Catchfence

Efforts By Busch, No. 18 Team Earn O’Reilly Auto Parts Position Improvement Award

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (March 24, 2010) – Kyle Busch and the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota team qualified 38th leading into the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, but by the time the checkered flag fell Sunday, Busch’s surge from the back-of-the-pack earned him a top-10 finish and a boost in the points standings.

Busch, who gained a total of 29 positions from start to finish in Sunday’s Food City 500, earned a top-10 finish and the “O’Reilly Auto Parts Position Improvement Award.”

The award is part of the NASCAR Prize Money and Decal Program, also referred to as the contingency program, which provide teams prize money and weekly awards based on performance in several categories.

Each race, the “O’Reilly Auto Parts Position Improvement Award” recognizes the eligible NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver who improves the most positions from their starting position to their finishing position. O’Reilly Auto Parts has been the Official Auto Parts Store of NASCAR since 2009.

When the green flag dropped Sunday, Busch slowly worked his way into 16th before cutting a left-front tire on Lap 274. He knocked the toe out of the car but his team fixed it without losing a lap, and he was able to race the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota to ninth.

“We just worked from behind all weekend long,” said Busch, who swept both Bristol races last year. “The right front went down and I got into the wall there in about the middle of the race and things didn’t look good. The guys never gave up and I never gave up and somehow we got a decent finish out of it. We want to run better, but you need to make the bad days the best you can if you want to make the Chase and have a shot at a championship. We did what we needed to do today.”

It was the first top-10 finish of the season for Busch, who moved up five spots in points to 10th. Heading into Martinsville Speedway this weekend, Busch sits just 168 points behind leader Kevin Harvick.

Official winners of this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Prize Money & Decal Program special awards include:

· COORS LIGHT POLE AWARD: Joey Logano (124.630 mph, 15.396 secs.)
· DIRECTV CREW CHIEF OF THE RACE AWARD: Todd Parrott (crew chief for Matt Kenseth)
· GOODYEAR GATORBACK BELTS FASTEST LAP AWARD: Greg Biffle (121.466 mph, Lap 150)
· MAHLE CLEVITE ENGINE BUILDER OF THE RACE AWARD: Kurt Busch
· MOBIL 1 “COMMAND PERFORMANCE DRIVER OF THE RACE” AWARD: Kurt Busch
· MOOG CHASSIS PARTS PROBLEM SOLVER OF THE RACE AWARD: Steve Addington (crew chief for Kurt Busch)
· O’REILLY AUTO PARTS POSITION IMPROVEMENT AWARD: Kyle Busch (29 places)
· RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE RACE AWARD: Kevin Conway
· SUNOCO DIAMOND PERFORMANCE AWARD: Jimmie Johnson
· TISSOT “PIT ROAD PRECISION” AWARD: Brad Keselowski (259.305 sec.)
· WIX FILTERS LAP LEADER AWARD: Juan Pablo Montoya (29 laps)

About the NASCAR Prize Money & Decal Program

The NASCAR Prize Money & Decal Program, commonly referred to as the contingency program, is administered by the NASCAR Automotive Group. The program strives to build strong relationships with high-quality, performance-driven brands that are leaders in their respective categories and award money to NASCAR teams via per-race and year-end postings. Competitors become eligible for awards money by displaying partner decals on the front fender of their race vehicles and, in some instances, use of a sponsor’s product. National series contingency sponsors will contribute over $8.8 million to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series, and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series teams in 2010.