Catchfence

2009 Raybestos Rookie Contender

UNOFFICIAL Raybestos Rookie standings

Logano 135
Speed 120
Papis 46
Bean 1

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUOTES FOR THE COCA-COLA 600 NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES RACE AT LOWE’S MOTOR SPEEDWAY, MAY 25, 2009, PAGE 1.

The Coca-Cola 600 was red flagged by rain after 73 laps. Joey Logano was running in eighth-place at the time the race was stopped, best of any Raybestos Rookie.

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 THE HOME DEPOT TOYOTA: “We’ve got a great race car. I think on the long haul we’re really good. The short runs, a little too loose for what I like. Maybe different for other drivers but for me I think it’s just too loose. But it’s paying off to be that loose on the long run right now. The long haul I think we’re as good as anybody but it’s a matter of getting there and having a long run. We haven’t had a long run yet. It’s cool. I’m able to move around the racetrack a lot to get around cars. I can do different things on the racetrack. That’s a plus. We’ll keep working on it and when the track dries off we’ll go racing again for another 80 and then it’ll probably rain again. The good news is we’re almost halfway to halfway [laughs].”

IS YOUR CAR BETTER AT THE BOTTOM OR TOP OF THE TRACK? “I get tight behind cars. When you’re already tight and you get behind another car you’re screwed so I’m moving around, trying to find something to get around these cars. I’ll get up there and I’ll s tarting working the top for a couple laps to find out what I need to run good up there and then I can start forming a run and get ‘em. That’s the good part. Even if I’m fast on the bottom I still move to the top and run good.”

IS THIS THE MOST FRUSTRATING EXPERIENCE THAT YOU’VE HAD REGARDING RAIN DELAYS? “No, rain delays and rain delays, whatever. There’s nothing you can do about it [smiles]. Been through it a million times, man. I’m sure it’s going to be like this a lot all day, I think.”

JOEY LOGANO IN THE No. 20 THE HOME DEPOT TOYOTA WAS THE RAYBESTOS ROOKIE IN TODAY’S RACE.

NOTES:

* Logano scored a ninth-place finish, his third top-10 in the last three races. He claimed his third top-10 in the 15 career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.

* Logano took Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the ninth time this season and for the third consecutive race.

* Logano became the first Raybestos Rookie to score a top-10 finish in the Coca-Cola 600 since Jimmie Johnson placed seventh in 2002. The others:

1977: Sam Sommers, ninth
1980: Kyle Petty, seventh
1981: Morgan Shepherd, sixth
1981: Elliott Forbes-Robinson, 10th
1993: Jeff Gordon, second
1993: Bobby Labonte, eighth
1995: Ricky Craven, 10th
1999: Tony Stewart, fourth
2000: Matt Kenseth, FIRST
2000: Dale Earnhardt Jr., fourth
2001: Kevin Harvick, second

* Logano led today’s race once for one lap and was the only Raybestos Rookie to lead the Coca-Cola 600. He has led at least one lap in each of the last two consecutive races.

* DID YOU KNOW? At least one Raybestos Rookie has now led a lap in nine of the past 11 Coca-Cola 600 races.

* Scott Speed scored an 18th-place finish, his best on a non-restrictor plate track this season.

MORE NOTES

* UNOFFICIALLY Logano leads Speed by 15 points (135-120) in the Raybestos Rookie standings.

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 THE HOME DEPOT TOYOTA: “A top-10 is hard to be mad about. Could have been a blessing in disguise, could have been better, could have been worse. The only thing that I wish was different is that they brought us down pit road and stopped up and let us change our tires after we went back green kind of thing because then we would have been sitting fourth right now or fifth or wherever the heck we were. It is what it is. I couldn’t have done anything about it so I really can’t be mad about it. It’s still ninth-place. We could have gone back a lot further than go forward.”

YOU RAN WELL AT DARLINGTON AND BACKED THAT UP WITH A GOOD RUN TODAY. YOU’RE SLOWLY GETTING THE HANG OF THIS SPRINT CUP START. “I am. I’m pretty excited about that. I’m figuring things out every time I get out there which keeps adding to our success right now. Dover is going to be interesting. I’m probably not the biggest fan of that racetrack so we’ll what it’s going to be like. It’s one of those deals. Dover is out of control for 400 laps.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO KEEP THIS STREAK GOING? “Oh it’s definitely important. I think we keep gaining on it every time. It’s huge.”

