The Rayovac Blair Chevrolet-powered-by-McLaren entry started tenth for the 200-lap race. Temperatures in the area varied from unseasonably hot of over 15 degrees to 15 degrees cooler on the west coast. Barron and the team experienced weather from 96 degrees in the town just north of Philadelphia to a quick cooling trend with thunder and rain for Saturday's qualifying and even cooler for race day. This is the inaugural IRL race at Nazareth but Barron knows the track well; he won the 1997 Atlantic pole and the race here and finished ninth in the CART race in 1999. Those successes combined with the experienced Rayovac Blair team, helped put the Dallara chassis third overall in the first day of practice and tenth in the starting lineup for the 200 mile event.

The hot to extreme hot temperatures that blanketed the Allentown, Pa area turned to cool to extreme cold for today's race. Light sprinkles threatened the start of the race but quickly faded away. Barron moved up two spots on the start and remained in the top-ten for the remainder of the day. He was tapped from behind on lap 24 but did not seem to have any damage. On lap 90 he moved the Rayovac machine into fifth. After a pit top on lap 95 he called into the Blair crew "great stop guys," and continued on. Hail and light sleet started coming down on the 24 car field and a yellow was thrown while the drivers cruised around slowly waiting for it to subside. The race went green on lap 116 and Barron moved into fourth and then third. He battled with Eddie Cheever for third but remained there until his final pit stop on lap 178. Most of the field pitted for fuel and a few gambled. Barron returned to the race in sixth when another sleet and light rain storm blew over the race track. With 45 laps remaining the drivers once again slowed until the rain stopped. The field packed up for the restart with 18 laps remaining. Barron drove hard with the new tires and fuel but the many yellows and delays in the race due to rain and other racing incidents dictated the outcome for the Rayovac Blair team. Barron finished sixth in the fourth race of the season.

"This weekend was a great opportunity to show Rayovac what the team could do," said Barron. "We should have finished third today, but the rain and the yellows really hurt us. We ran well and we were fast all weekend. It feels good to start tenth and run great for the whole race. It was hard today to cruise around for so long waiting to go green. The track never got wet. We want to focus on the good things and not the negative of almost being able to finish in the top-three. Going into Indy today and this whole week is good for the team and having Rayovac on board really boosts our momentum. We tested at Indy this week and that went well. Now we are getting mentally ready for the Month of May and the Indy 500. Indy is something I have wanted to race in since I watched it as a kid with my dad. Rayovac believes in us and having Rayovac team up with us is really a great thing for the team. We are happy to have this great product on board; it couldn't be better timing for us to make a charge to the front. We have a good car, team and engineer and now a fine sponsor. Indy should be an exciting month for everyone involved."

It has been said that there's no other track like Nazareth, the one-mile oval features a unique layout that officially features four turns, but many drivers say the kinks and doglegs throughout the circuit actually provide more turns than four. The turns have varying degrees of banking, with Turn One at 3 degrees, Turn Two at 4 degrees and Turns Three and 4 at 6 degrees. The front straightaway is banked at 3 degrees, while the back straight is banked at 2.7 degrees.

Blair's Indianapolis based team heads home to continue preparations for the prestigious Indianapolis 500. May 5, Opening Day on the famous 2.5-mile oval is two weeks away with regular practice to follow. Pole Day is Saturday, May 11 and the second day of qualifying follows on May 12. The final day of qualifying, called Bump Day, will take place on Sunday, May 19. The 33 fastest drivers who qualified for the Indianapolis 500 will take the green flag on Sunday, May 26 at 11:00 a.m. eastern. The race will air on the ABC television network and the IMS Radio Network at 1:00 p.m. eastern; check local listings.

More information and live timing and scoring can be found at the IRL's official website at www.indyracing.com.

www.BlairRacing.com keeps fans up-to-date with all the latest team news and information.