BY TEAM FORD RACING CORRESPONDENT

Brooklyn, Mich. — The real trick to making the GFS Marketplace 400 was picking a number early in the qualifying order, ideally that was about five hours before qualifying began.

After about a 2.5 hours delay, qualifying for Sunday’s race went off without a hitch. The delay, due to rain, took the normal advantage of a late draw out of the equation and put early qualifiers closer to the front of the grid. Cars that took qualifying times right after the rain were about seven-tenths of a second faster than cars in practice. That advantage shrunk to about three-tenths of a second for those who went out late in the session.

The heavier air apparently sapped the power from the cars as humidity levels shot upwards when the sun started heating the just fallen rain.

Top qualifiers in the show included Bobby Labonte, who took both WC MIS poles this year; Ryan Newman, Robby Gordon, Kevin Lepage and Terry Labonte.

Top Ford runners in practice, who went out later in the qualifying session and were rewarded with mid-pack results, included Elliott Sadler, who practice second fastest but qualified 17th fast, and Kurt Busch, who practiced sixth fastest but posted a 20th place start in qualifying.

Mark Martin, after spending the day searching for a qualifying setup, was the first car to need a provisional starting position. Team members indicated that Martin’s Taurus should race well, but was a little slow on its own. Todd Bodine was the only other Ford driver to need a provisional, and will start 41st.

The Morgan McClure car was the only one to miss the race and departed for its Virginia area home immediately after posting a time too slow to make the race.

NEW FUEL
Sunoco was welcomed into the NASCAR fold, today, when it was announced that the racing fuel leader would supply product to NASCAR’s top-three series for the next 10 years. Terms of the "official fuel of NASCAR" deal were not disclosed.

Sunoco, which has expressed an interest in stock car’s premier series for several years, got what it wanted when the sanctioning body reviewed a very short list of potential replacements 76 brand of gasoline. Sunoco, which has a corporate presence in 23 states has had a relationship with NASCAR through its weekly racing series, so, the relationship is more of a continuation of a project that was started with grassroots racers.

“Sunoco has a well-earned reputation for producing the highest-quality racing gasoline and for reliably distributing it to race tracks,” said NASCAR president, Mike Helton. “In our NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series association with Sunoco, we have been impressed with Sunoco’s people, products and passion for our sport. We are proud to welcome them as the Official Fuel of NASCAR.”

“While Sunoco is already the authorized gasoline manufacturer for more than 30 racing series, we are extremely proud of this partnership with NASCAR, one of the world’s premier motorsports and the epitome of performance-based competition,” added Robert Owens, senior vice president, Sunoco.

“Sunoco has enjoyed a reputation for producing high-quality race gasoline for more than two decades. Through our dedicated manufacturing facility in Marcus Hook, Pa., Sunoco produces racing gasoline that delivers the exact components, exactly the same way, every time. This partnership with NASCAR is a crowning achievement for our performance products.”

FIGHTING FIRE
This event marks the first where the new NASCAR-mandated trunk-mounted fire suppression system will be required. The new system, with automatic and manual triggering systems, is meant to give the drivers a few extra moments of safety in the case of a car fire after a rear impact. Recently, several drivers experienced frightening situations in rear impact accidents with the walls.

The teams rose to the occasion nicely with Winston Cup director John Darby giving a nod to the teams that work in his garage.

“Any issues surrounded more installation rather than the actual parts and pieces,” Darby told TFR. “I would say that the garage put on a very impressive performance on getting everything up ad running.”

Darby added, “Very, very nice installations and substantial mounting brackets, the kind of stuff we [NASCAR] like.”

Explaining the operational aspect of the system Darby said, “With the Halon agents that we use they are a flooding agent. In other words, once they’re released they flood whatever area they’re in.

“The thought is on impact if a fire ignites the bottle that we have for the trunk automatically fires on heat sensing. And when it does it floods the whole area where the fire is. This will give the drivers more time to get out of the car.”