Friday

Raybestos Rookie Michael Annett Eighth in Food City 250

Raybestos Rookie Contender Logo

Michael Annett, 8th

Michael McDowell, 10th

Brendan Gaughan, 19th

Ken Butler, 23rd

Justin Allgaier, 27th

John Wes Townley, 33rd

Terry Cook, 42nd

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUOTES FOR THE

AT BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY, AUGUST 21, 2009,

No. 12 Verizon Wireless Dodge Charger

“I don’t know. The Verizon Wireless Dodge was the best racecar I’ve had – ever. The car was really good. We were just getting out there in front, get some clean out. It’s unfortunate. I hate it for the guys because they deserve a good finish. It’s going to be a big hit on us in the points but it happens. We’ll be back next week and hopefully we can run just as well. I wish I knew what happened but unfortunately it’s stuff like this that happens. That’s what Bristol is all about. I know that the guys are going to get the car done. We’ll get it back together and get it back out there. Just an unfortunate night for all the guys I can tell you that.”

Justin Allgaier

“Oh yeah, I mean, it’s definitely just racing at Bristol. It’s tight. That’s the unfortunate part about this racetrack. It’s a shame that it happened but at the end of the day we knew we were going to have races that were going to be bad and this is one ‘em and we’ve got to soldier on from it. Hopefully we don’t lose too many points. We can get back out there and keep where we’re at.”

No. 15 Pilot Travel Centers TOYOTA Camry

NOTES:

- Michael Annett scored an eighth-place finish, his third top-10 this season. He claimed Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the second time in 2009.

- Michael McDowell posted a 10th-place finish, his fifth top-10 and second in the last four races.

- DID YOU KNOW? At least one Raybestos® Rookie has scored a top-10 finish in 21 of 24 NASCAR Nationwide Series races this season.

DID YOU KNOW? Tonight’s race marks just the third time since the Raybestos Rookie of the Year program was created in 1989 have TWO or more Raybestos® Rookie finished in the top-10 in the August race at Bristol (20 races). The others:

2000: Kevin Harvick (FIRST) and Jay Sauter (sixth)

2000: David Ragan (sixth) and Brad Keselowski (seventh)

Michael Annett

“I tell you what it’s a testament to these guys. I don’t think they’ve sat down once today and took a breath. We broke a track bar early in the practice and blew up there at the end of it. This is what a car is supposed to look like when you start last at Bristol and we had a blast. Even in the race it got harder and harder for ‘em and they just kept digging and that’s all you can ask for your guys.”

DID YOUR CAR GET BETTER AND BETTER DURING THE RACE?

“We needed long runs. It seems like we’d lose a spot or two every restart and then we’d end up getting closer to the wall kind of running it seemed like higher than anybody else was and we’d be able to sneak up on ‘em and get some of those spots back. We needed long runs and we got a couple of ‘em which helped us a lot on track position. We’re happy. This is the home track for Pilot Travel Centers and there’s a bunch of those folks here tonight. It’s good to have a good showing in front of the people that allow you to go to the racetrack each weekend.”

ARE YOU MORE PROUD OF THIS RUN TONIGHT THAN ANY OTHER RACE THIS SEASON?

“I think so. This run we really didn’t fall into. We worked for it. We’ve had some good runs on paper but we knew as a team we probably weren’t that good and tonight we dug for this one and earned this finish.”

MIKE HILLMAN SR., CREW CHIEF, No. 15 PILOT TRAVEL CENTERS TOYOTA: YOU HAD A GOOD FINISH TONIGHT AFTER YOU HAD TO CHANGE ENGINES EARLIER TODAY.

“It really worked out great. Michael did a heck of a job. I think the progression has been great all day and we’re really looking forward to the end of the year. Week in and week out we improve and tonight we got paid back for it a little bit. We never got to make a qualifying run. We went out to make one and had an oil pump problem and we had to change engines. We qualified 13th so we knew we had a good racecar but we had to go all the way to the back. And then we tried some pit strategy stuff there trying to make sure that we could be there at the end and fortunately we got there and turned out great. We rubbed and bumped a little bit. The outside tonight was really, really fast. Harry Gant would have had a good time [smiles].”

COMMENT ON YOUR RUN TONIGHT.

“It started off in the back. We blew an engine up in practice and had to go to the back after qualifying 13th. We knew what we had ahead of us from the very beginning but we knew it was a long race. Of course it was Bristol so we had a bunch of visits to pit road pulling out fenders and everything but the guys, you know, I don’t think they sat down today to take a breath. They’ve been working all day and had to work all night at it. But we’ve got something to show for it and being top finishing Raybestos Rookie and another top-10 for us we just keep getting better and makes it exciting for me to come to the track each weekend.”

THE LAST FEW WEEKS HAVE BEEN GOOD AND WHAT THE CHANGE IN CREW CHIEFS DID.

“I don’t think it was necessarily just changing one person. We got a bunch of people that got their hands around it and we just kind of sat down and knew something needed to change and we made a change and you can just tell by watching my guys around the garage area their heads are up and they’re excited and they’re excited making the car better. And that’s been the coolest part is that we used to go to the track on weekends and kind of unload and that’s what we had and now we unload and we keep making the car better through practice and even through the race. That’s the biggest change that I’ve seen.”

Michael McDowell

“We had a great car at the end of the race. Our radiator fan broke so under caution we overheated real bad. We were running I think about 11th or 10th about 50 laps into it and I felt like we had a pretty good car and could run there. Basically, we had it overheating and had to come in and plug the cool down unit and with the cautions being so short here we couldn’t even put tires on. We just plugged it in, so we went back to 30th, however many cars are on the lead lap and sort of got off-sequence there. A caution came out and we put tires on it. Our car was pretty good, but man, it was tough in traffic. With these motors it’s tough to pass. We got up to about 20th and just started working on the setup, kept freeing it up a little bit. With about a hundred to go or fifty to go we turned on the wick and we could go pretty good.

I think we could run top-five times there at the end. I really didn’t need that yellow there at the end because we were making up good ground on the guys that were on a long run and that caution bunched everything up. With our situation, just our budget, we can’t come in and put another set of tires on with five to go. Otherwise we’d have had a shot at a top-seven, top-eight. They said ‘Well, we don’t have any tires so I guess we’re staying out.’ And luckily that caution came out with one to go ‘cause Reutimann might have got us there at the end with new tires. Behind us we’ve got a Braun car and in front of us we’ve got a Yates car, a couple of Cup teams and we spent $26,000 to come here so it’s pretty good [smiles].

DID YOU HAVE A WATER LEAK OR HOLD IN THE RADIATOR?

“No, it’s just the radiator fan here because you’re going so slow under caution, it’s really crucial to move the air and cool the car off. Under green flag we’d run 200 degrees and under caution we’d run 260 because we didn’t have a radiator fan so it started spitting water out and we were afraid to lose too much water, burn the motor down early on. So we gave up the track position to make sure that we had a car at the end and I can’t believe we got back through the field. It was a good race. I’m really happy.”

CAN YOU SUM UP THE MOOD OF YOUR TEAM TONIGHT?

“It’s hard to really put in perspective how small the team but how hard they work. It’s a small shop with just four or five cars and those guys work hard to keep those cars going every weekend. When you tear up fenders and you tear up sides, they don’t really have time to get it all back together. You’ve got to be cautious out there but at the same time when you’ve got a good run going you’ve got to go for it. I’m pretty happy with everything we’ve got going on right now.”

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- Camp & Associates, Inc Press Release