Catchfence

Where the Raybestos Rookies finished at Daytona:

McDowell 14^th

Gaughan 15^th

Townley 21^st

Annett 35^th

Allgaier 40^th

Lagasse Jr. 43^rd

UNOFFICIAL Raybestos Rookie standings:

McDowell 11

Gaughan 10

Townley 9

Annett 8

Allgaier 7

Lagasse Jr. 6

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUOTES FOR THE CAMPING WORLD 300 NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES RACE AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2009, PAGE 2. 

JUSTIN ALLGAIER, No. 12 VERIZON WIRELESS DODGE:  WHAT HAPPENED?  WHAT DID YOU SEE?  “I really couldn’t see much to be honest with you.  It’s a shame for all the guys on the Verizon Wireless Dodge.  They’ve worked their butts off to get here. It’s a shame also because it’s the first race Verizon Wireless is on the car.  We were trying to get a good run there.  We were just running down the back straightaway and saw somebody get turned and went into three and was trying to get turned to the bottom and just couldn’t get slowed down quick enough, ran into the back of Scott.  It’s unfortunate I think we’re going to be able to get it fixed and go back out, maybe get a few more laps in.  Really not much you could see out there.  It’s unfortunate.  These cars, we’re running so close together that I saw something happen up front and tried getting slowed down and get turned the bottom, and unfortunately by then we were already into the corner and ran into the back of Scott.  I hate it for all the guys on the Verizon Wireless Dodge.  They were really working their butts off this weekend.  Felt like we had a really good car.  Just trying to bide our time until the end of the race.”  

SCOTT LAGASSE JR., AMERICA’S INCREDIBLE PIZZA COMPANY TOYOTA:  WHAT HAPPENED?  “Aw, just frustrated.  A couple of guys got a little over anxious in front of us, I don’t know.  I couldn’t really tell.  All I know is there was beating and banging going on and probably a little early in the race for that.  I hate it for our guys, Paul [Wolfe, crew chief].  The guys at CJM built a killer race car and the plan for this weekend was to get in and out of here in one piece and just gain the respect of the guys around us and I hope we did some of that.  But you hate it for America’s Incredible Pizza Company.  We had such a good car in practice and qualified exactly like we thought we would.  We were just kind of biding our time and I don’t know what you do in that situation.  I just saw a couple of guys getting together in front of me and tried to slow it down and just couldn’t.  I kind of got jacked up from behind, which is nothing that Justin could have done..  He couldn’t see what was happening.  The only chance we had was get to the bottom.  I hate it for our guys.  They built a great race car and CJM Racing and America’s Incredible Pizza Company this wasn’t what we were expecting down here the way practice and qualifying went.  We’ll go to California and see what happens.”  NASCAR PENALIZED JASON LEFFLER FIVE LAPS FOR AGGRESSIVE DRIVING.  WHAT IS YOUR REACTION?  “Doesn’t affect our race cars.  Our guys work so hard and really we just wanted to get out here, gain respect, solid day and take that car back and work on it and make it really, really good because right off the truck it was a pretty good race car.  Just needed a little bit more and we could have been running for the win.  We’ll see.  We’ll come back here in Daytona in July and more importantly get to California and show what we’re capable of.”          

MICHAEL MCDOWELL IN THE No. 47 TOM’S CHEVROLET WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE IN TODAY’S RACE AT DAYTONA: 

NOTES:

• McDowell scored a 14^th-place finish on the lead lap, equaling his best finish in six career NASCAR Nationwide Series starts.

MCDOWELL:  YOU’VE GOT TO BE SMILING FROM EAR TO EAR.  “I am.  It’s great for Tom’s and it’s great for JTG. It’s our first outing together and just excited. We knew that we had a car that could race well.  We just needed some help out there.  We knew we were going to struggle in qualifying.  We started shotgun on the field and drove our way to the top-20 pretty quickly.  We knew we had a piece.  We just needed to put ourselves in position and we did that at the end.  Man, these pit stops were phenomenal.  These guys are going to be ready to go for the 500 tomorrow.  They did a great job and Marcos Ambrose is going to have a good pit crew tomorrow.  I’m looking forward to watching the 500 as well.”  HOW MUCH DOES THIS RUN TODAY BOOST YOUR CONFIDENCE?  “You know, obviously it’s a huge help, but just running in the Sprint Cup Series gives you a lot of confidence.  When you run almost the whole year and you’re racing against the world’s best and you sort of hold your own, you realize you can do it.  It’s just a little bit of vindication to go out there and run with the guys and put it up against three-wide on the last lap.  And we were Raybestos Rookie of the Race, too.”  COMMENT ON RACING FOR POSITION IN THE LEAD DRAFT IN THE CLOSING LAPS OF THE RACE.  “Well, the biggest thing was that the top lane started to go so I hopped up there.  Logano was up there, the 6 was up there, the 17 was up there.  I thought man, this is a good group to be with especially with two to go.  Logano started blowing a right-rear there and so he started to get loose in and sort of jammed up the pack.  But luckily we got through it and all in all a great day.”  HOW DOES YOUR PERFORMANCE AT DAYTONA SET THE TONE FOR THE 2009 SEASON?  “This is what we came to do.  We came to run well and I have something to prove.  It’s a very humbling experience to run in the Sprint Cup Series.  I want to run top-five, I want to win races this year and this is a team and a program that can do it.  I’m just real excited to stay with Toyota.  They’re going to be in the sport for a long time and just happy to be a part of this organization.”  

