2010 NCWTS David Starr – Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images for NASCAR

• This Week’s Tundra… The No. 81 Zachry Tundra team and driver David Starr will race chassis RMM-104 during Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. RMM-104 was last run at Homestead Miami Speedway in 2009.

• Experience at Atlanta Motor Speedway… In addition to his 10 starts in the Camping World Truck Series, Starr has one start in the NASCAR Nationwide Series at AMS.

• First Birthday Celebration… David and his wife Kim will celebrate their son’s first birthday this week. David Starr Jr. will turn one on Friday, March 12th.

• Zachry Holdings, Inc.… Zachry Holdings Inc. will again adorn the sides of the No. 81 machine at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The construction giant has backed Starr since the 2008 season and will continue their relationship with the Texas driver and RMM for select races during the 2010 season.

• Watch and Listen… The E-Z-GO 200 will be seen live on Saturday, March 6 on SPEED with coverage beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET. The event will also be heard live on MRN Radio as well as Sirius Satellite Radio, channel 128.

David Starr on driving at Atlanta Motor Speedway

“I’m real excited to go to Atlanta [Motor Speedway] this week and especially as part of the Randy Moss Motorsports team with [crew chiefs] Doug Wolcott and Gene Nead and teammate Mike Skinner. Atlanta is always a fast track and there’s a lot of room to move around, it’s always an exciting race for the drivers and the fans. I’m ready to get back in the Zachry Toyota Tundra and looking to rebound from the disappointing results from Daytona and getting the season going after the long off season and the last three weeks off.”

Crew Chief Doug Wolcott on racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway

“Atlanta Motor Speedway is the true start to our season. Daytona [International Speedway] is its own animal and a lot of things happen there that are out of our control. You can have the best truck and not finish the race. We feel like we are taking a truck to Atlanta [Motor Speedway] that will consistently run in the top-five. Gene [Nead] and I have been working closely to find a package that both David [Starr] and Mike [Skinner] are comfortable with. We have spent a lot of time at TRD on the shaker rig trying different combinations and we feel like we have hit on some things that will really help us get through the corners. I am looking forward to watching the Zachry Toyota get to the front this weekend.”

David Starr

Birthdate: October 11, 1967
Hometown: Houston, Texas
Residence: Irving
Status: Married to Kim

As it is for so many of the people involved in racing, it doesn’t take much to see how NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) driver David Starr initially got hooked on the sport. From an early age, Starr spent every minute he could hanging out at race tracks watching his father, Jimmy, work his crew chief magic for big name drivers like Tony Bettenhausen Jr., and Ronnie Chumley. It didn’t take long for Starr to decide to make a career out of racing as well.

A native of Houston, Texas, Starr ran his first race at a local dirt track when he was 14 years old. The youngster took the Street Stock division by storm and won the track championship at Big H Speedway in 1993. Starr continued to compete in late models for the next seven years, and earned 20 victories along the way.

In an effort to continue his already successful racing career, Starr began working for his uncle at Team Texas High Performance Driving School. Learning the intricacies of stock cars, Starr spent two years at the school, both teaching and learning as much as he could about the cars. During that time, Starr was able to make several starts in the ARCA RE/MAX Series. He also served as a test driver and crew member for a NASCAR Nationwide Series headed by NASCAR legend Donnie Allison and, once in a while, still got behind the wheel of his late model car.

In 1996, Starr competed full-time in the Texas International Drivers Association (TIDA) and earned the honor of becoming the first rookie to win a TIDA event. Starr followed that up with a victory at the Texas Race of Champions at Texas World Speedway and went on to win three more races the next season.

Starr got his first chance in a major NASCAR Series in 1998 driving in the NASCAR Camping World (formerly Craftsman) Truck Series. Starr competed in five races that season for owner Buddy Morrison and landed a full-time ride in the series not long after. Driving for several owners in 1999, Starr finished 22nd in the point standings.

2002 proved to be a breakout year. Starr earned his first and second NCWTS poles and won the event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Perhaps more importantly though, Starr proved that he was a force to be reckoned with every weekend. Leading the standings at times, Starr finished the season in an impressive fifth place in the points battle driving a Chevrolet for owner Wayne Spears.

Starr remained with Spears through 2005 and the pairing was a success. During his four seasons racing with the Spears Manufacturing team, Starr posted 25 top-five finishes, 55 top-10 finishes and three pole positions. En route to three top-10 points finishes, Starr also earned three victories.

Starr made the move to Red Horse Racing for the 2006 season and found immediate success. Taking the checkered flag for a victory early in the season at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, Starr scored six top-five and 12 top-10 finishes that season on the way to a career high fourth in the championship point standings. Starr remained with Red Horse Racing through the 2009 season.

