Santerre Keeps Lance Team on Roll

CLERMONT, Ind. - There's no doubt in Andy Santerre's mind as to which car in the Team Rensi Motorsports race shop is his favorite.

It's the same car he finished sixth with at New Hampshire. It's the same car he finished 10th with at South Boston. It's the same car he finished third with at Pikes Peak. And it's the same car he finished 10th with Saturday night in the NASCAR Busch Series, Grand National Division Kroger 200 at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

"I guess you can say I'm really partial to this old car," the driver of the No. 25 Lance Snacks Chevrolet said. "We've run this car six times this year, and we've been able to put together four top-10s in those six races. It's a pretty good race car, for sure."

It was the third straight top-10 for the Lance Snacks team. Santerre finished third at Pikes Peak two weeks previously, while Kenny Wallace finished eighth at Gateway International Raceway a week back.

"This is great for the team, we feel like we're on a little bit of a roll," said Lance Snacks Crew Chief Greg Ely. "Everything is improving. The pit stops were great again tonight, and Andy did a great job driving the car. We got a little bit behind and missed the setup a bit adjusting from day to night, but we kept digging. You can't say enough about the entire team for helping us get another top-10 like this."

Santerre said the car ran well during the practice session, but Bud Pole Qualifying saw him finish just 18th with a fast lap of 110.973 mph. Rookie Jason Leffler won the pole with a quick lap of 112.597 mph. Santerre quickly made up ground, gaining four positions in the first eight laps. He then stayed steady until coming into the pits during a caution period to take on four tires and fuel.

Most of the leaders took on two tires, and Santerre lost five positions during the exchange. He was 21st on the re-start on lap 66 of the 200-lap event.

Santerre dropped to 22nd on lap 72, but that was as low as he would go the entire evening. He was running 22nd on lap 120 when the caution flag came out for a five-car melee involving Hank Parker, Jr., Mike McLaughlin, Wayne Grubb, Kevin Grubb and Tom Hubert.

He came into the pits again, but this time Ely called for just two right side tires to be changed, and Santerre left the pits in 12th place.

"We picked up a lot of positions at the end when we came in for two tires," Ely said. "That strategy has worked for us lately, and Andy and Kenny (Wallace) are not afraid to drive the car on old left side tires. We just decided to do that because we thought we could benefit from the track position. We picked up about 10 positions, and that really helped us get in the top-10 at the end."

"We were really tight early and we were going backwards," Santerre said. "We were just way too tight and the car was difficult to drive. Greg and I talked about it on the radio, and we made some good adjustments and got the car better.

"The second stop we took on two tires and took some wedge out. That really helped the car and turned it around. We weren't quite good enough to battle it out with the leaders at the end, but we had a pretty good car and we were good enough to finish in the top-10. We're pretty happy with that."

Santerre moved up to 11th on lap 143, then broke into the top-10 when Jay Sauter hit the wall on lap 165. Santerre held off a charging Jimmie Johnson in the final few laps to maintain his position in the top-10.Rookie Ron Hornaday earned his second victory of the season. It's the third time in four Busch Series races that a rookie has won. The top-10 didn't hurt the team's push toward the top-10 in the Busch Series owner point standings. Team Rensi Motorsports was 11th going into the race.

The Lance Snacks team will take a much-needed weekend off this week before preparing for the NAPAonline.com 250 at Michigan Speedway on Saturday, Aug. 19. Bud Pole Qualifying is scheduled for Thurs., Aug. 17 at 12:30 p.m.