Catchfence

Bristol, Tenn. (Friday, August 21, 2009) – Stacy Compton survived the O’Reilly 200 presented by Valvoline and drove his way to his fifth top-10 finish of the year on Wednesday night, under the lights, at the World’s Fastest Half-Mile of Bristol Motor Speedway. Compton ran as high as fifth before a late race body slam sent his No. 60 SafeAuto Insurance Toyota back to 15th with 20 laps remaining in the 200 lap race. Compton methodically maneuvered through the field in the closing laps to claim ninth place at the world renowned 0.533-mile high-banked oval.

“It was a good weekend,” said Compton after the race. “Marcus (Richmond, Crew Chief) made some great pit calls. With the luck of the draw, we had to go out first in qualifying which is not good at Bristol.” Rain had washed all of the rubber off the race track and jet dryers had been pacing the oval dropping jet fuel on the track, leaving conditions for qualifying a virtual unknown. “We knew we were put in a little bit of a hole,” Compton explained. “I felt like we were going to qualify in the top-10 if we would have got a good draw. No doubt, I feel like that cost us 10 or 12 positions. (Todd) Bodine went out pretty early as well as Tayler Malsam and all of us were back there in the mid to high-20’s for the start of the race.” Compton’s fastest qualifying lap was 16.190 seconds at a speed of 118.518, which was good enough for the 23rd starting spot. “We just had to make the best of it.”

At the start of the race, Compton’s Toyota was running well. “We made up some ground early, and then Marcus made a great pit call and got us some track position. It was a great plan; Marcus played pit strategy better than it could have been dreamed out. We got track position early by just taking fuel and were able to stay out. Our truck was good enough that we were able to maintain when everybody else took tires. We were able to stay there and run in the top-10 all night. Then, right there at the end, we came in and put tires on and the truck got tight.”

While running in the top-10 and battling a tight truck, Compton was on the outside of Rick Crawford when the two made contact. “Right there at the end it looked like (Rick) Crawford cut a tire and got into us and we went from fifth or sixth back to about 15th with around 20 to go. It actually got us up and into the outside wall. We were able to get back to ninth before the race was over, so all it all it wasn’t a bad weekend.”

It was a good point’s day for Compton, who moved up one position to 11th in the 2009 Championship Title Chase and now sits only 47 points out of 7th. “One of our goals is just to run in the top-10 every week and we were able to do that this week,” said Compton. “We ran in the top-10 all day, but circumstances didn’t allow us to finish where we could have but still, to come away having survived Bristol is always a good thing. We survived and got a top-10 out of it.”

- Wyler Racing, LLC Press Release