With a total of 240 starts and four series victories, Starr will embark on something new for 2010. Making the move to Randy Moss Motorsports, Starr will be paired up with veteran driver Mike Skinner at the multi-truck team and hopes to take his Zachry Toyota Tundra back to victory lane.

- Randy Moss Motorsports, Press Release

2010 NCWTS Donny Lia - Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images for NASCAR

This Saturday at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in the Atlanta 200, the new father hopes for a change of events on-track, as Lia will be reunited at SS Green Light Racing with an old friend in crew chief Jason Miller. Lia and Miller spent much of the 2008 season together including a victory at Mansfield Motorsports Park.

Lia has competed in the NCWTS twice at the fast 1.54-mile speedway, completing all but three laps and finishing in the top-twenty in both trips to the high-banked quad-oval track just south of Atlanta, GA.

Miller feels the SS Green Light team will have a truck capable of an even better finish this weekend. “We have a very good truck ready for Donny. Our goal is to avoid the melee that ended his day early at Daytona and be there at lap 130. We have a truck that can run up front, we need to run smart and we’ll get a good finish.”

“I’m excited to get back together with Jason,” Lia said. “I feel the two of us communicate very well and Jason understands what I am asking for with changes to the truck. Atlanta will be a good test for us, I’m really looking forward to it.”

As to the new responsibilities at home, Lia is more than excited. “This fatherhood stuff is incredible, Mom and Lil’ Domenick are doing fine. It sure keeps you busy, but worth it and then some!”

Bobby Dotter, General Manager of SS Green Light Racing says his teams are ready to get back to the track after a two-week layoff. “I was very happy with all three of our teams at Daytona and I think we have two great trucks ready for Atlanta. I’m anxious to see how well Donny and Jason work together. Our goal is to stay clean and let the race come to us. I’m looking forwards to a good race for the SS Green Light teams.”

There will be two practice sessions at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Friday, March 5th with qualifying for the Atlanta 200 on Saturday, March 6th at 9:30 am. The race will be shown live on SPEED TV at 2:00 pm and will also be broadcast live on MRN Radio.

- SS Green Light Racing, Press Release

2010 NSCS Robby Gordon - Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images for NASCAR

Monster Energy Sponsorship – Just weeks before the 2010 season debut, Robby Gordon Motorsports announced an extension to their current partnership with Monster Energy Drink to include sponsorship on Gordon’s No. 7 Camry in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.  Monster Energy and Robby Gordon already have a well developed partnership through Robby’s off-road endeavors, where they pair with Toyo Tires to serve as the primary sponsor on Gordon’s Trophy Truck and HUMMER.

Robby’s Thoughts – “Las Vegas is always one of my favorite places to race,” commented Gordon.  “The excitement of The Strip easily transitions to the track on Sunday afternoon leaving everyone hyped for a great race.  We had a strong finish here last season, and we’ve put a lot of work into the Monster Energy Camry to prepare for the 2010 event.  Hopefully the Monster Energy team can finally turn our luck around to bring home another great finish in Sin City.”

Career at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – Gordon returns to Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2010 hoping to improve upon the top-fifteen finish that was recorded just one year ago around the 1.5-mile oval.  Throughout his career, Gordon has recorded 10 starts and has logged 2215 laps around the intermediate race track.

Appearance Schedule – Robby Gordon will break from his busy schedule at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to meet his fans.  On Friday night, February 26, Gordon will meet fans at The Stratosphere Las Vegas Hotel and Casino from 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.  On Saturday night, February 27, Gordon is scheduled to appear at the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel and Casino where he will meet fans from 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.  He will then sign autographs at the Carnaval Court at Harrah’s from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.  The No. 7 Monster Energy show car will be onsite for each of the appearances as well. In addition to the above, the show car will also be at the following locations in Las Vegas:

Race Coverage – FOX will air a live television broadcast of the race beginning at 3:00 p.m. EST on Sunday, February 28.  Meanwhile, MRN and SIRIUS Satellite Radio both provide live radio coverage of the event.  Qualifying for the race will be aired on SPEED Channel beginning at 3:00 p.m. EST on Friday, February 26^th.  For news and updates, please visit ROBBYGORDON.COM or PLANETROBBY.COM.

