Saturday
Justin Allgaier top Raybestos Rookie in Zippo 200
Press Release
Justin Allgaier, 17th
Michael Annett, 20th
Brendan Gaughan, 22nd
Michael McDowell, 27th
RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUOTES FOR THE ZIPPO 200
NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES RACE AT
WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL, AUGUST 8, 2009,
TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE IN TODAY’S RACE AT WATKINS GLEN.
NOTES:
- Allgaier scored a 17th-place finish in today’s race and claimed Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the SIXTH time this season.
- UNOFFICIALLY Allgaier is fifth in the NASCAR Nationwide Series championship standings, 50 points ahead of sixth-place Steve Wallace.
ALLGAIER: “It was a rough day. Early we got messed up on pit road. We left the pits and everything was good and we were fixing to have a really good day and unfortunately, I’m guessing that a driver wasn’t listening to his spotter all the well, I guess is what it comes down to because I ended up getting turned into the 16. And I hate for those guys because they got wrecked on pit road and didn’t even know what was going on. It’s a shame. That got us behind the eight-ball to start with then we got shoved off the track back there just out of the carousel.
I thought we were in trouble. Everybody moved around and got around us and then just had to try to come back through the field right there at the end. Probably didn’t make any friends but you know in the last 10 laps you’ve got to get as many spots as you possibly can and just trying to get up to the front there. I had a lot of fun with it, the first road course. It was definitely a blast.”
“I think you can only go as hard as your car will let ya. You see a lot of guys over push it and end up getting themselves in trouble. You go as hard as your car will push. We were running lap times that were pretty good for as many laps as we had on tires and just getting more comfortable with the car. But you know the bad part is here if you’re out by yourself it’s fine, no problems. Once you get in traffic you’re just a dogfight to try to get any spots or any positions. That makes it really tough when you’re in a big group like that. That’s what we fought most of the day was being back there in a line of traffic and couldn’t get through it.”
HOW MUCH DID YOU LEARN TODAY THAT WILL HELP YOU AT MONTREAL?
“Oh, an unbelievable amount. I’m not going to tell you that we’re going to go to Montreal and sit on the pole and win the race but I would say we’ve got a lot better shot of starting better than 28th and finishing 17th. We’ll just do what we can and the Verizon Wireless Dodge guys are going to put together a good car to go up there to so I can’t complain.”
MICHAEL ANNETT, No. 15 PILOT TRAVEL CENTERS TOYOTA: YOU HAD A RESPECTABLE FINISH TODAY.
“I think 20th was about as worse as we were going to be. We were shooting for a top-15 and any more we could get but we understood if we were 15th to 20th. I think 20th, we’ll accept it, but any worse than that we probably wouldn’t have been happy coming out of here. The car is going to roll on the trailer and we’re going to Montreal in a couple of weeks so that was our main goal coming out of our first road course. Keep all four on the track most of the day and have it roll up on the trailer and we did that and got a top-20 out of it.”
“The problem that we were struggling with was my car, those last couple of restarts, was so tight on right-hand turns that I needed a long sweeping turn into one and it just opened the door for everybody to get in there and squeeze you out. But even if I went in low I still couldn’t make the corner and it opened up another bag of issues. I wish our car was a little bit better there at the end. Our strategy was going to play out and every time we thought it was going to work we’d get a caution and everybody would get on the same strategy. Some things went our way today and some things didn’t but all in all, we’re happy with what we got.”
“No, we got zapped by Robby Gordon causing all the cautions in the end. Steven [Wallace] and I both played the same strategy. Lap 51 is what we needed, 44 was too early. All those leaders came in and no way they could make it to the end and looking at the history there’s never going to be enough cautions. And thanks to my good buddy they get like 30 laps of caution in the end. We played out strategy right. I should have ended up right by Steven, right around that 13th or 14th spot but then my fellow rookie decided to dump me in Turn 5. I saved it; don’t ask me how, off camber, downhill, 360. I went to the boot. All I know is that I saw the little guardrail, I saw it open up and I saw the boot and I used to race here years ago in sports cars. I said ‘Hey, here’s the boot.’ Straightened out went towards the boot, straightened, went through the grass and I go ‘Hey, I made it’ so at least I was able to keep it one piece and keep going. I think we came home 22nd or something so not quite what I was wanting but I guess we passed Joey Logano in the points so I guess we gained a spot.”
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*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, Germain Racing, Joey Logano, Justin Allgaier, Michael Annett, Michael McDowell, Montreal, NASCAR Nationwide Series, No. 12 Verizon Wireless Dodge Charger, No. 15 Pilot Travel Centers Toyota Camry, No. 62 US Fidelis Chevrolet Impala SS, Raybestos®, Steven Wallace., Watkins Glen International, Zippo 200
