Saturday
Justin Allgaier top Raybestos Rookie in Able Body Labor 200
Press Release
Justin Allgaier, 16th
Brendan Gaughan, 19th
Michael Annett, 20th
John Wes Townley, 23rd
Michael McDowell, 25th
Ken Butler III, 32nd
Terry Cook, 39th
RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUOTES FOR THE
ABLE BODY LABOR 200
NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES RACE
AT PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2009,
“We had a pretty decent car. We were good on long runs. We were 18th I think which would have been our best position so far during the race. We just have no luck. I think it broke the camshaft. It’s just a shame for the Aaron’s guys. This was one of the best race cars I’ve had and especially here in Phoenix it’s so tough it made my job a little easier. The guys work hard and they gave me a good race car today. It was fun. I got to race pretty good. It’s just a shame.”
NOTES:
- Allgaier posted a 16th-place finish on the lead lap. He earned Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the second time in the last three races and the 11th time this season.
- UNOFFICIALLY Allgaier is sixth in the NASCAR Nationwide Series championship standings, 14 behind fifth-place Mike Bliss and 86 ahead of seventh-place Steve Wallace.
- UNOFFICIALLY Michael Annett is 10th in the standings, 41 points ahead of 11th-place Kenny Wallace and 44 ahead of 12th-place Tony Raines.
“Yeah we did. It’s unfortunate we got ourselves back on the lead lap and then got taken out for no apparent reason. It’s just really frustrating when you drive so hard and you do everything you can do it’s just really frustrating. The Verizon Wireless guys did a great job all day long in and out of the pits. We worked really hard to try to make this car better. We just struggled. I don’t know what the deal was but we just struggled all day long and never really could get the car to handle well. I don’t know what it was.
It’s unfortunate. I think we lost fifth in points but I think we padded our Raybestos Rookie of the Year so that’s a definite plus. We’re going to give it 110 percent. We did that today and hopefully the points that we did lose today, I don’t know how many eight spots are worth in points, but the points that we did lose hopefully we can overcome those next weekend at Homestead and get fifth back.”
WHAT HAPPENED?
“I just went down in the corner and was going to let him have the bottom and got drove into. I don’t know why. I mean Jason [Leffler] and I have been good friends for a long time. It’s really a shame because stuff like that shouldn’t happen.”
“Today was embarrassing. This was one of the two most embarrassing runs we’ve had this year. We’ve been good, we’ve had medium runs, bad runs, good runs but this was as embarrassing as Richmond. I don’t know what else to say. We had a chance still to make a race out of the Raybestos Rookie gig and to come through under pressure like this is just embarrassing.”
WAS THE CAR TIGHT OR LOOSE?
“There wasn’t a thing to describe it. It was so tight all day and then we kept trying to loosen it up and all we did was bring the rear out of the track.”
“We’ve got to be better on the first run of the race. We keep putting ourself a lap down early and then you’re fighting back the whole time and just waiting for good luck. And then on the pit stops there we took off and a lug nut fell off and when I went to put it in reverse it broke off reverse and so then couldn’t get it back. It was stuck so we put on the lug nuts and that’s a penalty for pitting outside the box. They had already thrown the green by the time that piece I had broken off had fallen out of all the other gears and we were finally able to move again.
They threw the green and we went a lap down and at the point we were two down at the back. Still didn’t have the car where we wanted it. I think we had one piece of good luck all day by getting the wave around deal. That put us two laps down but at least we were racing with the 34 [Tony Raines]. We finished ahead of the 34 and the 96 [Michael McDowell] and Kenny [Wallace] just got 10 points on us. As long as we keep being right there with them and we go to Homestead and run like we normally do on the mile-and-a-halfs we’ll get 10th in points and that’s our goal right now.”
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 a global leader in the on and off-highway replacement products and service industry. In North America the Affinia family of brands includes WIX® Filters, Raybestos®, AIMCO® and BrakePro® brake products, and McQuay-Norris® and Raybestos™ Chassis parts. South American and European brands include Nakata®, Filtron®, Urba® and Quinton Hazell®. For more information, visit 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.
Article Tags: Able Body Labor 200, Brendan Gaughan, John Wes Townley, Justin Allgiaer, Ken Butler III, Kenny Wallace, Michael Annett, Michael McDowell, Mike Bliss, NASCAR Nationwide Series, No. 12 Verizon Wireless Dodge Charger, No. 15 Pilot Travel Centers / Germain.com Toyota Camry, No. 23 Aaron's Outdoors Chevrolet Impala SS, No. 62 5-Hour Energy Extra Strength Chevrolet, Phoenix International Raceway, Steve Wallace, Terry Cook, Tony Raines
