A Fan's Perspective - Texas
Robert Tye from Oklahoma City made the trip to Texas and volunteer to share his experiences with JB fans ...  Thank you, Robert!  We truly appreciate the report and photos!     (04-07-04)

What a great day for Johnny on Saturday!!!  I was so excited to be at the track for Johnny’s best finish of the season … so far!!!  The team has seemed to really come together over the past few weeks and I know that a win is in the near future for Team Yellow!!!

On to the races … I was not able to make it down to Texas until Friday morning, so I missed Busch qualifying.  I understand that Johnny had a problem with a valve on the cooling system that was spraying water under the car making it very difficult to control.  Basically, Johnny was hydroplaning around the track and had to take a provisional starting spot (39^th).

I arrived Friday morning around 9:30 AM for Busch “Happy Hour” and watched as Johnny practiced for Saturday.  Johnny’s only complaint, that I heard, was that the car was a little tight coming off the corners.  Johnny was running very consistent laps just under 30 seconds on both new and old tires in Happy Hour.

On Saturday, Johnny and the team were both very confident that they had a good car and proved it early in the race.  Johnny started near the back of the field, but was moving forward in a hurry thanks to a couple of early cautions within the first few laps that allowed the team to pit and adjust the car.  By the time the third caution came out on lap 33, Johnny was ready to pit along with the rest of the field for tires and fuel.  The team made a great call to only take two tires and get track position.  Johnny gained approximately twenty spots as he came out of the pits in 7^th place.

I was a little worried about the two tire stop as it hasn’t seemed to work to well for most people this year, but Johnny made it happen and got the long green flag run that he needed for everyone else’s tires to equal out to his tires.  The only car that passed Johnny during this run was the #87 of Joe Nemechek, who was by far the fastest car on the track at the time.  Just a few laps before Johnny was going to have to make a green flag stop, the caution waved again on lap 96.  This allowed Johnny to pit with the rest of the field and take four tires and fuel.  During this run Johnny was the fastest car on the track along with the leader at the time (Kyle Busch)

The next caution came out at lap 135 when Greg Biffle’s engine blew up.  Johnny had just moved in to 5^th place and was running right behind Biffle when his engine let go.  Johnny said that he couldn’t see a thing and I definitely believed it!!!  When Johnny came by me the first time after the caution came out, his windshield was completely covered with oil.  Johnny was actually using his spotter to help drive the car around the track under caution.  Johnny was struggling trying to steer the car and actually ran through the grass a little bit on the front stretch before he could finally get to the pits to get the windshield cleaned.  Johnny did an incredible job keeping the car off the wall and avoiding everything on the track under the caution.  Johnny lost a few spots on pit road due to several other teams trying the two tire stop, but quickly gained them back after the green flag waved again.  The eventual winner (Kenseth) was the only car that passed Johnny during this long run and he was by far the best car on the track at the end of race

The caution was displayed again with only five laps remaining for an accident on the front stretch.  Johnny was getting heavy pressure from the #00 car of Jason Leffler for 6^th place at the time of the caution.  NASCAR decided to red flag the race and stopped the cars on the back stretch.  This not only allowed Johnny to hold on to the 6^th position, but also let him cool his tires for the final three lap run to the checkered flag.  When the race was restarted, Bobby Hamilton Jr. spun his tires on the green flag and feel back quickly.  This allowed Johnny to move past him for 5^th place and then Johnny passed another car (I don’t remember which one … either Nemechek or David Green) to finish 4^th.  The final caution waved on the last lap as another car spun and wrecked causing the race to actually finish under yellow.

What a great day for Team Yellow as they overcame adversity with a terrific call in the pits and some great driving by Johnny B!!

Sunday, did not go so well for Johnny … the car had a vibration from the time the team unloaded for the first practice on Friday until the rear end finally broke a little more than a third of the way through the race on Sunday.  The team actually replaced the driveshaft during practice before qualifying on Friday and worked very hard on the transmission during Happy Hour on Saturday, but was unable to fix the vibration.  The car was also very tight from the center of the corners off according to Johnny’s radio traffic all weekend.  The team just could not seem to fix the car for Johnny which made for a long day on Sunday.  The rear end eventually broke around lap 150 and ended Johnny’s day with an early exit.     (04-07-04)