Tim George Jr.: "Good On The Track and On Paper"

(TOLEDO, Ohio - May 16, 2011) - In finishing fourth in Sunday's Menards 200 presented by Federated Car Care at Toledo Speedway, Tim George Jr. achieved something he had not done since last July.

George's finish was his first top-five result since another fourth place at Mansfield Motorsports Park last summer; the two results are his best short track finishes. With a race at New Jersey Motorsports Park on the way for the New York, N.Y. native who has significant road course experience, momentum is trending upward for George (No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Development Chevrolet).

"I haven't had a top-five in a while," George said. "We've really been running strong, and to actually have the results is good. Now we look good on the track and on paper, so I'm happy.

"We'll go to a road course where it's my home track and hopefully we'll get a W in Jersey."

Next Sunday's ModSpace 150 comes three months earlier than it did in the 2010 season, when George led 19 of 67 laps and finished 11th after being bumped out of the lead by eventual winner Casey Roderick.

Following yesterday's race at Toledo, though, George had a different driver on his mind.

"I went to the Toledo Speedway Bar & Grille (Saturday) and ran into Hessert and told him I want to race nice and clean and put Salem behind us," George said. "Apparently, someone didn't have that idea. I was trying to keep off of him, but we got together, of course. We're like magnets. In every series, there are rivals, and I guess Hessert and I will take it to the road course."

Hessert is from Cherry Hill, N.J. and has improved over each of his three starts at New Jersey, finishing 19th in 2008, eighth in 2009, and fifth in 2010.

"What happened at Salem was over and done with," Hessert said. "I put it behind me. Yesterday at Toledo, what happened was that the leader (Kenzie Ruston) had an incident in front of us and the entire field stacked up. It just happened to be that I was behind Tim because that's where I started.

"There was no bad feeling or hard intentions. Tim recovered to have a good day and we got torn up and rode around the rest of the day. It wasn't like I ran into Tim. It just happened."



(arcarracing.com)