Catchfence

2009 Raybestos Rookie Contender

Allgaier 10th
McDowell 11th
Gaughan 12th
Annett 19th
Lagasse Jr. 27th

UNOFFICIAL Raybestos Rookie standings (top-five):

Gaughan 124
Allgaier 124
McDowell 113
Lagasse Jr. 109
Annett 90

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUOTES FOR THE HELUVA GOOD! 200 NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES RACE AT DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY, MAY 30, 2009.

KEN BUTLER, No. 23 AARON’S CHEVROLET: “We were free all the way around, entering and coming out and just waiting for the mandatory caution on lap 35 to get it worked on and just got wrecked it looked like. It just stinks. It was only lap 31 and we got wrecked. It’s just very upsetting for the whole Aaron’s Dream Machine team. It looked like to me that somebody got loose underneath me and just wrecked me.”

JOHN WES TOWNLEY, No. 09 ZAXBY’S FORD: “I saw a lead lap car go in for the pass for and I decided to follow him and when I did it seemed like maybe he could have given me a little bit more room but I mean that’s racing here. I got free the first time and I saved it and the second time when I come off the corner and it came out from under me it was over with and unfortunately it collected us both. Just an unfortunate day. I hate it that we couldn’t finish the race but maybe it was just a minor setback and we’ll go for next weekend and see what we can do.”

DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING THAT WILL HELP YOU WHEN YOU COME BACK HERE? “I did. I think one of the main things is just how tight racing can be at the bottom. I had run a race here last year and unfortunately our motor blew. It’s just unfortunate.”

MARC DAVIS, No. 10 THE WORD NETWORK/WHUR TOYOTA: WHAT HAPPENED? “I don’t know. The leaders were coming there, just trying to give them some space and left pit on the inside right there and somebody got into us a little bit. I hate it for these guys at WHUR. It’s the home track for these guys and the first day in the 10 car and didn’t want it to end this way. We’ll go back at it again next week at Nashville and we what we can get.”

HOW WAS YOUR CAR BEFORE THAT? “We had to make some adjustments. At first we were way free on entry, center all the way up off the corner. We got adjustments made and about 15-20 laps into a run we were awesome and just took us a little bit to get going. The car was definitely coming to us a little bit right there. We were sitting 23rd, 24th somewhere around there and the car was coming to us. I hate it for these guys. They go out there and they work on ‘em so hard and were trying to go out there and make some more laps, make some adjustments to it and see what we can do but it looks like it’s a rear clip. ; We’ll go back to the shop, fix it and get ready for Nashville next weekend.”

WHAT DOES THE REST OF YOUR SCHEDULE LOOK LIKE? “We’ll go to Nashville, Kentucky, Milwaukee, hopefully ORP and Gateway as well. I think five more after today.”

JUSTIN ALLGAIER IN THE No. 12 VERIZON WIRELESS DODGE WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE IN TODAY’S RACE AT DOVER.

NOTES:

* Allgaier posted a 10th-place finish, his sixth top-10 finish this season. He grabbed top Raybestos Rookie honors for the third time this season.

* UNOFFICIALLY Allgaier and Brendan Gaughan are tied for the lead in the Raybestos Rookie standings (124-124).

* THE STREAK STAYS ALIVE! At least one Raybestos® Rookie has scored top-10 finishes in the last 10 consecutive NASCAR Nationwide Series races.

* Allgaier became the first Raybestos Rookie to score a top-10 in the spring race at Dover since Marcos Ambrose placed sixth in 2007.

* PERFECT ATTENDANCE! All 10 Raybestos Rookies entered in today’s Heluva Good! 200 at Dover qualified for the race, the most to start a Nationwide Series race this season.

ALLGAIER: “I tell ya, we’ve kept the streak going at some of these places that we’ve never been to getting these top-10s. It feels good. All the guys in the Verizon Wireless Dodge did an awesome job today. They got us going in the right direction. It’s been fun coming to these new racetracks learning everything we can and going out and running as well as we have been. It’s been an awesome feeling.”

YOU WERE PROBABLY ONE OF THOSE GUYS WHO DIDN’T NEED THAT LAST RESTART. “No, we actually had a tire going down when we come to get the green and I didn’t realize it until we were rolling up to get the start and I stood on the gas a little bit to clean the tires off. I knew right then that we had a problem. Tried holding our own and then Kyle Busch got shoved to the outside and I thought for sure that we were going to be in a major wreck. Luckily enough God kept me safe and kept us going in the right direction and we didn’t lose too many spot. It’s an awesome day.”