BRENDAN GAUGHAN, No. 62 SOUTH POINT HOTEL CHEVROLET:  “We had a lot better South Point Chevrolet today.  Pushed Junior on that restart and somebody brake checked and I gave Junior the shove and he went to the bottom on me.  I just couldn’t run on the bottom as well.  Stayed at the top, had a run on that last lap and was going to pass probably three, four more race cars and Joey blew a tire.  I saw it going for about four laps and parked me.  I didn’t ‘em, it just stopped what I had going and I had to settle for 15^th.  But we didn’t dig a hole.  I said let’s not come here and battle out of 42^nd, let’s battle out of nice top-15 and we’re in the points, we’re here to win it.”  ARE YOU HAPPY WITH HOW YOUR DAYTONA RACE WENT?  “I tell you what, the race car looks phenomenal.  Somebody said earlier it reminded ‘em of Rusty flipping down the back straightaway and I said I’ll leave that reminiscent part of this paint scheme out.  Unfortunately didn’t get Rusty his first Daytona win here but we’ve got one more shot at Daytona later this year.”  

JOHN WES TOWNLEY, No. 09 ZAXBY’S FORD:  YOU HAD A SOLID FINISH HERE TODAY.  WHAT DOES THAT DO FOR YOUR CONFIDENCE?  “It builds it a lot.  We were out there practicing drafting and it was a little sketchy.  We got it better but it was still a little aero-tight, a little chassis loose.  Out there in the draft we had a couple of instances one of which we accidently scrubbed the Turn 2 wall but we got in and that thing taken care of. It was a pretty good run for the backup car.  I think we’re all pretty happy.  I think everybody is ready to go on to the next race and see if we can get a better one.  It really does boost it [confidence].  It really lets someone know that they can do it and it doesn’t overwhelm you.  We’re just trying to get solid runs to put a smile on NASCAR’s face and see if we can keep it that way.”  HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO HAVE A GOOD RUN HERE TODAY AND GET SOME MOMENTUM AT THE START OF THE SEASON?  “It’s very important.  We bought points for the first five races so we’re good until then so we want to keep it in the top-30 in points.”

MICHAEL ANNETT, No. 15 PILOT TRAVEL CENTERS TOYOTA:  “We really didn’t have a plan going into it.  It was pretty much stay out of trouble, be there at the end and then we got a flat right-rear and that kind of set our game plan for us.  At first we were going to be in position for the lucky dog and then that put us at the back of the longest line so it was pretty much all right, we’ll just stay back here and ride and go racing there at the end.  And it was kind of shaping up to have Edwards back there.  There were some good cars back there that were kind of on the same game plan.  Then we came in and got our final adjustments, got the tires rolling and we were ready to go racing and it just started sputtering.  We came in and the alternator belt came off.  We were in the pits for three or four laps getting new battery in it and then it was pretty much save the car for when we come back here pretty much.”

Raybestos® brand brake and chassis parts are produced by affiliated companies in Affinia’s Global Brake and Chassis Group, the leading manufacturer of braking systems and chassis parts in the transportation industry.  The brake line includes everything from brake drums to rotors, pads, shoes and hydraulic parts, while the chassis line features tie rods, ball points, idler arms and sway bar links.  Raybestos brand braking and chassis systems are also the only systems used by NASCAR’s Joe Gibbs Racing in competition.  For more information about Raybestos brakes, visit Raybestos.com.  For more information on Raybestos Chassis visit RaybestosChassis.com

Affinia Group Inc. is a global leader in the on and off-highway replacement products and service industry.  In North America the Affinia family of brands includes WIX® Filters, Raybestos®, AIMCO® and BrakePro® brake products, and McQuay-Norris® and Raybestos™ Chassis parts.  South American and European brands include Nakata®, Filtron®, Urba® and Quinton Hazell®.  For more information, visit affiniagroup.com.

*Affinia Group Inc.’s affiliated companies include Brake Parts Inc. WIX Filtration Corp LLC, Affinia Products  Corp LLC and other high quality manufacturers of the Affinia family of brands.

Camp & Associates, Inc., For Raybestos, Press Release