4th Place for Bliss in Dover

BLISS FINISHES FOURTH AT THE MONSTER MILE
  This makes the second consecutive top-five finish for Mike Bliss in the #22 Supercuts/Family Dollar Dodge.
   
  Mike Bliss posted a stout battle with the "Monster" on Saturday in the Roadloans.com 200, triumphantly making his best finish of the season so far. Good strategies played out by crew chief Paul Wolfe allowed Bliss to take the Supercuts/Family Dollar Dodge from its thirteenth place starting position all the way to the top of the leader board for fourteen laps, earning Bliss the WIX Filters Lap Leader of the Race award. 
   
  Bliss commented after the race, “Winning the WIX award is great for this team- we’re kind of the underdog, but we worked really hard and we beat some good cars today.” 
   
  The team was very confident going into the race, after finishing ninth at Dover in June, and coming off of a fifth place finish two weeks ago in Richmond. 
   
  “Yeah I guess we have just really caught on to what works for us,” crew chief Paul Wolfe stated. “We thought we had a good car going into Dover, and that in combination with our pit strategies helped us to run up front and stay with the leaders to finish out the race. Bliss did a great job letting us know what we needed to do to get the car right, and that really paid off.”
   
  While the majority of the field pitted on the fourth caution of the race, Mike Bliss kept the No. 22 out until the seventh caution came on lap 93. 
   
  After leading the race for fourteen laps and running in the top three for another forty, Bliss came in to pit- taking fuel, four tires, and an adjustment to help the tight conditions of the Supercuts Dodge. 
   
  A speeding on pit road violation put Bliss back out in 23rd position on lap 99, but he steadily was able to work his way back up. 
   
  “We knew we had a good car, and although I screwed up by speeding down pit road, we were able to come back,” Bliss stated. 
   
  Making only one more pit stop in the caution filled race gave Bliss the opportunity to maintain track position and battle in the top-five for the final thirty laps of the race.
   
  Bliss commented over the radio, “It’s amazing how much more grip you get with only two cars in front of you,” implying that the car handled much better when it was not in traffic. 
   
  Reed Sorenson and Carl Edwards battled it out to take fourth place from Bliss, but the Supercuts/Family Dollar Dodge was fast enough to hold it’s own and finish in the top-five. 
   
  The fourth place finish at Dover marked the second consecutive top-five finish for Mike Bliss and Fitz Motorsports, moving Armando Fitz up to eighth place in Owner points.  
  The Supercuts Dodge will head to Kansas next week, once again with Bliss behind the wheel and aiming for a win. 
   
   
   


Sarah Tatum
  Account Manager/ Public Relations
  Fitz Motorsports
  (704)799-3500(work)
  (941)504-6254(cell)
  (704)799-3502(fax)
  www.gofitzmotorsports.com