apparently he didn’t or maybe he thought I could move down a little more going into the corner – but the lapped car didn’t give any room to do that.”

 

“I hate that it happened, but it was one of those times when there wasn’t much you could do – had I backed out getting into the corner, there was a train on my bumper and I would have got punted from behind.”

 

After bringing the #00 Dream Machine back to pit road to change tires again, Tim Jr. started on another very impressive climb through the field.

 

“We passed a lot of cars in the first 100 laps, from 34^th to 9^th was a lot of work, and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy to do that again – but I really thought we could do it at that point,” said Tim Jr.

 

He made his way back up into the Top-20, and while working through traffic near lap 150 he cut-down a right front tire while exiting turn 4, sending the Dream Machine hard into the outside wall. The damage was extensive enough to eventually end the team’s night.

 

“We tried to fix things, but it broke a sway bar link and bent the mounts a little,” said Crew Chief Dan Bainey. “We sent him back out about 4 or 5 times, but we just couldn’t get it drivable for Timmy – so we had to end the night in 33^rd place.”

 

“Overall I was really happy with how strong we were,” said Tim Jr. “It’s too bad, because we haven’t been able to catch any breaks in the last 3 races – but you just have to keep your head up and look forward to the next one.”

 

“I do have to say one thing, I really want to say thanks to all the fans who were out there supporting us. We had by far the longest autograph line during the on-track autograph session, the officials kept coming over to tell us we had to quit so they could get the fans back in the stands - - we drug it out as long as we could, but finally had to get going so I didn’t miss driver introductions – THAT WAS GREAT – it really made me smile to see their enthusiasm in meeting us.”

 

You can keep up with Tim Jr. and the #00 Aaron’s Racing Team at www.timjr.com, the next event for the team is Saturday Night June 30th at Salem Speedway in Salem, Indiana.

 

About Aaron’s

 

Aaron's Sales & Lease Ownership stores offer customers access to high-quality furniture, appliances, electronics and computers for sale or as a lease-ownership arrangement. Customers have the option of buying their merchandise for an attractive cash price or opting to lease their merchandise for even greater flexibility. With a lease option, customers make modest monthly payments and have the immediate use of the items they need without waiting for credit checks or other delays. Plus, Aaron's will take care of delivery, setup, repairs, and more for the duration of a customer's lease.

The Aaron's concept has proven to be successful for half a century; in fact, the very first Aaron's location opened in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1955. Aaron's is a leader in the sale and lease ownership of residential furniture, consumer electronics and home appliances, with more than 1,400 Company-operated and franchised stores in 48 states and Canada. The Company also manufactures an exclusive line of furniture, bedding and accessories at 10 facilities in four states.

 

Visit www.shopaarons.com for more info.