Catchfence

“Bristol Brings Second Best Qualifying Run of Season”

Bristol, TN.: Peyton Sellers and the #77 SFP Chevrolet arrived at Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend with something to prove. And prove it they did, qualifying 18th for the Food City 250. And although he promising night for the Cardinal Motorsports team was cut short when Sellers encountered a shove from another car midway through the race, the night was by many measures a good one.

Sellers had narrowly missed qualifying at two prior races. At Iowa, a freak accident during practice forced him to an untested backup car, and then at Watkins Glen the team was bumped by one-tenth of one second from the race.

“The last month has been tough for us”, said Sellers. “As a new team with no owner’s points, we have to qualify on time for every race. And with the testing ban this year, it’s put that much more pressure on us.” The performance of Cardinal Motorsports surprised many this season when they qualified well for their first six races in a planned eleven race Nationwide Series schedule.

“The challenges we’ve faced though have really brought us together as team. We have to learn to be competitive, but we also have to learn to recover. We feel really good about what we put on the track this weekend at Bristol. Our only regret is that the night ended early. We had a top fifteen maybe even top ten finish coming our way, but you just never know – especially here.”

Sellers and the bright orange car posted some of the strongest lap times of the day during practice on Friday, with a fast lap of 16.059 seconds on the half-mile oval. He then went on to qualify in 18th place in the final 43 car field. Sellers was second fastest among the 19 entries that were required to qualify on time.

Bristol showed some of its true colors early, with five cautions coming in the first half of the race. The night was filled with close side-by side racing and narrow misses which kept the crowd of 110,000 on their feet most of the night. Sellers and his spotter managed to pick their way through the early incidents, including one in which the leaders slammed hard into a lapped car coming out of turn four, bringing out the red flag.

The Cardinal Motorsports entry continued to tick off solid lap times and strong pit stops, maintaining position mid-pack. As the crew continued to dial in the car and it began to respond, the #11 car shoved Sellers from behind down the front stretch on lap 162, spinning the bright orange #77 SFP Chevrolet nose first into the inside wall. The car suffered extensive damage, ending Sellers’ night early and placing him 31st for the evening.

The team’s next scheduled NASCAR Nationwide Series race will come in two weeks at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The team will then travel to the home territory of their primary sponsor, SFP, for the race at Kansas Speedway on October third.

Cardinal Motorsports also has an association with the non-profit student organization, SkillsUSA, and is also sponsored by Jig-A-Loo USA and Bosch, both of whom are supporters of SkillsUSA.

About SFP

Headquartered in Leawood, Kan., SFP is an innovative agricultural company that has developed a line of revolutionary products to improve fertilizer efficiency. The company’s flagship products, AVAIL® Phosphorus Fertilizer Enhancer and NutriSphere-N® Nitrogen Fertilizer Manager, are designed to be added to a farmer’s existing fertilizer to improve availability of the nutrients, in turn boosting crop yield potential by 10 to 15 percent. The company operates management, research, and manufacturing facilities in Kansas, Illinois and Ohio and has relationships with key distributors throughout the United States. In addition to domestic operations, SFP’s international distribution includes Canada, United Kingdom, New Zealand and the Philippines. For more information on SFP and its products, visit www.sfp.com.

About SkillsUSA

SkillsUSA is a national nonprofit organization serving teachers and high school and college students who are preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations. Founded in 1965, it has become one of the country’s largest student-based non-profit organizations supporting those entering the world of skilled trade. With membership of more than 300,000 students and instructors annually, SkillsUSA has reached more than 9.6 million members since its inception. For more information, visit www.skillsusa.org.

- MediaFit, Inc. Press Release