Career Notes

Gordon owns three NASCAR Sprint Cup victories:

• Loudon on Nov. 23, 2001
• Infineon on June 22, 2003
• Watkins Glen on Aug. 10 2003

Gordon owns one NASCAR Nationwide Series victory:

• Richmond on Sept. 10 2004

- Robby Gordon Motorsports, Press Release

Atlanta Motor Speedway 50th logo

NASCAR fans will have the opportunity to mingle, share dinner and a wine tasting, and participate in an interactive question-and-answer session with NASCAR stars during Georgia Power Qualifying Night.

NASCAR notables in attendance will include Sprint Cup Series drivers Carl Edwards, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, NASCAR president and former AMS general manager Mike Helton, Speedway Motorsports, Inc. and AMS owner Bruton Smith, NASCAR artist Sam Bass, and media personalities Rutledge Wood and Doug Rice. Additional drivers and celebrities may be added at a later date.

In addition to the festivities inside Club One, fans can also watch Sprint Cup Series Qualifying and a 150-lap NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour race from the luxurious, theater-style seating in Club One or from the rooftop viewing platform.

Tickets to the event are just $150 per person, $250 for two tickets, or $400 for four tickets and can be purchased by visiting www.speedwaycharities.org and selecting the ‘Events’ tab within the ‘Atlanta Chapter’ page. Fans can also contact Shaun Birindelli with Speedway Children’s Charities at (770) 946-3980 for more information or to purchase tickets.

For more information on the upcoming Kobalt Tools 500 race weekend or to purchase tickets, contact the Atlanta Motor Speedway Ticket Office at (770) 946-4211, (877) 9-AMS-TIX, or visit www.atlantamotorspeedway.com.

- Atlanta Motor Speedway, Press Release

Office Depot/Old Spice Driver Finishes Disappointing 22^nd in Sprint Cup Season-Opener

2010 NSCS Tony Stewart - Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images for NASCAR

Tony Stewart capped what had been a strong Daytona (Fla.) Speedweeks with a disappointing 22^nd-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday at Daytona International Speedway.

The driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) came into the 52^nd running of the Great American Race having won yesterday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series event and finishing second in his Gatorade Duel qualifying race on Thursday and ninth in the non-points Budweiser Shootout last Saturday.  But an equally strong run in the Daytona 500 never materialized for Stewart as he grappled with a tight handling racecar throughout the 208-lap race, which was extended eight laps past its scheduled distance by a green-white-checkered finish.

“It wasn’t very good for us,” said Stewart of his Daytona 500 outing.  “We just missed.  I’m not sure what we missed, but we’ll figure it out.”

Also missing was a portion of the racetrack, as a chunk of asphalt came apart in turn two of the 2.5-mile oval not once, but twice, causing two red flag stoppages that collectively totaled 145 minutes.  As a result, the race lasted more than six hours and finished under the lights after starting at 1 p.m. EST.

“NASCAR did the best job they could with it.  I mean, what can you think about?  It is what it is,” said Stewart, a track operator himself as he owns Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.  “It’s not something that you plan for, but obviously NASCAR has done a lot of preparation in case something like that happens.  They were prepared for it.  The hard part is, you have to fix it, and they did a good job of that, especially in a crisis situation.”

Once the track was ready for action after the second red flag period, it was a sprint to the finish with drivers slipping and sliding through the track’s corners.  In the last 39 laps that followed the final red flag, the yellow caution flag waved three times for 10 laps for three separate multi-car accidents.

Escaping all the carnage was Jamie McMurray, who won the Daytona 500 to score the biggest victory of his eight-year Sprint Cup career.  It was his fourth career Sprint Cup win, his third in a restrictor-plate race and his second at Daytona.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., finished .119 of a second behind McMurray, while Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer and David Reutimann rounded out the top-five.  Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Juan Pablo Montoya comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were nine caution periods for 40 laps, with 10 drivers failing to finish.

Stewart’s SHR teammate, Ryan Newman, finished 34^th after getting collected in a lap-194 accident on the backstretch that left his No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet immobile.  Newman was seen and released from the infield care center without injury.

With 35 races still ahead of him, Stewart leaves Daytona 23^rd in the championship standings, 93 points arrears McMurray, the series leader.  Newman is 34^th in points, 129 points out of first.

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Feb. 21 Auto Club 500 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.  The race starts at 3 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at 2 p.m.

- True Speed Communication for Stewart-Haas Racing/Office Depot Racing/Old Spice Racing, Press Release

Team Chevy Logo

FROM JAMIE MCMURRAY: “Unbelievable. Unbelievable.  I told my wife today, she was like if you win tonight….oh I am going to cry…it is so unreal. I thought if I made it without seeing my Dad or my wife, I’d be ok. (IN TEARS) It is unbelievable really. I can’t explain it. It is a dream. I mean it really it is.