GREG ZIPADELLI, CREW CHIEF, No. 20 THE HOME DEPOT TOYOTA: “Everyone did a good job. A little disappointing. I felt like we really truly had a top-10 car and it kind of got taken away again but we’ll keep doing what we’re doing and hopefully we’ll get a couple top-fives before long.”

YOU HAD A GOOD RUN AT DARLINGTON AND BACKED IT UP TODAY IN THE 600. “I just think everybody is working well together. Joey is learning a lot, we’re learning a lot, some new things to do and trying to get what he wants. Everything right now is going our way. He does a really good job of not putting himself in bad predicaments and finishing races and things and that’s real important and hopefully we can continue doing that.”

HOW DIFFICULT IS IT ON THAT LAST PIT STOP TO MAKE THE DECISION TO PIT OR STAY OUT? “You know, how I look at it is if you’ve got a to-10 car you don’t finish 25th with it. If you’ve got a 25th-place car, you’re trying to find every way you can to finish in the top-10. Where we are in points [it's] very, very important to us to get ourself in the top-20. We’ve got a sponsor that used to racing in the top-10.&nb sp; Where we are in the garage and where we pull out and practice and all those things that you just don’t ever take for granted, the cars you’re around. We continue to do things methodically, let him grow, not put him in a predicament, you know. We should be racing right now with the way the weather is. I commend them for sitting here as long as we did and didn’t really have a choice at the time and now all of a sudden we start 35th, you know what I mean, we just ruined a day and lost three spots in the points and we’re just not in a position to do that. We gave up three spots basically by doing it. That was the smart thing to do because we can’t afford to lose. We just have to continue to build positive momentum and I felt like that was the only call for us.”

MIKE HILLMAN SR., CREW CHIEF, No. 13 GEICO TOYOTA: “We tried something a little different. We didn’t get the afternoon practice session and we thought it was hurting us. We were running pretty consistent. Max was going a good job but we weren’t moving forward and we couldn’t adjust anything to move it forward. So we decided to come in and make a pretty big change and go back out to learn for the future and hopefully it’ll pay off.”

WAS THIS ONE OF THE MOST ODD RACES THAT YOU’VE EVER BEEN ASSOCIATED WITH? “Boy it sure is. Supposed to race at night, end up during the day and it rains and you run 25 laps. It’s crazy. We tried. We tried to put on a good show for the fans. It’s all we can do.”

LOGANO PRESS CONFERENCE

“We had a very good car. On the long run we were real good. Just a tough deal there. I think we had a top-five car at the end of the runs there, the beginning was not as good. I killed the brakes on it probably 150 laps into the deal and just had to start changing around my line a little bit and it actually helped me, not driving into the corners hard, not abusing the right front as much. It actually helped me a lot and hopefully for the future, too. Overall we learned a lot and keep building on the momentum over here at the 20 team. Hopefully go to Dover and do the same thing again.”

WAS THERE ANY DISCUSSION ABOUT STAYING OUT DURING THAT LAST CAUTION AND SEE HOW THE RAIN WOULD PAN OUT? “I brought it up. I was like ‘Who’s going to stay out? Who’s going to take two tires and try to snooker all of us. Obviously somebody is going to try it. In the position we were we were running fourth and okay, you stay out, you win the race. We would have won because of the rain but God forbid if we’d have went green again [smiles]. We were going to go backwards pretty quick. If you’re sitting fourth, yeah, it’s a big gamble to take. If you’re sitting in a different spot, it’s a little easier of a decision. It’s definitely the right decision. I don’t regret it a bit. It is what it is. You had to do that. We didn’t really have an option there.”

HOW MUCH MORE COMFORTABLE DO YOU FEEL INSIDE THE CAR? WHAT DID YOU DO TO CELEBRATE YOUR BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY? “Stand in the rain [laughs]. I could only play so many video games in the motorhome before I got bored there. I didn’t really do anything there. Confidence lately has gone up to the moon. I think since Darlington really is when it stepped up a ton for me. Zippy and the team, confidence went up a lot too, and I think we’re going off our notes now. We’re not going off last year’s notes where when Tony said something I have a different change for that. Now it’s kind of go ing off what I say the previous races. So I think that’s kind of helping too. I’ve been testing, getting to know each other, all that I think kind of adds to it. But it’s cool to see all the hard work you put into it. You struggle a little bit at the beginning of the season and you hear everyone ‘Oh is he going to make it’ and this and that and these good solid finishes lately have been huge for me and the whole team.”

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

- Camp & Associates, Inc., for Raybestos, Press Release