Catchfence

“Third-Place Run at Hickory Has McReynolds Looking For Another Win”

MOORESVILLE, NC (October 20, 2009) – It was no secret earlier this year that 18-year-old Brandon McReynolds was a frustrated racecar driver. All eyes were on McReynolds, in his second full-year of UARA-Stars Late Model Stock Car competition, to be one of the favorites for the UARA title. But a string of three finishes of 19th or worse in the first three events of the season, coupled with mechanical and engine issues, had Team McReynolds looking for a quick turnaround.

Then, in the season’s fifth race, McReynolds took the #28 Airplus Insoles / Team McReynolds Dodge to Victory Lane at Dillon Motor Speedway in Dillon, SC. It was a sign that things were turning around. Two more finishes then of 11th and 19th, due to a cut tire and more engine issues, forced the team to sit down, reevaluate and come out swinging for the fences in the second-half of the season.

And that is exactly what the team did.

McReynolds and the #28 Airplus Insoles / Team McReynolds Dodge reeled off seven-straight top-10 finishes and capped it off this past weekend by finishing third in the inaugural Banjo Matthews 150 at Hickory Motor Speedway in Hickory, NC on Sunday afternoon. The third-place run was McReynolds’ fourth podium finish in the last six races.

“It’s been one heck of a great turnaround,” said McReynolds. “At the beginning of the year, I would have been happy to just finish a race; now we are finishing in the top 10 each and every week and left wanting more. The only thing that would make it better is if we were coming away with victories all of the time. But I’m smart enough to know that if you can’t bring home the win, then its best to come away second or third. And even if we are not finishing in the top three, we are running in the top-10 every single week.

“I think that just goes to show you the kind of progress that we’ve made from the start of the year till now and that you can never give up. When things were looking rough at the beginning of the year, you just end up working harder as a team and I ended up driving harder as a driver. We got the win at Dillon and then the win at Ace (Speedway in Elon, NC) and almost won at Martinsville (in the Bailey’s 300, a non-UARA sanctioned event for Late Model Stocks). The last several races have proved that my guys haven’t given up on me and I haven’t given up on them. Now we need to finish the season off even stronger.”

Sunday’s race at Hickory was a microcosm of the 2009 season thus far. McReynolds started slow in practice, but continued changes by the team had him ready for qualifying, where he made huge strides and timed in fifth quick.

When the green flag flew for the race, McReynolds quickly found himself headed toward the front of the field. It took only five laps for Brandon to move into fourth, and then just a few laps later, into third. By lap 35, McReynolds was battling for the lead.

“There is nothing more fun than racing for the win with one of your close friends,” said McReynolds, speaking of his side-by-side battle for the lead with Coleman Pressley. “We had a really good car and the thing went right to the front. By lap 40, be and Coleman were racing side-by-side. It was a good battle too. We were side-by-side and racing each other hard and clean. That was exactly the way you want to run for the win. But he just had a little more than we did and that ended up paying off for him.

“Our car lost a little bit of handle and we got stuck behind a couple of lapped cars and fell back to third at the checkers. But that goes to show how good our car really was. We were never out of the top-five all day and were hardly out of the top three. It felt good to be so strong.”

The third-place finish vaulted Brandon to third in the UARA-Stars point standings. McReynolds came into the Hickory event in fifth-place in the points. Brandon is 137 points out of second-place and just 190 points behind first with two points-paying events left in 2009.

Brandon and the #28 Airplus Insoles / Team McReynolds Dodge will be back in action with the UARA-Stars Series on October 31st at the tricky half-mile tri-oval of Concord Speedway. Back in April, McReynolds finished 26th at Concord after experiencing two separate blown motors during the weekend.

With only two more races in 2009, Team McReynolds continues to work hard to finish the season with a lot of momentum to carry into 2010. Our goal is to move toward the NASCAR Camping World East or ARCA Series or a combination of both but still with the desire to run some UARA events. The biggest challenge to accomplish any of this is to secure sponsorship. We feel like we have a great package to offer with a talented young driver, a championship caliber race team and not to mention the likes of Larry McReynolds to help promote the brand of any product or company. Anyone with interest, leads, thoughts or ideas to help Team McReynolds achieve our goals would be greatly appreciated. We strongly feel we can move Brandon to one of these top series and not only be competitive, but help give a company a huge bang for their buck. Please contact the shop office at 704-799-9170 to discuss the opportunities available.

As always, check out the UARA-Stars website, www.uara-stars.com, for race recaps, results and point standings. And check out the new Brandon McReynolds website, www.brandonmcreynolds.com, for all the information on Brandon and the entire team.

About Airplus

Airplus is a brand of Implus Footcare, LLC, headquartered in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park. Airplus is one of the top national brands in the footwear accessory industry, with distribution in thousands of retail outlets across North American, and in 65 countries throughout the world. The products incorporate the latest technology to give both men and women the ultimate in comfort, support, protection and durability. For more information, including a list of retail outlets, please visit www.airplusfootcare.com or call 1-800-446-7587

About Implus Footcare, LLC

Headquartered in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, Implus is an innovative leader in the “below the ankle” categories of insoles, performance socks, shoe laces and shoe care. Implus’ brands include Sof Sole®, Yaktrax®, apara®, Airplus®, SneakerBalls® and Sof Comfort®, and are distributed in over 50,000 retail outlets across North America and in 65 countries worldwide. For more information, please visit www.implus.com or call (800) 446-7587.

- Team McReynolds Press Release