Saturday
Justin Allgaier top Raybestos Rookie in Dollar General 300
Press Release
Justin Allgaier, 10th
Brendan Gaughan, 13th
Michael Annett, 17th
Scott Lagasse Jr., 20th
John Wes Townley, 21st
Michael McDowell, 25th
Terry Cook, 41st
RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUOTES FOR
THE DOLLAR GENERAL 300
NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES RACE
AT CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY, JULY 10, 2009,
JUSTIN ALLGAIER IN THE No. 12 VERIZON WIRELESS DODGE WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE IN TONIGHT’S RACE AT CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY.
NOTES:
- Allgaier posted a 10th-place finish, his ninth top-10 of the 2009 season.
- Allgaier claimed Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the fifth time this season.
THE STREAK STAYS ALIVE! At least one Raybestos® Rookie has scored top-10 finishes in the last 16 consecutive NASCAR Nationwide Series races.
DID YOU KNOW? A Raybestos Rookie has scored top-10 finishes in the last two consecutive NASCAR Nationwide Series races at Chicagoland and in five of the nine races.
Other top-10 finishes by Raybestos® Rookies at Chicagoland:
2002: Johnny Sauter, FIRST
2004: J.J. Yeley, ninth
2005: Carl Edwards, fourth
2005: Reed Sorenson, 10th
2008: Landon Cassill, 10th
“Unfortunately we worked on it really, really hard all day yesterday and felt like we had a really, really good race car. I don’t know what happened there. We just struggled all night, struggled with forward bite off the corners and being tight in and around the middle. I just hate it for the guys. I ended up getting in the wall late there and probably didn’t help matters any. We were probably a 10th-place car tonight and we finished 10th and that’s a good way to turn a bad night into a good one by keeping the runs going and building points, man.
That’s what we’re here to do. We want to run better but I think next time we come back we’ll be a lot better.”
DID YOUR CAR WORK BETTER UP HIGH? YOU RAN THE HIGH GROOVE A LOT TONIGHT.
“We were just way too tight in and around the middle on the bottom and no drive on exit. This is the type of place that you need to be able to get off the corners as well as you get into it. We could carry good corner speed in and around the middle. We just couldn’t get off and it just really hurt us. But like I said all these guys did a great job. Chad [Walter, crew chief] made great adjustments all night. We just kind of fought and were one adjustment behind pretty much every time. It happens and we’ll get ‘em next week.”
TO HAVE A BAD NIGHT AND STILL FINISH IN 10TH-PLACE SHOWS HOW FAR THIS TEAM HAS COME THIS SEASON.
“Oh it’s a huge sign as to how far they’ve come. They’re a great team and I’m just honored to be driving for them that’s for sure. We’re working hard, we’re getting there and we’re going to get us a win before the year’s over.”
ALLGAIER PRESS CONFERENCE
“We struggled with the car all night and never really felt like we were as good as we were yesterday in practice. We struggled with being tight in and around the middle and no forward drive on exit. We struggled. A couple of times we felt like we were coming back through the field and usually the yellow would come out and I ended up getting in the wall there late which really hurt the car pretty bad. We just didn’t have anything for ‘em on the last restart.
We put four on thinking we’d be all right and the handling had gone away enough that we really didn’t have anything again there. But a great night for the Verizon Wireless Dodge. Another top-10 and keep adding points for the Raybestos Rookie of the Year battle and our championship points. Just frustrating to think we had as good of a car as we did yesterday and really not run half as good as we thought we were going to.”
HOW DID THE LONG RUNS IMPACT THE WAY YOUR CAR HANDLED AND YOUR STRATEGY FOR THE RACE?
“I think mine got better the longer we ran. Like I said we were struggling for forward bite on exit and once the tires got slowed up and everybody kind of started running the same speed I was able to get off the corners a little bit better. I was running the top. It was about the only lane that I could make work ‘cause we were so tight on entry.
