Lance Team Encounters Bad Luck at Dover

DOVER, Del. - For the second straight week, tough luck befell the No. 25 Team Rensi Motorsports Lance Snacks Chevrolet team. The previous week at Charlotte it was an accident that took the car out of a race. Last Saturday at Dover Downs International Speedway, it was a blown motor.

That relegated driver Andy Santerre to a 39th-place finish in the NASCAR Busch Series, Grand National Division MBNA Platinum 200. A shredded tire following a spinout caused breakage of an oil line, and the team's day was finished after 57 of 200 laps.

Substituting for Kenny Wallace due to the fact there was only one round of qualifying on Friday, Santerre started 37th and had made his way up to the 27th position before he spun coming out of turn 4. Fortunately, Santerre kept the car off the wall and didn't hit anything, much to the delight of the Lance Snacks crew.

He didn't lose a lap, but while trying to catch up to the rest of the field, his left front tire shredded and took out the oil line. Santerre came into the pits and the crew diligently attempted to fix the problem, but to no avail.

"I'm not going to say that we were setting the world on fire, but we were running pretty good," Santerre said. "We probably could have had a top-10, top-15 car because we were coming forward during the race. Then something like that happens. That's just the breaks.

"The 60 (Mark Martin) was coming up through and he had fresh tires. The 83 (Wayne Grubb), who was in front of both of us, let him go, and I decided I was going to try and go by him (Grubb) on the next lap. I was racing him pretty hard, and when we came off turn 4 I was right down on the apron (bottom of the track). Without any air on the outside of me, he just took the air right off my rear and I got turned around.

"I didn't hit anything, and I don't know why. We're at Dover, and you don't spin here without wrecking. We did and that was good, so I thought luck was on our side. Then a tire shredded going down the frontstretch and it broke the oil line. The crew did a great job trying to fix it, but it just wasn't meant to be."

Jason Keller went on to win the MBNA Platinum 200, followed by Martin, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Green and Joe Nemechek.

Santerre was 13th fastest in the first practice Friday morning, but with basically the same setup throughout most of the rest of the day, the No. 25 Chevrolet got progressively slower. Santerre qualified only 37th fastest, .02 seconds behind 36th place Jay Sauter, and was forced to take a provisional to get in.

"We were pretty good off the truck, I just don't know what happened after that," Santerre said. "We didn't qualify at all like we wanted to, but we were pretty decent in happy hour practice. We figured we'd have a good car for the race, and we did. It was just unfortunate what happened to us. We need a little more luck. Somehow we'll figure it out and have some better luck down the road."

Santerre is scheduled to drive the next six races in the Lance Snacks Chevy, beginning with next Saturday's Textilease/Medique 300 at South Boston (Va.) Speedway. Wallace, who has his Winston Cup commitment during that time, will return behind the wheel on July 29 at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill., for the CarQuest Auto Parts 250.