Catchfence

2009 Raybestos Rookie Contender

Raybestos Rookies Brian Ickler (sixth) and Johnny Sauter (seventh) both posted top-10 speeds in today’s first practice session at Dover.

BRIAN ICKLER, No. 15 SAMSUNG INSTINCT TOYOTA: “I like this place a lot. The whole 15 team has had to kind of pick up their game, you know, with Kyle [Busch] running the 51 so well and we run so well in the 51. They went back to the drawing board and they gave me a really good truck for here.”

DO YOU AND KYLE LIKE THE SAME SETUPS? “That’s kind of how it started running late models and stuff. I think he’s always wanted to put someone in his late models to run and run and run and make his program better so when he shows up it’s there and it’s ready to run. It seems that way so far.”

THIS MUST GIVE YOUR CONFIDENCE A BOOST BECAUSE DOVER IS SUCH A DIFFICULT TRACK. “It gives me confidence just unloading with a good truck. It means everything to a driver so hopefully we can keep going, stay out of trouble and have a good weekend.”

WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD FINISH FOR YOU? “A trouble free and top-10 weekend in my third truck start would be pretty good but a top-five would be better [laughs].” IS THAT REALISTIC? “I don’t see why not. There’s so much to do wit h luck here at Dover in all the races that I’ve seen here. It seems like when one truck wrecks 10, 15 trucks wreck. Everything has to fall in the right spot to win here let alone finish in the top-five, top-10. I think if you run a smart race, run around the people we know that can race and run clean with, we’ll be all right.”

COMMENT ON THE ENTRANCE TO PIT ROAD. “Like I said the whole 15 team wants to be very conservative. We’ll get down in plenty of time down the back straightaway. If we lose a couple of spots it’s not worth tearing the truck up. We’ll be all right.”

JOHNNY SAUTER, No. 13 FUN SAND/RODNEY ATKINS/CURB RECORDS CHEVROLET: “It’s good. We keep running the same truck every week and we keep working on it and working on it trying to get it to where I like it. I feel like we’re making progress. I think we’re pretty solid. This is the most comfortable I’ve been off the truck all year and it shows. Every week we feel like we learn a little bit. I couldn’t be happier.Obviously we need a little more speed but we’re gaining on it.”

YOU CAN GET INTO TROUBLE EASILY HERE AT DOVER BUT YOU ALSO HAVE TO TRY THINGS TO IMPROVE THE SETUP OF THE TRUCK. THAT’S A TOUGH SPOT. “No, but let’s face it: Dover is a great racetrack. It’s a lot of fun to race. It’s not so fun when you’re not good. I’ve been here before, I’ve gotten lapped and you’re just trying to stay out of the way and then I’ve come here and sat on the outside pole before. When it’s good I’d be hard pressed to find a place any more fun to race at. You’ve just got to sneak up on this place ‘cause it will sneak up on you before you know it and then it’s trouble. You’ve just got to be careful here and sneak up on it and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO THE TEAM TO SHOW UP AT THE TRACK AND RUN WELL? “It’s good. It proves to us that we can do this. Everybody knows that we can do this. We’ve had speed. At Daytona we led, Martinsville we were super-fast. There s been places we’ve had speed. We know we can do this, we just have to put it all together and you just don’t expect to get that right out of the box with everybody. It just takes time.”

WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD RACE FOR YOU HERE TOMORROW? “A top-five finish. I’d like to be able to think that we can win it and there’s saying that we can’t but realistically as we continue to work on our stuff a little bit and get it to where it drives good for me, I’d take a top-five right now and just keep it in one piece and have something that we can take to Texas and just keep building on this truck.”

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