Catchfence

PREVIEW – Brad Keselowski (No. 88 Degree V12 Chevrolet)

EVENT – O’Reilly Challenge (200 laps/ 300 miles)

TRACK – Texas Motor Speedway (1.5-Mile Tri-Oval)

DATE – Saturday, November 7, 2009

TV/ RADIO BROADCAST INFO – ESPN2 (coverage begins at 12:00 p.m. EST) / PRN (broadcast begins at 12:15 p.m. EST)

MEDIA AVAILABILITY – Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 88 Degree V12 Chevrolet, will be available to members of the media at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6 at the No. 12 hauler in the NASCAR Sprint Cup garage area.

TAKING HOME ELVIS – Keselowski and the No. 88 team scored their fourth win of the season two weeks ago at Memphis Motorsports Park. Keselowski held off a hard-charging Kyle Busch in the final laps for his sixth career victory. Along with the win, the team took home the coveted Elvis Presley statue, the last one in its series.

SEASON STATS – Keselowski enters the weekend third in the NASCAR Nationwide Series point standings, 257 points behind leader Kyle Busch and just 42 points behind second place Carl Edwards. This is the 19th consecutive week Keselowski has been in the top-three in the point standings. In 32 races, Keselowski and the No. 88 team have four wins, 20 top-fives, 26 top-10s and two pole awards. His average starting position is 13.4 and average finish is 6.9.

KESELOWSKI AT TEXAS – Keselowski will make his fifth career Nationwide Series start at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend for JR Motorsports. In his previous starts, Keselowski has scored one top-five and three top-10 finishes.

TURNAROUND AT TEXAS – After starting off the year with finishes of 22nd or worse in the first three races, Keselowski came into Texas in April ranked 15th in points and had to start the race 42nd in a back-up car after wrecking in qualifying. Keselowski finished third in the O’Reilly 300, which proved to be a turning point in his season. After that race, he went on to finish in the top-10 in 11 of the next 12 races. Since that race, he has only two finishes outside of the top 10.

HOT STREAK – Over the past 10 races, Keselowski has outscored all other Nationwide Series drivers with 1,685 points. In the 10 races, which date back to Keselowski’s win at Michigan in August, he has outscored series leader Kyle Busch by 152 points while notching two wins, nine top-fives, 10 top-10s and one pole award.

CHASSIS NO. 356 – The No. 88 Degree V12 team will run Chassis No. 356 this weekend in the O’Reilly
Challenge. This car was last run at Lowe’s Motor Speedway where Keselowski started 29th and finished sixth. Chassis 356 has also been to victory lane in Michigan.

DEGREE V12 CHALLENGE – NASCAR fans still have a chance to team up with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brad Keselowski in the Degree V12 Challenge. Players compete against each other for a chance to win a variety of great prizes including tailgate entertainment systems, gaming packages, cash, and more! Visit www.DegreeRacing.com to register for the Degree V12 Challenge and begin racing to win. (No purchase necessary. Must be 18 to enter. Void where prohibited. Ends 12/27/09. Visit www.DegreeRacing.com for complete rules.)

KESELOWSKI (on returning to Texas Motor Speedway) – “I always enjoy coming to Texas. It’s a big, wide-open track where I have had some success and good experience. In the spring, the weekend started out a bit shaky with me wrecking our primary (car) in qualifying. But we were able to get a good finish out of it, and I credit the entire team with that third-place finish. Those guys had to work really hard to get our back-up car ready, and they did a fantastic job. That Texas finish was also kind of a starting point for the turnaround in my season. Since then, we’ve only had two finishes outside of the top-10 which is a pretty amazing statistic.”

KESELOWSKI (on his season-to-date) – “This year has certainly been a roller-coaster ride for me, in many respects. The season started out pretty dismally, with those first few races, but then picked up after the third-place finish at Texas in April. As a team we were really able to excel in those summer months with wins and consistent finishes. We have three races left, and I’m anxious to see how much closer to Kyle (Busch) and Carl (Edwards) we can get in the point standings. I know we have more wins in us as a team, and I’m really looking to finish out the year strong.”

- JR Motorsports Press Release