Bliss makes comeback, points statement

MILLINGTON, Tenn. -- Mike Bliss had a career comeback Saturday in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series O'Reilly Auto Parts 200 at Memphis Motorsports Park -- but there weren't many smiling faces in the Xpress Motorsports pit area following the race.

Bliss, an eight-time winner in the Truck Series who returned full-time this season after exploring the Winston Cup and Busch Series for two years, had high hopes for the race after he rebounded from a poor practice effort to qualify fifth.

	Mike Bliss

But he lost five laps in the pits after a battery cable became disconnected on his No. 16 IWX/Knights Inn Chevrolet on the first round of yellow flag pit stops while he was running fifth. But the story was how he finished 18th -- making up 16 positions in the space of about 175 laps.

"There's one thing about these guys -- Dave (Fuge, team manager/chassis specialist) and John (Monsam, crew chief)," Bliss said. "We've got some smart people here. If we're not good in practice we stop and think and look at all the notes we've done and these guys are really good at putting together a good race truck."

It showed Saturday.

After restarting from the miscue 34th, he slowly but surely made up all five laps -- aided in great part by the timeliness of seven more cautions that flew over the .750-mile oval. As the checkered fell, his crew was timing his laps at 23.80 seconds, while race winner Travis Kvapil's CAT Chevrolet was running 24.50s.

Bliss came into the race only 37 points behind leader David Starr, in fourth. He left still in fourth and even though his deficit unofficially doubled, to 74 points, his team exhibited the focus and demeanor of which championships are made.

"To come back, I'd say, showed good character," Monsam said. "Unfortunately, we made a mistake that shows we're not perfect. We did it to ourselves and Mike did a great job.

"We changed batteries in the morning because we were concerned about the heat, the air blowers for Mike and the fans we have to run for the brakes. We put in a larger battery and it didn't get spaced properly and when Mike got on the gas it worked itself loose from the plug in the battery box."

Initially the team thought the cable had simply become unplugged, but it immediately disconnected again and while they diagnosed the problem and changed back to the original battery, the laps ticked off.

"At any race track, you've only heard of anyone making up anything like five laps a few times -- if ever," Monsam said. "But the problem is, we didn't win. If we would've won, it would have been a tremendous story. Finishing 18th, I'm not sure anybody really cares."

If they didn't care, at least it made the day a little more interesting.

"We've had a good race truck every race -- better in practice, then better in qualifying and better in the race," Bliss said. "That truck today was one of the best trucks that you can drive at this race track. It was unfortunate that we went down five laps because I think it would've been just like at the end -- I think we would have won this race -- we had a really, really good truck."

Bliss has won championships in Late Models and USAC Silver Crown cars, but he has never achieved anything like what he did at Memphis.

"I made up two laps at the new track down in Homestead and finished second -- that was probably the most I've ever made up," Bliss said. "Not five -- that was incredible. I wish I could have made up one on one of the cautions when I didn't -- then we could've raced 'em for the win.

"That's the way it went and we're just fortunate we finished. We lost some points (and) we gave some points away last week. We can't give points away any more. We want to win this championship and we're a good race team.

"We've got some new people on this race team and things that happened today won't happen again. We'll make sure that we learn from it. We'll get stronger and I guess you build on this kind of stuff."

Team owner Steve Coulter, who met his new crew chief for the first time this weekend, said the event had made an impression on him. The owner earlier this season had seen a five-year winless drought broken by Bliss at Pikes Peak International Raceway.

"We're trying to build a race team and this did us a lot of good today," Coulter said. "Dave and John came up with a good strategy, but when you're five laps down. . ."