“Where I was last year…and for Johnny Morris (Bass Pro Shops) and Chip (Ganassi) and Felix (Sabates), Bass Pro Shops to take a chance on me and let me come back, it means a lot to me. What a way to pay them back. Happy Valentines Day to my wife. My Dad is here, it is just very emotional.

“After we won Talladega, we went to McDonalds. I think tonight we will have a Big Mac.”

TALK US THROUGH THE LAST LAP: “Biffle helped me out. I spun the tires on the restart. It is just a gamble on which line to get the biggest run. Greg gave me an unbelievable push down the backstretch. Then when I saw the No. 88 (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) behind me, I thought ‘Oh no’. He had a good car and Earnhardt at Daytona is just, I mean they win all the time it seems like. So you never know what to expect.

“I certainly thank the fans that stuck around. That was tough having to get in and out of the car but they stuck with us and it was cool to here the applause when I got back in car. Sprint for everything they do. I went to one of their parties the other night and Dan Hesson is just a great guy and it means a lot. Not only Sprint, but everybody that is a part of our sport. With the economy the way it is, we couldn’t be here to put this show without all these sponsors. I want to get with my team.”

KEVIN “BONO” MANION, CREW CHIEF, NO. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS IMPALA – Winner

“I guess this means I’m going to Disneyland! That was awesome. Chip, Felix, and Teresa give us everything we need. Brian Pattie, you couldn’t ask for a better teammate and brother. You’d better watch out for this Earnhardt Ganassi Team this year. Thanks to everyone who helped push.  I don’t know; I closed my eyes for the last lap.”

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD IMPALA, FINISHED 2ND: “I am just disappointed to come that close and not win it but, I’ll tell you. We did the right thing by coming down and getting two tires. The AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet was pretty good all day. Just working on some handling issues. I don’t know if got them fixed or not. When it gets cold, everybody’s car handles good. I want to thank my team for working really hard. The engine shop did an awesome job. The car worked really good. I’m happy for Jamie and his crew chief Bono who helped me when I was younger.”

CLINT BOWYER, NO. 33 CHEERIOS/HAMBURGER HELPER IMPALA – Finished 4^th:

YOU NEVER SEE RACING LIKE THIS AT DAYTONA. WALK US THROUGH THOSE LAST TWO LAPS

“Yeah, the No. 88 (Earnhardt Jr), wow, what a push he gave me on the outside. Just holding on. Probably made a mistake there. I needed my teammate behind me on that restart. I chose the outside. Probably hindsight wasn’t the best decision, but the Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet was very strong and we had a lot of fun. This is the second year in a row we’ve had a 4^th place finish here at Daytona; hopefully we can get a little bit better.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S IMPALA – Finished 35th

WHAT HAPPENED?

“It was something with the drive, either the axel or the rocker broke in the rear end or something with the hub on the left side. We only have drive in the right rear tires, so something broke coming through Turns 3 and 4 and I just had the one wheel driving.”

WAS THAT A SAFETY ISSUE?  SHOULD THEY HAVE STILL BEEN RUNNING THE RACE?

“They are doing their best to get the show in. The thing keeps coming out (patch to fill the hole) whatever they’re putting in isn’t getting hard enough to stay. But we were all dodging it. Now we know where it’s at. Everybody is dodging it.”

SO YOU WEREN’T WORRIED ABOUT SAFETY AT ALL?

“No, when I thought I had a flat tire I was screaming the hole is really big hoping we’d get a caution (laughs) and then I realized we didn’t have a flat tire so it’s like, oh well. I was just looking for something.”

SO THAT DIDN’T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE HOLE?

“It’s hard to say. I don’t think so. We’d been hitting it with the right side tires and something in the left side broke. So I don’t think it was that.”

MARK MARTIN, NO. 5 GODADDY.COM IMPALA – Finished 12th

WAS THIS RACE A SAFETY ISSUE?

“It was pretty risky but the fans got what they paid for. It was a little risky to do it.”

IS THIS A CRUMMY WAY TO START OUT THE DRIVE FOR FIVE?

“Yeah, without a doubt. It sucks. But it’s a long season and we came out of here last year with a crashed race car and still came back. We have a little work ahead of us.”

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 SHELL-PENNZOIL IMPALA – Finished 7th

“It was wild. The No. 99 (Carl Edwards) doesn’t really know where he’s going. He went to the middle and kind of jammed it all up. But a great job by my Shell-Pennzoil guys. I just wish we knew we had somebody behind us who knew how to draft.”

ALL IN ALL, HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THIS VERY ODD DAY?

