Catchfence

Martinsville, Va. (March 29, 2010)  There was just no way Denny Hamlin was going to lose the Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 Monday afternoon.

Hamlin gave Raybestos® brand Brakes, a member of the Affinia Group family of brands, their first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win in 2010.  He rallied ninth to first over the final 12 laps to score his first victory of the 2010 season in a slam-bam short track race at Martinsville Speedway.

“The Raybestos brakes were amazing,” Hamlin said.  “This is probably the best I’ve ever felt, as far as brake package.  I’m going to say that on my debrief.  It just seems like every time we come here we have a little bit better brake package than what we did before.  And it just seemed like this one, no matter how hard I use them, we have no temperature, we don’t show any temperature and ultimately it helps us run harder and not maybe pay the consequence of maybe blowing a tire in the long run.  I had a hard pedal all day.  Look at 90 percent of my passes tha t happened today.  It was because I dive bombed somebody getting in corner and out braked them.  For some it’s something that we don’t need to change.”

Hamlin was leading the race by a comfortable margin when a caution waved on lap 493 of the 508-lap race.  During the caution, race leader Hamlin chose to pit, taking on four tires but losing precious track position.  When the race restarted on lap 496, the driver of the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota was ninth.

Hamlin charged his way to fourth-place on lap 498 when Kyle Busch and Paul Menard spun in Turn 3, bringing out the 13^th and final caution of the race and giving Hamlin one more chance in the form of a green-white-checkered finish.

He took full advantage.  Jeff Gordon restarted in the lead, ahead of Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth and Hamlin.  As the packed entered Turn 1, Kenseth and Gordon made contact, giving Hamlin room in the bottom groove of the track.  He quickly flashed by the traffic jam and into the lead.  Hamlin scampered away over the final two laps and crossed the finish line .670 seconds ahead of Joey Logano.

Hamlin led the most laps in Monday’s race at Martinsville (six times for 172 laps) and has now led the most laps in each of the last three consecutive races at Martinsville (674 of 1,509 possible laps).  The victory was his ninth in 157 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races and his second consecutive at Martinsville.  His average finish in the last three races at Martinsville is 1.33.

Hamlin averaged 73.180 mph in a race that took 3 hours, 39 minutes and five seconds to complete.  There were 24 lead changes among eight drivers and the race was slowed by 13 cautions for 78 laps.

To gain a competitive advantage at Martinsville, the Joe Gibbs cars used the Raybestos® Sprint Cup braking system.  The ultra-lightweight aluminum alloy six-piston calipers are the stiffest and lightest calipers available in all of NASCAR.  The innovative calipers were developed using Raybestos® technology partner Alcon’s state of the art “optimized design” process, and include an asymmetric body design and advanced between-piston and crossover cooling features.   The brake package also provides for the largest brake pad volume (surface area) and largest rotor (13.15” outside diameter, and 1.65” thick) available in NASCAR.

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 an innovative global leader in the design, manufacture, distribution and marketing of industrial grade products and services, including extensive offerings of aftermarket parts for automotive and heavy-duty vehicles. With more than $1.8 billion in annual revenue, Affinia has operations in North and South America, Europe, Asia and India. For more information, visit www.affiniagroup.com.

Alcon Components USA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alcon Components Limited, the UK based manufacturer of premium brake and clutch products. Alcon systems are engineered and designed for the most rigorous demands and are widely used throughout the world of motorsport, from Formula One to IndyCar to NASCAR, as well as in various high performance road vehicles including Jaguar, Land Rover and Bentley.  For more information, visit www.alconusa.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., for Raybestos, Press Release