Catchfence

Where the Raybestos Rookies finished at Michigan:

Brian Ickler, 3rd

Tayler Malsam, 6th

Johnny Sauter, 16th

J.R. Fitzpatrick, 21st

Chris Jones, 25th

Brent Raymer, 30th

James Buescher, 33rd

UNOFFICIAL Raybestos Rookie standings (top-five):

Tayler Malsam, 98

Johnny Sauter, 96

James Buescher, 78

J.R. Fitzpatrick, 60

Ricky Carmichael, 54

2009 Raybestos Rookie Contender

JAMES BUESCHER, No. 10 INTERNATIONAL MAXXFORCE DIESEL FORD: WHAT HAPPENED?

“We’re up there running with the leaders and I think we were up to third at one point and had real good truck. I was kind of just riding, seeing what we got, and got down underneath people. They got to the outside of me and just got sucked around. They all got outside of me, they all freight-trained me down the backstretch so I went into three and I was going to back off and hold on to it and make it through the corner and then get back up to the high side as soon as I could and I didn’t even make it through the corner. I didn’t even try to go wide-open or anything like I had been on the topside. I was going to milk it through it and wasn’t able to milk it very much [smiles].”

YOU APPEARED TO HAVE A STRONG TRUCK.

“We had a real good truck. Like I said we were up to third. Went down to the bottom and tried to pass Kyle and Todd after they got up into the wall a little bit. I went down to the bottom and then went off into one and two and Colin got on the outside of me and I got real loose so then I was going to try to get back up to the high side as quick as I could and they all freight-trained me. I was going to walk it through the corner and just hold on to it. I wasn’t even trying to gain any positions or anything. I was just trying to hold on to it. I just got pulled around like everybody does every week.”

BRIAN ICKLER IN THE No. 15 SAMSUNG INSTINCT TOYOTA WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE IN TODAY’S RACE AT MICHIGAN.

NOTES:

- Ickler scored a third-place finish, his best finish in five NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races. He collected his second top-five of the 2009 season and claimed Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the first time this season.

- Tayler Malsam scored a sixth-place finish, his best effort in 11 starts and fourth top-10 of the 2009 season.

- DID YOU KNOW? Ickler is the fourth Raybestos Rookie to score a top-five finish in 10 races at Michigan and the second consecutive. The others:

2000: Kurt Busch, second

2003: Carl Edwards, fifth

2008: Scott Speed, third

DID YOU KNOW? The 2009 Michigan 200 equals the most Raybestos Rookies to finish inside the top-10 in a Camping World Truck Series race at Michigan. Two Raybestos Rookies also finished inside the top-10 in 2000: Kurt Busch (second) and Jamie McMurray (sixth).

- UNOFFICIALLY Malsam leads Johnny Sauter by two points (98-96) in the overall Raybestos Rookie standings.

ICKLER:

“We learned a ton. We were just too free there at the end. We tried to tighten it up all day long. I learned a lot, a lot about air. You’re going fast at this place and just happy to finally have a good run for Samsung Instinct and everyone at Toyota.”

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT YOU LEARNED A LOT ABOUT AIR?

“Just here with the restrictor plates that we run you know sucking up on the cars in front of you and all the downforce gets taken away when you get near trucks in the corners. Just learning how to run around other trucks and keep your nose clean.”

HOW BIG OF A CONFIDENCE BOOST WAS TODAY? YOU STARTED ON THE POLE, RAN UP FRONT AND HAD A CHANCE TO WIN THE RACE.

“It’s big, especially we’re finally in a groove here where we’re going to keep racing. It’s a huge momentum booster for next week at Milwaukee. We’ll see what we can do.”

DID YOU HAVE ANYTHING FOR THE GUYS IN FRONT OF YOU?

“You know what, once we got out of the draft there and we finally got by Crafton it just takes so long to suck back up to Kyle and Colin. Maybe if we had a restart I think we’d have been pretty good but without a restart it was pretty spread out.”

ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO MILWAUKEE NEXT WEEK? “I can’t wait to be back in the 51 next week. I’m pretty excited.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO RACE EVERY WEEK?

