Catchfence

2009 Raybestos Rookie Contender

Logano 15th
Speed 37th

UNOFFICIAL Raybestos Rookie standings:

Logano 146
Speed 130
Papis 47
Bean 1

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUOTES FOR THE AUTISM SPEAKS 400 NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES RACE AT DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY, MAY 31, 2009,

SCOTT SPEED, No. 82 RED BULL TOYOTA: WHAT PUT YOU OUT? “Something under there [points to car, smiles]. Something in the engine stopped. We came off a lot of momentum from Charlotte so it stinks to have this happen so early.”

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

NOTES:

* Logano scored a 15th-place finish in the lead lap, the fifth consecutive race he has completed the full distance.

* Logano claimed Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the fourth consecutive event and for the 10th time this season.

* UNOFFICIALY Logano leads Scott Speed by 16 points (146-130) in the overall Raybestos Rookie standings.

LOGANO: “It was a hard worked 15th-place I can tell you that much right now. We weren’t stellar by any means. We weren’t that great, but we kept working on it and from where we started to where we ended was what we needed. That’s a tough racetrack. It took me longer than I wanted it to to get the hang of it and I think I kind of killed myself in practice before I even started. I’ll write down the stuff I learned and come back next time and start all over. This is a hard racetrack because everyone is racing you every lap, I mean racing the heck out of each other. It’s crazy. Fifteenth is okay. I should have finished probably 13th, 14th but oh well. You take what you can. I gave up a couple of spots at the end picking the wrong lane as usual.”

YOUR CAR WAS WICKED AT THE START OF THE RACE THEN YOU CAUGHT A BREAK WHEN THE CAUTION CAME OUT DURING GREEN FLAG STOPS JUST PAST THE 100-LAP MARK. “Oh yeah, we got lucky like crazy when that happened. We were down a lap anyway you look at it and we got it back between cautions and pit stops. I was lucky. That’s all you can about that [smiles] so that was cool. And like I said it’s a hard race. There’s no give and take really out there. It was all take, take for the whole race. In one way that was really fun ‘cause it kept it exciting the whole time and the other way it was frustrating at some times. Either way I had a good time.”

DID THE TRACK CHANGE A LOT DURING THE RACE? “It got cooler here towards the end and it started loosening up. I think everyone started getting looser. At the beginning I was just really tight and we just kept loosening and loosening and all of a sudden it was whoa, too far, and then kept tightening and tightening. The track was getting looser like I said and then we had to go back on our changes. Sometimes you hit the balance close but you’re just not fast. It’s just one of those days.”

YOU MUST HAVE LEARNED A LOT ABOUT THIS PLACE DURING THE WEEKEND. “Yeah, you can move around a lot around this joint which is cool. The corners are so long so you’re on the gas, off the gas, on the gas. It’s like what section do you need better, do you need the middle, do you need a little bit at the end and it’s hard to adjust because it’s so out there. There’s not another track like it. It’s just so different. There’s nothing else like it.”

THIS IS A PHYSICALLY DEMANDING TRACK. HOW ARE YOU PHYSICALLY AFTER THE RACE? “I’m good. I’ve just got a stiff neck for some reason. I don’t know why. I haven’t moved my neck in 400 laps so I guess that’s why it’s a little sore. But besides that I was good to go. I could have gone another 200 laps. I’d have been all right with that. Any more than that and I would have been a little tired.”

COMMENT ON YOUR FINISH. “It was a hard earned 15th-place finish that’s for sure. I think I kind of put the whole Home Depot bunch behind in practice kind of where we started. I wasn’t sure where I needed to be. We just kept working on it all day, which is great, and kept getting better. At one point we were 32nd. We were junk and the guys kept working on it and never give up and that’s the attitude this whole Home Depot team’s got. They never give up, keep going and never die and that’s what gets us these decent finishes. Eventually they’ll turn into top-10s and then top-fives and hopefully wins so we’ll keep trying.”

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 & Assocaites, Inc., for Raybestos, Press Release