Catchfence

USARacing Pro Cup Series

NOTES:

- Rogers won his fourth USA Racing Pro Cup Series championship since he began competing in the series in 1999. He also captured titles in 2004, 2006 and 2009. Rogers unofficially claimed the title by 49 points over Caleb Holman and ties Bobby Gill for most championships in series history. Jamie Mosley Jr. is Rogers’ car owner and the team is based in Chesapeake, Va.

- Rogers posted a third-place finish this afternoon at South Boston, his 12th top-five in 14 races this season.

- For the season, Rogers racked up SEVEN wins, 13 top-10 finishes and won SEVEN pole positions this season.

- In 162 USA Racing Pro Cup Series starts, Rogers has 30 wins, 86 top-fives, 113 top-10s and 33 pole positions.

Rogers clinched the series title on lap 216 of the 300-lap event when he was guaranteed no worse than a 12th-place finish (he mathematically secured the crown with a 13th-place finish or better regardless of Holman’s finish).

CLAY ROGERS, No. 16 USG SHEETROCK / BUILDING SPECIALTIES / SHENANDOAH BUILDING SUPPLY / TIDEWATER INTERIOR PRODUCTS FORD:

“It’s very special, especially coming in and doing it with a new team, our first year with a new team. A lot of learning each other, and the whole year has been a building process really. We’ve had a lot of fun this year. We won half the races in the series which is a pretty impressive number I think. I’m proud to be a part of this team. I’m glad that they looked towards me when they were looking for someone to come drive it. I was the fortunate one that got the call.”

THIS IS YOUR FOURTH CHAMPIONSHIP.

“It’s pretty cool. I consider Bobby Gill to be one of the greatest short track drivers maybe ever [smiles]. He’s got four championships and to be tied with him is pretty special.”

YOU HAD A FLAT TIRE LATE IN THE RACE.

“Well we knew with the amount of cars on the lead lap and stuff we were still going to be okay for the championship. We really felt like we had the car to beat as far as winning the race, especially on the long run. Once we had to come back in and put our old left-rear tire back on we just couldn’t get back up off the corner the way we needed to with a 270-lap left rear tire [smiles].”

YOU GRABBED THE LEAD ON LAP 99 WITH A THREE-WIDE MOVE AROUND CALEB HOLMAN AND THE LAPPED CAR OF ALEX BOWMAN.

“The way I looked at it we were both first and second in points and he had just as much to lose as I did. I did the same thing back here in 2006 and it worked out about the same way. There’s plenty of room back there [smiles].”

YOU ARE TIED WITH BOBBY GILL FOR MOST CHAMPIONSHIPS IN THE SERIES. HOW DOES THIS ONE FEEL?

“It’s very special. Four championships, no matter whether you’re racing tricycles is quite an accomplishments especially with as much youth and talent as there is coming up through the ranks these days and also with veterans like Caleb and Jeff Agnew and these guys that run up front every week.

Even more so than winning the championship the fact that we won half the races this year, seven out of 14, that’s a huge accomplishment in my mind as competitive as the racing is everywhere. Kyle Busch gets 36 races to win his 12 or 13 and we only get 14 races so our percentages are pretty good. It’s been a special season building with a new team, starting out with new guys and getting to know each other. Everybody on this team has been extremely welcoming to me and friendly and we’ve had a good time, had a lot of laughs and kept our mood light throughout the year and stayed focused .

One of the biggest things when you come to these races, we’re not doing this all for a living so if we’re not having fun we’re messing something up and we had a lot of fun this year.”

COMMENT ON THE THREE-WIDE MOVE EARLY IN THE RACE.

“I had a situation present itself very similar to that back in 2006 racing with Benny Gordon here. That’s how we ended up getting in front of him and beating him and doing what he called his most embarrassing moment, which was finishing second to me that night. When we saw those lapped cars coming my car was working real good on the flat on the exit of Turn 2 and off of Turn 4 at that time. It kind of crossed my mind a lap and a half before it happened.

I wondered if the stars were going to line up right where I can make this happen again. It was pretty wild. The guy on the bottom normally has the advantage and I was the lowest one on the racetrack. Caleb and I are first and second in the points and we’re running first and second in the race. We really have about the same amount to lose so somebody kind of counted on one of them to let out. I can’t wait to see it on tape. It had to have been pretty cool.”

DID YOU HAVE A FORMULA OF HOW YOU WANTED TO RUN THIS RACE?

“We talked about what we should do and we thought maybe we’d try to run real hard and lead a lap and then back o ff and ride. Caleb was really, really fast on new tires and it could get going on the restarts a lot better.”

WAS YOUR CAR BETTER THAN WHERE YOU FINISHED TODAY?

“No, not there at end because we had to come back in when we had that flat left-rear tire go down. I mean I rode around out there slap out of control for about eight, 10, 12 laps with a left-rear that I don’t know how it didn’t peel off the rim. It couldn’t have maybe three or four pounds of air in it when we pitted. The way our rules are in this series when you have a flat like that I had to come in and put my first left-rear tire back on so at the end of the race we were sitting there with a left-rear tire that had 270 laps on it.

I couldn’t get up off the corner the way I needed to to run with those guys. I told myself after we put the tire on that I’d be all right but it didn’t take but about 10 or 15 laps and I realized oh well [smiles]. We ran as hard as we could but giving up that left-rear tire was huge issue [smiles].

COMMENT ON THE ATTRITION IN TODAY’S RACE.

“I know I saw at least two cars burn up rear ends. This is a short racetrack where there’s a lot of acceleration and deceleration, similar to Martinsville. As cool of a day as it was you wouldn’t think you would have those problems but the teams that we’re racing with here don’t have the budgets of the [NASCAR Sprint] Cup guys. Putting that kind of cooling system in the car, nine times out of 10, you don’t have those problems. But 300 laps, as rough as this racetrack has become over the years, as much grip as there here is right now, it’s really, really hard on your equipment.”

IS SOUTH BOSTON ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE TRACKS?

“I like racing here. I really liked it a lot better when we could run up next to the wall. That made it a lot more fun. We changed our tire compound in this series and that kind of took that groove away from us. It’ s always been a fun racetrack. It was one of the most frustrating tracks to me when I first started Pro Cup racing and I hated coming here but luckily over the last eight or 10 years of my career in this series a lot of tracks I started out hating I like a lot now.”

The USAR Pro Cup Series, formerly Hooters Pro Cup, is owned by Interstate Investment Group (IIG) and is based in Concord, N.C. For more information on USARacing, visit www.usarprocup.com.

- Camp & Associates, Inc. Press Release