Catchfence

Raybestos - The Best in Brakes

Denny Hamlin held off Mark Martin to win the TUMS Fast Relief 500 Sunday afternoon at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and closed to within six points of leader Jimmie Johnson in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship standings.

The victory by Hamlin continued an impressive performance this season by Raybestos® brand Brakes, a member of the Affinia Group family of brands, on short tracks.  Raybestos® scored their TENTH NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win in 2010 and have now won FIVE OF SIX short-track events this season.  Cars using Raybestos® brand Brakes have scored victories in nine of 12 events on tracks less than a mile in length over the past two seasons.

“I’m just real proud of everything that Raybestos has put together for this brake package,” Hamlin said.  “Without a doubt I was out-braking everyone into the corner today.  It was the most solid brake package I’ve had here at Martinsville so far.  I hammered ‘em all day long because my car wasn’t handling the way I was hoping to.  I’ve had good brakes here in the past but my cars have always been so good I never had to use ‘em.  Today I just had to use ‘em a whole lot and they stayed true to me.  Couldn’t say enough for all their hard work and everything that they’ve put together to hopefully win us a championship.

“Today you have to race so much harder than what you had to a couple years ago.  I know I’m new to this sport but I never remember being as hard on the brakes today as I ever was in the past.  It’s good that we’ve got a product that’s standing up to what I’m putting through them and obviously good enough to win races.”

Hamlin started from the pole but fell to 15^th-place just 50 laps into the 500-lap event due to excessive temperature buildup on the left rear tire.  Mike Ford, Hamlin’s crew chief, decided against making drastic changes to the car.

“We saw a lot of buildup to the left rear, probably four times more than we normally see,” Ford said.  “If it was the racecar making it do that we would see it again but we never saw it again all day, just very fortunate to not panic and lose the race right at the beginning.”

From there Hamlin fought his way back into contention.  He worked his way into second-place by lap 200 and was never out of contention the rest of the way.  He took the lead for the final time when he passed Kevin Harvick on lap 471 and didn’t look back, crossing the finish line 2.318 seconds ahead of runner-up Mark Martin.

“We just fought and fought and fought and kept working on it,” Hamlin said.  “I kept trying to be patient.  Our car was really good on long runs. We just never got them.  We had so many cautions.”

Over the final 30 laps of the race Hamlin was praying the race would stay green.  A few cars slowed late in the race, the victim of cut tires, but the yellow flag Hamlin fretted about didn’t wave, much to his amazement.

“I don’t know how we didn’t [have a caution],” Hamlin said.  “I think the circumstances worked out.  The guys who had cut tires late in the race, they were able to get down in time to get on pit road to not affect the race.  I saw one of the cars look like he was starting to blow up.  I was yelling at him to try to get him off the racetrack as soon as possible.  Everyone was able to cut down and get onto pit road in a timely fashion.”

The margin between Hamlin and Johnson is the closest between first and second with four races to go in the Chase (2004-present).  That fact doesn’t bother Hamlin, especially since the series moves to unpredictable Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway next weekend.

“I like being behind and chasing a guy,” Hamlin said.  I do not like playing defense at all.  To come here and play offense all day, going through adversity to get this win, it’s a huge boost going forward.  I know we’ve been extremely strong at Talladega for the last two to three years so I’m pretty confident.”

Hamlin scored his third consecutive Martinsville victory and his fourth in 11 races at the .525-mile speedway.  He collected his series-high seventh win of the season and posted his 13^th top-five.

The race featured 24 lead changes among 12 drivers and took 3 hours, 40 minutes and 20 seconds to complete.  Fifteen cautions slowed the pace for 90 laps dropping Hamlin’s average speed to 71.619 mph.

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 Brand Brakes, Press Release