Historically, said crew chief Mark Gutekunst, ML Motorsports hasn’t fared well at Texas Motor Speedway. Gutekunst and the Warsaw-based NASCAR Nationwide Series team would like to change that trend Friday night. Driver Johanna Long and the team are scheduled to compete at the 1.5-mile track, which is located outside of Fort Worth, in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300. The race will air live on ESPN2 Friday at 8:30 p.m. “We’ve never had trouble qualifying there, but, historically, we haven’t done so well in the race,” Gutekunst said while working on the No. 70 Mary Louise Miller-owned Chevy at the team’s shop on U.S. 30. “Texas is similar to Las Vegas (Motor Speedway), but Texas has a lot more speed.” With five different drivers – Justin Diercks, Mark Green, Shelby Howard, David Stremme and Long – ML Motorsports has competed in 12 Nationwide Series races at Texas Motor Speedway. They have an average starting position of 28.3 and an average finish of 28.6. In this race last season, Long qualified 15th and finished 20th. It was her first Nationwide Series race at Texas and she posted the team’s best-ever start at the track and equalled its best finish. Green finished 20th at Texas in Nov. of 2008. This will be Long’s third Nationwide Series attempt at Texas, where she started 21st and finished 36th in the fall race last year. Long has been in three races this season, finishing 27th at Daytona, 40th at Phoenix and 19th at Las Vegas. To be locked in to the 40-car Nationwide Series field a driver has to be in the top 30 in owner’s points. ML Motorsports is 36th in owner’s points, meaning Long will have to qualify for the race on time. “It’s been a long time since we’ve not been in the top 30,” said Gutekunst. “We know we have to get in on time, but it’s not something we’re talking about. We don’t wanna get in that mindset and worry about it. We’ve never really had trouble qualifying.” Gutekunst also said extra practice time this week will help Long and the ML Motorsports team. “Texas is a cool deal, we get an extra day of practice,” said Gutekunst. “That gives us crew chiefs two days to try and figure things out. We’re gonna try some new stuff with the springs, and we’ll make a couple mock qualifying runs to make sure we know what we have.”