“It’s been a great day for us. We just thought we had the car to beat and just zigged when I should have zagged.”

ON THE HOLE, HOW HARD WAS IT TO GAIN A RHYTHM?

“Ah, nothing really. It was fine.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET IMPALA – Finished 10th

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE DAY?

“It was a great day for the team with Jamie (McMurray) winning; that was huge. We both had good cars and good opportunities. I just got stuck on the bottom when I was running up front and lost a lot of ground. But overall, this is big. Starting the season like this is what we need.”

WHAT ABOUT THE BIG HOLE IN THE RACE TRACK? HOW MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE DID THAT MAKE?

“It was nothing. It is what it is. I think the track did an amazing job making sure we could get the track ready and for all the fans here, we got the race in.”

HAVE YOU EVER EXPERIENCED ANYTHING LIKE THAT BEFORE?

“Oh, yes. We’ve had problems before. People think it only happens here but it happens everywhere.”

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/OLD SPICE IMPALA SS – Finished 22nd

HOW WAS YOUR RACE TONIGHT?

“It wasn’t very good for us.  We just missed.  We’ve missed it since we got here.  I’m not sure what we missed, but we’ll figure it out.”

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE HOLE SITUATION?

“NASCAR did the best job they could with it.  I mean, what can you think about?  It is what it is.  It’s not something that you plan for, but obviously NASCAR has done a lot of preparation in case something like that happens.  They were prepared for it.  The hard part is, you have to fix it, and they did a good job of that, especially in a crisis situation.”

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 US ARMY IMPALA, INVOLVED IN A CRASH ON LAP – Finished 34th: “I don’t know if Elliott (Sadler) blew a tire or lost control or what, but I got hit in the right rear and it shot me right straight in the wall. Luckily it stayed right side up this time. Unfortunate for this US Army Chevrolet. We were just biding our time in the back, working our way up when it singled up. I am not sure what happened, but I was the recipient.”

YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE TRACK ISSUES? “That is just a part of the race track and it is unfortunate. I guess it will be a part of history. That is racing. It is part of a race track. It is not the first time it happened and it won’t be the last time it happens. There are more things than that to talk about we’ll see here at the end of the race.”

HOW DISAPPOINTED IS IT TO RUN ALMOST TO THE END? “Even more disappointing than you can think.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT IMPALA, FINISHED 26th:

TELL US WHAT HAPPENED THERE AT THE END: “The multiple green-white-checkereds worked for some and not for others. It was just a mess out there. I was real happy with our team, the effort that was put out. Our pit stops, the calls that Steve (Letarte, crew chief) made and our race car. It was really good. We didn’t get anything to show for it. Even prior to that, our car was so good, we just couldn’t get in the right line. It seemed like if we were in the inside lane, the outside was moving. If we were in the outside lane, the inside was moving. It takes all of those things to be able to go to the front and win here at Daytona. We were going for it and unfortunately it was just a mess out there on the last lap and someone got in our left rear and cut the left rear and away we went.

“Our car was really good, but it doesn’t matter because the green-white-checkered just didn’t work our way. Even there in the closing laps, Steve made a great call for the two-tire stop. Our car was driving great but every lane we were in just didn’t seem to be the right one. That is what it takes to win the Daytona 500. Congratulations to Jamie (McMurray). I know how much that means to him and that whole team. Obviously a disappointing day for us. Those last laps were bumper cars at 195 miles an hour. There is no other way to describe it. It is crazy. It is moments like that you wish some things were different. That is what we do and you know what, it puts a heck of a show on most of the time and madness the others. You don’t want to see races end like that. You want to see a great finish and there was a great finish for the win. From about 10th on back, it was pretty ugly.”

HOW WAS IT RUNNING OVER THE PATCH? “I never had any issues. That was the one thing that went my way today. When the hole started opening up, I was in the outside lane. I could see the cars starting to pull, I don’t know, dust, dirt, whatever it was out of it, it started to slip and slide around. It was real unfortunate for the fans. It shows how incredible our fans are to stick around and see that and almost see Dale, Jr. win.”

Chevrolet is one of America’s best-known and best-selling automotive brands, and one of the fastest growing brands in the world. With fuel solutions that range from “gas-friendly to gas-free,” Chevrolet has nine models that offer an EPA-estimated 30 miles per gallon or more on the highway, and offers two hybrid models. More than 2.5 million Chevrolets that run on E85 biofuel have been sold. Chevrolet delivers expressive design, spirited performance and strives to provide the best value in every segment in which it competes. More information can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

- Team Chevy, Press Release

Wood Brothers Racing/Ford Racing

In this case, both sides of this relationship would relish a trip to NASCAR victory lane.