That’s what helped us is to be on the top and carry some momentum and just baby it on exit so I think for me I was glad to see some long runs. Unfortunately we don’t always get long runs like that and it may not be as exciting for the fans but I think from behind the wheel it’s a lot easier than coming on pit road and having to do restarts every 15 laps.”
“That’s a blue collar night right there. Best job the Rusty Wallace Racing 62 team has had on pit road all year. Fantastic, fantastic night on pit road. We went to a setup that I absolutely hate, the right front coil bind but with how bad practice day was we were looking like we were a 40th-place race car. It was scary. I think Shane Huffman, Jason Rogers, I think that experience helped them with their feedback to Bryan [Berry, crew chief]. Bryan made a great call and on pit stops made some great decisions and man, in the end, on that last run I passed the 1, the 88, and the 5.
I passed guys that were all lead lap. We just couldn’t get on the lead lap and then the 20, smart move by pinning us all down. With the whole new wave around thing, the 20 was brilliant. He’s the only guy that stayed out and it held all of us down a lap. I was so bummed about that but a great job tonight on pit road. The 12 pulled away from us a little bit but not bad. He only pulls away by two points in the Raybestos Rookie standings and overall in the points we’ll stay seventh and eighth with him being 45-50 points in front of me. It’s going to be one heck of a battle with Justin and I and I think Raybestos is going to love the press all the way to the end.”
COMMENT ON RACING NEXT WEEK AT GATEWAY.
“It’s a track that I’ve won at before so I do like Gateway a lot. The Casino Queen, my father’s place, is just a stone’s throw from the tack and the RWI team will be staying there. Even though I’m a Raybestos Rookie I’ve got a ton of experience there so I’m definitely looking to parlay that. While Bryan was on suspension he spent three or four days solid while he was at the shop doing what I call science projects. We’re going to debut a new design when we get there so we’re going to see how she works.”
“It was an okay night. We brought the car home in one piece and ran all right but I think everyone is disappointed because we thought we had a lot better piece. We just missed it a little bit. We really wanted to be on the left front spring and we were on it pretty hard. The whole weekend just threw everybody some curves with the rain.
We definitely learned and I learned as a driver going to the next practice what we need when we know rain is coming or going to a night race. We made the thing a little better through pit stops so that’s always good. We’re real happy with how we ended at New Hampshire so we’re looking forward to Gateway.”
“We started 39th and made up 14 spots and got a top-25. Not exactly what we wanted but the first time working together and this is a car they haven’t ran in a long time and we worked through a lot of stuff in practice and got a little bit better there. Everybody did a good job. The car ran the whole race. We had good stops and salvaged a good finish.”
IS THE PLAN TO STAY WITH THIS TEAM AT LEAST FOR THE NEAR TERM?
“Right now Randy and I have just talked about this race here and then also Gateway so we’ll take the first two weeks here and sort of evaluate each other. I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to stay in this series and hopefully Randy feels like I did him a good job and do him a good job in Gateway and stay in the driver’s points and try to move them up in the owner’s points.”
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 an innovative global leader in the design, manufacture, distribution and marketing of industrial grade products and services, including extensive offerings of aftermarket parts for automotive and heavy-duty vehicles. With more than $2 billion in annual revenue, Affinia has operations in North and South America, Europe, Asia and India. For more information, visit www.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. Press Release
Article Tags: Affinia Group Inc., Brendan Gaughan, Bryan Berry, Carl Edwards, Chicagoland Speedway, Dollar General 300., J.J. Yeley, Jason Roger, Joe Gibbs Racing, John Wes Townley, Johnny Sauter, Justin Allgaier, Landon Cassill, Michael Annett, Michael McDowell, NASCAR, NASCAR Nationwide Series, No. 12 Verizion Wireless Dodge, No. 15 HYPE Energy Drink Toyota, No. 62 Five Hour Energy Chevrolet, No. 81 DH Griffin Companies / NPP Dodge, Randy MacDonald, Raybestotos, Reed Sorenson, Rusty Wallace, Scott Lagasse Jr, Shane Huffman
