Catchfence

2009 Raybestos Rookie Contender

Erik Darnell, 9th

Justin Allgaier, 13th

Michael McDowell, 15th

Scott Lagasse Jr., 16th

Michael Annett, 19th

Brendan Gaughan, 21st

Ken Butler III, 25th

John Wes Townley, 28th

UNOFFICIAL Raybestos Rookie standings (top-five):

Brendan Gaughan, 165

Justin Allgaier, 164

Michael McDowell, 150

Scott Lagasse Jr., 139

Michael Annett, 118

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUOTES FOR THE

AT NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY, JUNE 27, 2009,

ERIK DARNELL IN THE No. 6 NORTHERN TOOL + EQUIPMENT FORD WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE IN TODAY’S RACE AT NEW HAMPSHIRE.

NOTES:

- Darnell scored a ninth-place finish, his fourth top-10 in six starts and his second consecutive. He claimed Raybestos Rookie of the race honors for the third time this season and for the second consecutive race.

- Darnell is the first Raybestos Rookie to score a top-five at New Hampshire since 2005.

- Other top-10 finishes by Raybestos® Rookies in the spring race at New Hampshire:

1990 (fall): Bobby Moon, eighth

1991 (spring): David Green, eighth

1992 (fall): Ricky Craven, ninth

1997: Steve Park, second

2002: Shane Hmiel, fourth

2002: Scott Riggs, ninth

2005: Carl Edwards, second

2005: Denny Hamlin, third

UNOFFICIALLY Brendan Gaughan leads Justin Allgaier by one point (165-164) in the overall Raybestos Rookie standings.

UNOFFICIALLY Allgaier is seventh in the NASCAR Nationwide Series championship standings, best of any Raybestos Rookie.

MORE NOTES:

Michael Annett led today’s race once for one lap and became the first Raybestos Rookie to lead a lap at New Hampshire since 2002.

ERIK DARNELL, No. 6 NORTHERN TOOL + EQUIPMENT FORD:

“Another top-10. Mike Kelley [crew chief] and all these guys on this Northern Tool + Equipment Ford crew worked hard yesterday in practice and I really thought we had a car that was good in race trim and track conditions today were a lot different than they were yesterday and we were just off from the start. I could not get going on new tires like we normally can, just kind of skated around for six, seven or eight laps it seemed like and got behind. Track position was so important I had a hard time making it back up. We just fought and clawed all day right there between eighth and 11th and eighth and 12th and ended up ninth. That’s all it was.”

DID YOU WRINKLE UP THE LEFT FRONT EARLY IN THE RACE? WAS THAT A FACTOR?

“It might have been, I don’t know. Me and the 1 car [Mike Bliss] were racing pretty hard early on just because track position is so important here. He just slid up the track a little bit and got into me. Just one of those racing deals. I don’t really know if it affected it a whole lot. It may have a little bit but that wasn’t what made out day. We were fighting front end of the car more than anything.”

COULD YOU TELL THE TRACK CHANGED WHEN THE CLOUD COVER CAME WITH ABOUT 60 LAPS TO GO?

“It did change a little bit. I think we picked up a little bit of grip right there. It seemed like at that point we were running down Carl and Leffler and the guys that were in that group ahead of me. But after the pit stops the sun came back out and we just couldn’t get going on new tires again and ended up ninth. It’s another top-10 but as good as we’ve run with this team and as good as this team is I think we should be fighting for top-fives and getting close fighting for that first win. It’s frustrating to finish ninth but all in all a good effort for our Raybestos Rookie of the Year deal. We’ll add to that and hopefully when I’m back in the car at Gateway we can have a little bit better run.”

DARNELL PRESS CONFERENCE

“I think it was an average day for us. Mike Kelley and all the guys on this Northern Tool + Equipment Ford crew did a really good job in practice yesterday. I thought we had the car where we needed it to be in race trim. Never made a mock run so we qualified 11th and from that point on we didn’t have the track position that seemed to be really important today. The guys who took two tires at the end were able to stay up there it seemed like. We took four. I could never really seem to get going on new tires. We battled between eighth and 12th all day and that’s where we ended up. A little bit frustrating but another top-10 for us, another good points day for the Raybestos Rookie of the Year deal and hopefully the next time I’m in the car at Gateway in a couple of weeks we’ll be able to finish a little better than we did today.”

No. 12 Verizon Wireless Dodge Charger

“It was a decent run. For all things considering to come out of here 13th there’s one little dent on the car and that was just because chunk of rubber come off a car in front of us. It was a good day for the Verizon Wireless Dodge. It’s a good points day. This is the kind of race when you have a bad day you need to finish 13th and not 35th. We just kind of maintained and rode around and did the best we possibly could but we just never really were a threat today.”