Ford Customer Service Division is offering the Wood Brothers Racing team its congratulations as it celebrates a racing milestone in 2010 – 60 years in NASCAR racing and 60 years exclusively racing Ford Motor Company products.

“All of us at Ford Customer Service Division, especially our Motorcraft and Quick Lane brands, congratulate the Wood Brothers on their 60th year of racing and 60th year with Ford Motor Company,” said Brett Wheatley, Director of Marketing, Ford Customer Service Division. “Glen, Leonard, Ray Lee, Clay and Delano Wood were pioneers in racing and their tradition lives on today through Eddie, Len and Kim.  We’re thrilled to offer our congratulations to all members of the Wood family for their first 60 years in racing.”

“They are an important part of our Ford Racing family,” said Jamie Allison, director, Ford North America Motorsports.  “Through good
years and difficult years, they have stuck with us, racing Fords and Mercurys with some of the greatest drivers in the sport.

“We are committed to them, just as they have been committed to us. And part of our commitment to them is to help them return to victory lane.”

The Wood Brothers are acknowledged pioneers in the sport of stock-car racing, and have earned 96 wins in over 59 years of NASCAR competition – second most in Ford Racing history, and fifth overall in NASCAR history.

The team is planning on competing in 13 Sprint Cup races this season, 10 with Motorcraft/Quick Lane sponsorship.  They will run Ford’s new FR9 NASCAR engine in each of their races.

Significant moments in Wood Brothers history:

· The team competed in Sportsman and Modified events in Virginia and the Carolinas starting in 1950, and then made its NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (then Grand National) debut at nearby Martinsville (Va.) Speedway on May 17, 1953

· Glen Wood was the team’s original driver, and left the seat in the early 1960s.

· The Wood Brothers are synonymous with pit stops, and are credited with inventing the modern pit stop. Their work was so legendary that Ford Motor Co., asked the Woods to serve as Jimmy Clark’s pit crew for the 1965 Indianapolis 500. Clark went on to win the race.

· The Wood Brothers are one of two teams in NASCAR history to win the owners’ championship without the team’s driver winning the drivers’ championship. In 1963, the Woods – with seven different drivers – produced three wins and 18 top-five finishes in 26 starts to win the title.

· The original Wood Brothers – Glen and his brother Leonard, who served as the team’s crew chief for many years – have been inducted
into a number of racing Halls of Fame and are winners of the prestigious Spirit of Ford Award for lifetime achievement in racing.

· The Wood Brothers have 14 victories at Daytona, more than any other team. They also won two of the most famous Daytona 500s in history: in 1963, with Tiny Lund, subbing for the injured Marvin Panch (whom Lund had earlier pulled from a burning sports car during practice for another series); and in 1976 with David Pearson, in what many observers have called the greatest race in NASCAR history.

· The Wood Brothers, with driver David Pearson, were the team of the 1970s. Pearson (who won back-to-back championships for Ford in 1968 and ’69) made his debut with the Woods on April 16, 1972, at the very difficult Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. He won from the pole. In a six-season span from 1972-77, the team and driver entered 116 races, and won 39 (winning slightly better than once every three starts), with 84 top-five finishes (72.4 percent of the starts) and 43 poles.

· In 1973, the Wood Brothers and Pearson set a NASCAR single-season record with a .611 winning percentage by reaching Victory Lane in 11 of 18 starts.

· From 1970-80 when Ford Motor Co. had officially pulled out of NASCAR racing, the Wood Brothers still ran only Ford products (’69, ’71, ’73 and ’76 Mercurys) through the decade. When Ford officially returned to NASCAR in 1981, the Woods immediately  campaigned an ’81 Ford.

· The Wood Brothers’ last victory occurred in 2001 at Bristol Motor Speedway, when crew chief Pat Tryson kept driver Elliott Sadler on the track for the final 162 laps instead of pitting for fresh tires. That move started a trend by teams to not pit later in races in order to
gain track position.

· Some of the greatest drivers in motorsports history drove the famous No. 21 Ford. Wood is one of 19 of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers
(including current driver Bill Elliott) to have driven for the team. Other notable drivers for the Wood Brothers include: Junior  Johnson, Curtis Turner, Dan Gurney, Fred Lorenzen (who in 1963 became the first driver in racing to win more than $100,000 in one season), A.J. Foyt, Cale Yarborough, Parnelli Jones, Donnie Allison, Kyle Petty, Dale Jarrett and Ricky Rudd.

