Irwindale, CA (October 23, 2006): Busch East Series, Grand National Division Champion Mike Olsen had hoped to put an exclamation point on a highly successful season with a win at the Toyota All-Star Showdown Saturday night. But when fourth gear broke in his No. 61 “Little Trees” Chevrolet on a late-race restart, all those hopes came to a halt and the driver had to park his car with a 25th place finish.

“We can’t complain about this year,” said Olsen. “This is our worst finish this season, but if it was going to happen, then I’m glad it happened here in a non-points race rather than during a regular season event. We had high hopes for this race, but so did the 29 other drivers competing here tonight. We had a good car, unfortunately it just wasn’t our night.”

Olsen, who finished eighth in his qualifier race on Friday night, started the Showdown from the 16th position and immediately began to make progress through the field using the bottom groove. By lap 14, when a wreck in turns three and four slowed the race, Olsen was tenth.

“I was really confident because I could drive the wheels off that car and it stuck to the bottom,” said Olsen. “I thought we had a real shot at winning the race with how the car felt in just those first few laps.”

Racing resumed at lap 20 with Olsen continuing his march. Nine laps into the green-flag run, Olsen was sixth and looking to close up about a ten carlength advantage that the fifth place car had over him. His lap times, averaging around 19 seconds flat, enabled him to do it in only three laps. By lap 34, Olsen was in fifth.

Olsen made it up to fourth before a tight condition started backing up his progress. On lap 61, Olsen was fighting the car to maintain what he had, and he was slowly losing the war.

“We’re pretty sure that a left front spring collapsed so it was making the car really tight and I had to use a lot more brake to keep the nose from sliding. We think that spring is what made the car so tight. The first 50 laps of the first 100 we had a really good car and then all of a sudden it just went bad,” said Olsen.

When the lap 100 mark hit, Olsen had been relegated to the ninth spot. The crew made some changes and set Olsen on his way for the final 50 laps of the Toyota All-Star Showdown, and at first glance, it appeared those changes had worked. By lap 104, Olsen was in the top-five once again.

The race took a dramatic turn at lap 124 when the field lined up for a restart. Olsen got up to speed, but it was clear he was backpeddaling. By lap 126, the North Haverhill, NH-driver was making his way to the pits. He reported that there was no fourth gear.

“At one point, it did jump out of fourth on me in the 100 lap race, but other than that there was no warning that we were going to lose the gear. On the restart I went to go and it was just gone. I’ve never had any problems with the gears or transmission so this is unusual for us. In fact, I just had them redone before Loudon. It happens I guess.”

Olsen will be honored as the 2006 Busch East Series Champion in December at the annual awards banquet held at Mohegan Sun Casino and Resort.