YOU WERE RACING HARD BEFORE THAT CAUTION WITH JASON LEFFLER AND MIKE BLISS. “We had a really good car. We felt like we were better than the guys in front of us. We just never could get up there and pass ‘em. It’s shame because, you know, we know we should have had at least a top-eight finish. But to come out of here with a 10th –place finish after all the stuff we went through today, that gives you momentum. We’ve got a long stretch of races. We need to build points and I think we’re doing that.”

ALLGAIER PRESS CONFERENCE

“Our run was fairly all right today but just didn’t get a good qualifying run this morning and that really hurt us. We got stuck in traffic and felt like we had a better car than where we were running. We were running lap times that were more toward the front of the field. But once you’re back there and you’re running behind guys single file it’s hard to get around ‘em. We were making the top work for us at the end of the run but at the beginning we were just too loose on the top and couldn’t get around guys. It was a good run. We got a little bit hairy there at the end. We had a tire going down on us, the green-white-checkered, and we went into one. When Kyle was up the racetrack we were trying to get a run on the outside of somebody already. I think we ended up getting into Kyle and tearing the right side up a little bit, lost a spot or two. But to come out of here 10th first time I’ve ever seen the place was a good race and hopefully we can keep the Verizon Wireless Dodge going up front and get some better finishes coming up in the next couple of races.

” YOUR IMPRESSION OF YOUR FIRST TRIP DOWN THE NEW PIT ROAD HERE AT DOVER. “You know coming here for the first time I’ve heard all the horror stories about pit r oad and how hard it was to get on and off. I think they’ve done a great job of really widening out pit road. Without ever being here before it’s tough to say but I was able to get in and out of my box really easy, get out to the wall. It seemed like there was enough room to get cars two-wide and we actually ran two-wide coming out of pit road there. I think they’ve done a good job. I didn’t have as much pressure coming into this race as he [Joey Logano] did last year so I was able to take it in a lot more. It’s a really cool racetrack, a lot of history here. It was fun to get the first one out of the way and now we can come back the second time and race.”

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 47 CONSTRUCTIONJOBS.COM TOYOTA: “It’s a good run coming from dead last. We had to do a motor change and I’m telling, the JTG Daugherty guys and ConstructionJobs.com, they got an engine in with an hour to go. We didn’t find the problem until just before the race. I’m really proud of what everybody did today.”

COMMENT ON THE INTENSE RACING AT THE END OF THE RACE. “Yeah, you know, you get two, three wide and the green-white-checkered gets pretty intense. I didn’t mean to run over the 11 like that. He had a run on the inside and he didn’t leave me a lane on the outside and I was already committed. I hated to get into somebody else.”

THIS IS ANOTHER SOLID FINISH AS YOU ENTER A TOUGH STRETCH OF RACES. “Well I really needed to get Allgaier there on that last lap so I could get that Raybestos Rookie of the Race. I had a pretty good run but I had Bliss all over me too so to I was trying to defend and trying to be aggressive all at the same time.”

BRENDAN GAUGHAN, No. 62 USFIDELIS CHEVROLET: “The driver screwed up on a pit stop and stalled and that put us behind on track position and in the Nationwide Series, you can’t let that happen. This is a tough series to race in. Had a chance at the Raybestos Rookie there in the end. We all got bound up. We had a great battle. Kyle Busch, something happened on the restart, whether he blew it or somebody moved him, but he got right in the middle of my way. I was right through the high groove going to pass a couple and he ended up punting Justin Allgaier and Justin got way sideways and did a great job saving it. The kid can do some driving. He got sideways about five times and that was for the rookie battle, me McDowell and him. We had a top-10 car and didn’t put it there. I feel bad for the USfidelis guys. We’ve got to do better when we’ve got their sponsorship on.”

SCOTT LAGASSE JR., No. 11 AMERICA’S INCREDIBLE PIZZA COMPANY TOYOTA: “I’m fine, just hate it for our guys. It was a good racecar and we were working to get it decent there and we were going to have a decent day but it ended a little short not of our making. It’s how it goes.”

WHAT HAPPENED? “I don’t know, a bit aggressive there. I’m not sure. I know what I was told happened and I won’t repeat that one [smiles].

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