· The 2010 season will mark the second consecutive campaign that the Wood Brothers will run a reduced schedule with Bill Elliott.
· The Wood Brothers are scheduled to compete in 13 points races plus the All-Star race in 2010, starting with the Daytona 500 in February and ending with the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November. The 21 will also run at: Atlanta (twice), Texas (twice), Charlotte (twice), Michigan (twice), Chicago, Indianapolis and Kansas.

About Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company, a global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Mich., manufactures or distributes automobiles across six continents.   With about 200,000 employees and about 90 plants worldwide, the company’s brands include Ford, Lincoln, Mercury and Volvo. The company provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company.  For more information regarding Ford’s products, please visit www.ford.com.

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

Team Chevy - GM Racing

THE MODERATOR: Let’s roll into our championship Ford 400 season finale here at Homestead Miami. We’re joined up at the podium right now by today’s race runner-up. That’s Jeff Burton. He drives the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing.
Jeff, congratulations on a strong finish. You had a strong finish last night in the Nationwide Series. Your thoughts now as you build towards 2010.

JEFF BURTON: Certainly we’re happy with what we did tonight. We weren’t ecstatic about what we did; Denny and those guys did a little better job than what we did at the end. Just a little too loose, but I think that’s a little bit of me and Todd getting to know each other a little bit better. Again, we’re playing catch-up. We’re not 100 percent sure what we need to be doing to the cars, and the speed that we have right now we’re not 100 percent accustomed to it. So we’ve got to get familiar with it and understand what we need to do with our cars, and that’s as much about me telling him what I want as much as anything.

Hopefully we can continue to improve this winter because I know a lot of our competition is, and we can come out and be strong next year.

Q. Jeff, I think it was you, somebody at RCR said a while back that you guys built your cars to start the season and realized that you had gone in the wrong direction with them, and basically had to rebuild a fleet. You’ve now finished second two weeks in a row and three top 5s in the last four weeks. Was it simply a matter of you had the cars wrong and getting them right, or are you guys feeling like you’re back to where you need to be?

JEFF BURTON: Well, I think it’s more than that. I think obviously you’ve got to bring good hardware to the racetrack, and we did push the wrong buttons this winter and played catch-up obviously. With Todd coming on board, we’ve gotten together pretty quickly and had fast race cars pretty much all four weekends, and that’s certainly — we’ve put a different group of people together, a real strong group of people, and I think that’s helped us, as well.

So I think we’ve gotten — we’re certainly gotten better cars, but also I think we’ve done a nice job of putting together a really, really strong race team.

Q. Jeff, I know it’s a little early to look ahead, but you take an effort like this, and are you already thinking about what you have to work on in the off-season, what you have to do with these cars? I mean, do you feel encouraged coming out of this?

JEFF BURTON: Well, I certainly think that all of us at RCR are encouraged. I think it’s important to understand that we’re not where we need to be, and if we were, one of us would be over there where Denny is right now.

You know, we’ve made up a lot of ground, but I think it’s — we can’t take the approach going into next year that we’ve got it, you know what I mean, okay, we’ve got it figured out, because I guarantee to that our competition will be working really hard to be better, and if we bring the same stuff that we have here today to California, we won’t run very well.

So we’ve got to find a way to continue to improve, which is what we didn’t do last year, and we have to be on full alert to not let that happen again. I think we made a lot of mistakes last year that we can learn from going into this coming year, and hopefully we don’t make those same mistakes again. I don’t think we will. I think that we’ll be much smarter and do the right things.
But certainly I think all of us are fairly encouraged.

THE MODERATOR: We also have tonight’s third place finisher. That’s Kevin Harvick. He drives the No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. Certainly, Kevin, good way that you finished up here this evening. Your thoughts about tonight’s race.

KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, it was a good night for us. Obviously like Jeff said, we wanted to win the race. We got off a couple runs there in the middle of the race with a flat right front tire and over-adjusted it for the second run and kind of lost some track position.
But good weekend. It’s been a good last several months. Really since Sears Point, I think the cars have shown the speed that they needed to. We’ve crashed a lot and made a lot of mistakes from all angles to kind of screw that up when we had good cars, so from the driver’s seat, from a lot of different angles. But the speed has been there, and now we just need to get the consistency back and do the things we’ve always been known for as a company, and that’s being consistent and making decent days out of bad days.

You know, happy with the turnaround, and we’ll go forward.

Q. Gary just asked this to Jeff and I’m going to ask you, Kevin, we’ve seen teams have momentum at the end of seasons and not carry it over to the following season. We saw that with Carl last year; he won two out of the last three races and didn’t really carry it over. What changes do you need to make sure that you carry this momentum over to 2010 and keep this going? I also have a question for Jeff. Just wanted to clarify your contract. Are you in the same boat with Kevin that you’re up at the end of 2010, or are you signed for a couple more years?

