6/24/2006
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Mike Duncan “Survives” Infineon & Looks
To Defend Title In Oregon
Mike Duncan can always be described as a person who knows how to sum
things up quickly. As a pro baseball slugger, Duncan could
identify a pitch in a split second. As an organic farmer he knew
what the weather could do to a crop within a minute. As the
defending NASCAR Grand National West Series champion, Duncan continues
to demonstrate razor-sharp intuition and instant decision-making
skills. So when he was asked to sum up last week’s road course
race at Infineon Raceway, Duncan’s response summed things up with two
words:” We survived!”
Duncan now heads to Roseburg, Oregon to defend last year’s trip to the
champion’s podium as the defending champion of the Firecracker 150 at
the Douglas County Speedway. As the 2004 & 2005 West Series
champion, he looks back as last year’s race in Oregon as a crucial
piece of the momentum swing for the Lucas Oil/Ron’s Rear
End/Greenfrogroastingco.com Chevrolet. Duncan states,” Winning
that race came at a great time, and it definitely helped propel us into
the summer.”
When asked if returning as the defending winner of the Firecracker 150
helps this year’s approach, Duncan was quick to reply,” Well, it
certainly helps with regards to knowing what the set-up should be, but
the competition in our series is so stiff this year that we’ll approach
this weekend like we approach every race, and that is to finish the
race as strong as we can.” With veteran West Series champion
driver, Bill Sedgwick as Duncan’s Crew Chief, the powerful duo have
proven to be a highly successful team in this series, and Duncan again
sums things up quickly when asked about his chief by saying,” I feel
very confident going into a familiar track like Douglas (County)
Speedway with Bill at the helm . . . knowing what we’ve learned here
over the past few years does help in your planning and preparation.”
Duncan stands third in points in the West Series, a scant twelve points
behind leaders, Mike David and Peyton Sellers. This prompted the
question regarding a “starting over” point to this season, to which
Duncan replied, “Yes, it does feel like we’re starting over in a
way. We’ve done the road course, raced twice in Phoenix, had some
tough breaks at Irwindale and Stockton, but we’re still here, right in
the thick of it . . . this should be a great race in Roseburg.”
According to NASCAR Public Relations, Duncan leads several categories
in series competition at Roseburg in the modern era (since 1971). He
has led the most laps of competition, running out front 318 laps. He
has the most top-five finishes, with four, and the most top-10
finishes, with four. With an average finish of 2.5, Duncan also leads
among drivers with at least four starts at Roseburg. Duncan
also leads this season in laps completed, with 697. At last
year’s event Duncan also won the Budweiser Pole Award (for the second
consecutive year) and led all but one lap around the flat half-mile
paved oval.
Source: Vance Palm
MB Duncan Motor Sports
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