Justin Allgaier

“I learned a lot. I think we learned a lot for when we come back here again. As a driver I learned a lot just in lines. I spent a lot of time searching. Like I said we need to be better when we come back here but it’s a racetrack that I’ve never been to. I learned a lot and I think that the stuff we learned today will hopefully help us coming up in some of the other races. New Hampshire is definitely its own beast. It’s a fun racetrack once you get out there running but it feels very slow in the corners. To be honest with you we were probably faster on old tires than we were on new tires so we needed to get the car to go quicker. We just got so far behind at the starts we never could gain enough back. We needed to go quicker and try to get up there a little bit more but hey, like I said a great day. A good points day for the Verizon Wireless Dodge.”

AND YOU TIGHTENED UP THE RAYBESTOS ROOKIE RACE.

“We did. The only thing I’m worried about now is that 6 car. He keeps getting those good finishes. We’re going to have to start beating him. It’s been a close battle and it’s been fun racing with these guys whether it’s the 11, the 62, the 47 or the 6. They’ve all been really fun to race with and hopefully we can bring it all the way down to the end.”

Michael McDowell

“It’s a respectable day. It’s not what we want but man, there’s a lot of good guys up there today. It seemed like getting back to a Cup race weekend it changes things. The non-companion races are kind of fun [smiles]. It was a tough day. Everybody worked hard at JTG Daugherty Racing. We had a pretty good car. We sort of just maintained, stayed on the lead lap. We raced hard we just didn’t make any improvement throughout the race. We didn’t make up any spots. We just keep plugging away at it, keep gaining points. We gained points on the 27, gained points on the 11 there. Trying to get into the top-10 in points is our goal.”

WHAT MAKES RACING HERE SO CHALLENGING?

“Well you’ve just got a lot of good cars with a lot of good drivers. If you look at the cars up front it’s all Cup teams. You’ve got three Roush cars, you’ve got two Gibbs cars, you’ve got two Childress cars, sometimes three, so you’re always racing against the Cup guys. And then you’ve got the Braun team which runs like a Cup team. It’s pretty tough up there but you just keep plugging away at it and keep trying to make strides. Right now we’re trying to get funding to get to the end of the year and we’re doing it on a short budget right now and we’re doing a pretty good job so I’m happy with everybody.”

ARE YOU CLOSE ON SPONSORSHIP?

“No, I mean, we’re the other way. We’re close to being done here. Daytona is really our last race unless we find somebody to come on board.”

Scott Lagasse, Jr.

DID YOU HAVE A RESPECTABLE DAY?

“Considering the weekend, yeah. I mean, not at all where we want to be. Weekend full of gremlins and struggles and the guys fought hard and we had a decent racecar there. Still learning a lot and looking forward to the future.”

RACING ON THESE FLAT TRACKS IS NOT EASY.

“Fortunately I love flat track racing. I grew up doing a lot of it. It’s just got a lot of transitions and the way the track is shaped it gives you a lot of options as a driver and that’s cool. It’s just figuring out how to put it together when your car is doing a certain thing, where you need to be. It was just a learning experience today. That’s where the Cup guys are really killing us right now.”

Michael Annett

“With how we ran last weekend at Milwaukee, a flat track similar to this, for our guys to go back to the shop and look at our notes, look at what we had, 100 percent improvement and that part is cool. We didn’t get the results from where we ran all day. We were up in the top-15 pretty much the whole race and then I don’t know if we got a bad set of tires or what there on the last restart but we just couldn’t go. Everywhere we were beating guys leading up to that last restart they were beating us. That part was disappointing but to go back to the shop and know we made that big of an improvement from last weekend we’re really happy.”

Brendan Gaughan

“Milwaukee and New Hampshire have been probably our two worst races of the year. And that’s why we’ve got Dale [Ferguson] now leading up the engineering side of things. That’s why we brought Trip [Bruce] in and put Dale back in the engineering. Rusty [Wallace] worked really hard to make sure that we’re good everywhere. We’ve been great at short tracks; we’ve been great at the big tracks. And in the Raybestos Rookie race, that’s a big hit for us. We’ll get out of here and go to Daytona. We’ve got a good program for Daytona so we know our 5-hour Chevy there will be a lot better than it was here. We’ll lick our wounds and go on to the next race.”

IT SEEMS LIKE YOU HAVE TO QUALIFY WELL TO HAVE A CHANCE TO RUN WELL IN THE RACE.

“Kyle [Busch] and Carl [Edwards] prove that qualifying well doesn’t do anything. You can run from the back. You’ve just got to have that setup and a great racecar that day. Today the RWI Chevys weren’t those great racecars running from the back. We ran in the lucky dog spot I think for 80 laps and then the lucky dog come out and the 29 just passed us lap earlier. I just threw my hands up in the racecar and was like what do I have to do? Then I get the lucky dog spot for the last 40 laps again. We battled for the lucky dog but for us today there was no luck in it.”

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

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- Camp & Associates, Inc. Press Release