“Me being a Raybestos Rookie and not having very much experience in the truck series it’s huge, especially when we want to take the same truck back every week and we can keep making the same trucks better and better. We’re pretty happy with the way we ran today and look forward to next week.”

THIS WAS A GOOD DAY FOR THE TEAM TO FINISH SECOND AND THIRD.

“Yeah absolutely. This is actually a 51 Miccosukee truck that I raced last week at Texas. It was extremely fast there. Had some mechanical problems but really happy for the whole Billy Ballew camp today.”

WHAT WAS THE MAIN THING THAT YOU LEARNED TODAY? “I don’t know [smiles]. I’ll have to sit down and digest it all.”

ICKLER PRESS CONFERENCE

“We had a pretty good truck all weekend. Great qualifying effort by the whole team and then we started off our run a little free and just trying to learn everything with all the air, aero in these trucks around this two-and-a-half mile racetrack. Once we got that all figured out, we got shuffled to the back a little bit there and had some help from Kyle to get back to the front and just a great finish and a great momentum boost for next week.”

CAN YOU EXPLAIN YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH KYLE BUSCH? “I ran the NASCAR Camping World West Series. Had the opportunity to move back east, which I did, ran my own team, rented a shop down the street from Kyle and he just kind of followed my racing career along. He gave the opportunity to go run the Snowball Derby in one his late models. I’ve run a late model race for him twice and just kind of become good friends. He is the one responsible for putting me in the 51 truck when he’s not in it.”

WHAT DOES THE TRUCK TEACH YOU FOR THE NEXT LEVEL?

“The two biggest things I think are the racetracks that we run at and everything else you don’t get the experience on big two-mile, mile-and-a-half speedways. The second I’d say is radial tires. All the other series seem to run bias-ply tires. Getting on the radial going this fast with all the air I think is what makes you ready for the next step.”

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO FINISH THIRD IN YOUR FIFTH RACE?

“You know we’ve run good. We ran good last week at Texas. Had a sway bar bolt break; small things keep biting us since we started this thing and we’re starting to kind of make it click with both trucks. It’s big for not only myself but the whole team. It picks up all their spirits racing every week.”

TAYLER MALSAM, No. 81 ONE EIGHTY TOYOTA:

“Just got to give credit to this team. These guys have been working their butts off in the shop and out here. It was an ignition box and then getting in that accident they got us back out there fast so it’s all these guys. I’m just holding it down.”

IT APPEARED THAT YOUR TRUCK GOT BETTER AS THE RACE WENT ON.

“Doug kept throwing changes at it and kept working. We kept loosening ‘er up and loosening ‘er up and making the high side work again.”

WHAT DID YOU NEED TO FINISH A LITTLE BETTER?

“I think we just needed more laps. I think we were getting tight with that front fender knocked in. Overall it was a good day.”

WHAT HAPPENED IN THAT ACCIDENT?

“I don’t know. I just saw smoke and they said ‘Watch out’ and the next thing I know we were hitting someone. It was all good.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO SCORE ANOTHER TOP-10 AS YOU CONTINUE THE LEARNING PROCESS?

“It’s huge. I mean, the guys are working their butts off at the shop and stuff and to keep running good for ‘em is all I can do. These guys keep working out here and the shop and top-10s and top-fives and everything leads to a win. Hopefully all the stars will line up one night and we can get one of these.”

J R FITZPATRICK, No. 4 AUTO-OWNERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET:

“I was getting more comfortable myself and the guys were doing a great job working on the truck and we were getting better and better. We were definitely a top-five truck today. I think we could have gotten third or fourth at the end of it. Everybody did an awesome job this weekend.

It’s got to be hard for them to have a rookie driver just learn all the time. Their equipment is definitely top-notch. Anybody who is experienced can get in it and win. I’ve got to get myself there one day. I’m proud of the guys. It was my fault on pit road there when we were filling fuel there. We got shuffled back to eighth or something and there was a truck there stopped in front of me and I pulled down to miss ‘em and it just hit the fence and killed it.”

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. Press Release