Texas Speedzone - Casey Smith Fell a Few Feet Short at San Antonio

AUSTIN, TEXAS (October 11, 2006) – The stands were packed for the 10th annual Oktober‘FAST’ events at San Antonio Speedway Saturday night.

Casey Smith Fell a Few Feet Short at San Antonio Casey reflects on the USRA event, and remembers Charlie Bradberry AUSTIN, TEXAS (October 11, 2006) – The stands were packed for the 10th annual Oktober‘FAST’ events at San Antonio Speedway Saturday night. The #9 Gary Buchanan Homes/Rapid Disposal Chevrolet driven by 21-year-old Casey Smith was the obvious car to beat after leading the first half of the “Texasspeedzone.com” 125. There was a full moon out over the ½ mile oval, so the action was sure to come. Smith had the fans on their feet for the last 5 laps of good, clean, exciting racing. Casey Smith crossed the line just feet behind Brandon Bendele after making up ground from a spin on lap 97. The #9 Gary Buchanan Homes/Rapid Disposal Chevrolet was quick all weekend. Casey qualified third, but started on the pole with a lucky draw. Casey led the first half of the race and was the obvious car to beat. The first caution came out at the half-way mark and all the leaders pitted for tires. Casey came out of the pits behind Bendele with Matt Merrell and Chris Davidson behind him. Smith stayed on Bendele’s bumper until he found the clean pass for the lead on lap 80. Shortly after a caution that brought Davidson back to Smith, the two got together in turn four and spun around. Casey was able to keep going without loosing much ground and re-started third behind Bendele and Merrell with 28 laps to go. Casey got around Merrell, and headed towards Bendele for the foot race. With 10 laps to go in the “Texasspeedzone.com” 125, Casey Smith was 10 car lengths behind leader Brandon Bendele. The flagman showed 5 laps to go as Casey closed in lap-after-lap. The fans were on their feet when the white flag came out. Casey had caught Bendele, but fans wondered if he would get around him. Last lap was a yo-yo, it was Bendele, no Smith, now Bendele, then Smith got an edge. Coming to the checkered flag, Bendele got an extra push on the outside of turn four and was able to cross the line just feet ahead of Smith. Smith was content with his run at the OktoberFAST 125 at San Antonio Speedway. “I’m happy that we had the most dominate car as everyone agrees, but it is disappointing that the most dominate car didn’t win.” Casey said. “We came out second after we got fresh tires, past Bendele, and put a straight away on him. I was getting loose, so we made some adjustments. On the restart I bottomed out and washed up and Chris got into me and spun me out which was just a racing deal. It was exciting to get back up to the front after that set-back. It was fun to run Bendele down at the end of the race there. I’m just disappointed that we couldn’t get the win. I just couldn’t get enough bite on it at turn 4 and he beat us to the line. It’s fun to race like that though.” It was a humbling race for Smith. He was told at the track early Saturday afternoon that a fellow racer, Charlie Bradberry, had passed away because of injuries sustained in an auto accident. Casey has raced against Bradberry for years in the Super Late Model series. Including this year in the Blizzard Series races at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida as well as Mobile International Speedway – where Bradberry clinched the series championship just weeks ago. “Chris [Davidson] and I were hanging out at the track and Steve [Turner] (Davidson’s car owner) called him and told us the news. We didn’t really believe it could have happened. We thought maybe he was in a bad wreck, but that rumors had turned it into something worse. Then we started hearing more confirmation, we all put 78 on our car in his memory and were racing with him in our minds. Charlie and I have known each other for a long time in Super Late Models. We started racing them about the same time. I wanted to get a win for him.” From all of us at Smith Racing, our hearts go out to the Bradberry family. We will always remember the bright red #78. Casey has recently made the decision not to race in the last Blizzard Series event at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida scheduled for Friday. He wanted more time to get his new car ready for the big events coming up, The Snowball Derby and the Mason Dixon Meltdown and the last USRA event at Thunderhill Raceway on October 28th. For more information on Casey Smith or his team, please visit www.caseysmithracing.com CONTACT: Paige Miller 512.589.6052 Paige_miller@hotmail.com