KEVIN HARVICK: The biggest thing is we just can’t sit on our hands. We have to push forward. You have to figure stuff out. We figured a lot of stuff out in a short amount of time while we’re still trying to race, and that’s hard.

I would assume that they have a good plan going into the off-season as far as the things that we need to work on. And the biggest thing when it comes down to it is depth of your cars and your fleet. We’ve been building these cars, and we don’t have a lot of them, and we’ve figured some stuff out suspension-wise, so we’ve just got to keep pushing forward, and you’ve got to get ahead, and once you get ahead, you can’t stop, you’ve got to keep pushing.

JEFF BURTON: I think I have two years left. I think. Not real sure.

Q. Jeff, as the elder statesman of the group up there at that table, I was just wondering if you could possibly kind of put into context what this win by Jimmie, the fourth in a row, means. Can we call him the greatest driver of this generation?

JEFF BURTON: Well, everybody wants to make history when history has not been made yet, if that makes any sense. He’s not done. You know, it’s hard to — it’s hard when you’re racing against a guy to say he’s the best. That’s hard to do. But hey, four in a row, and consistent race winner, consistent five top, consistent pole sitter, how in the world can you not put him on the list?

You know, I have a great deal of respect for the work they put into it. The thing that interests me is I think sometimes I hear the fans say it’s coming easy to him. I suspect they work really hard. I suspect nothing comes that easy to anybody, and I’m sure that Chad and Jimmie and everybody works exceptionally hard. I know that I’ve had the privilege to work with Mark Martin, and I know if you’re going to run as well as he does, you’re going to have to work your ass off, and I’m sure that Jimmie does that.

I can’t put Jimmie in history because he’s not done yet, and I don’t think that we — I think it’s premature to try to do that. But anybody that doesn’t respect what they’ve done isn’t being fair to them. I understand pulling for somebody else, I get all that. I don’t really like the Cowboys very much, but I really think that I should respect what they’ve done, because it’s been an incredible — if you would have told me four years ago that somebody would win four championships in a row, I would tell you you’re crazy because 29 cars finished in the lead lap tonight. That’s how competitive it is what we do.

To win four championships in a row, I didn’t think anybody would be able to do that. Never in 100 years did I think somebody would be able to do that.

Q. Kevin and Jeff, tonight the 42 and the 14 had a few incidents. The 42 got black-flagged for two laps, last night Keselowski and Hamlin. Kevin, when you were going through stuff like this, I know fans liked it, the media liked it, it was very exciting. Does the sport need that kind of stuff? Do fans want to see that? Is it unnecessary? Does it add an exciting element?

KEVIN HARVICK: Well, I think there’s a lot of different ways you could approach it. I think that the consistency from 2001 to yesterday is probably a little different, and I think that if you’re going to make those calls consistently, then you need to keep them consistent now. We just need a consistent pattern.

This garage has a very good way of taking care of its own problems, and usually if you cause the most problems, you’ll have the hardest time. It’s pretty simple. It’s self-teaching. I went through that whole road. A lot of times you can fix things by not doing it in a race car.

I didn’t see what happened tonight, but you have your moments where you lose your mind and lose your temper and you want to just run over the top of somebody. If turnabout is fair play and it’s penalized, then it needs to be penalized. We just all need to know the rules. But I think there’s probably a lot better ways of handling it.

JEFF BURTON: Like I told you last night, what this sport needs is good racing. It doesn’t need running that mouth. I think running that mouth is not what it’s all about. I think good, hard racing is what the fans want to see. There’s a certain portion of people that want to see people yelling at each other, but I think the general population is really better off just watching good racing.

KEVIN HARVICK: Good hard racing is going to create its own accidents, it’s going to create its own moments, it’s going to create everything that the fans want to see. Good side-by-side racing will — that stuff is going to happen regardless. There’s not too many of us that are — I don’t want to get out anymore and fight with somebody. I don’t know, you just grow out of that, I guess, as you get older, and there’s not too many people in the garage that want to handle it that way.
Q. Jeff, I think the 48 team has only had one DNF during their championship run in the Chase. Can you speak a little bit to how their ability to avoid failures, not put themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time has contributed to their success?
JEFF BURTON: I think it speaks for itself. It’s not that they just finish races, they win races, too. If you look at the number of races they’ve won in the Chase, obviously it’s a big number. So not only do they not have problems, they finish really well, too.
It’s more — it has to be more than just not having problems.
THE MODERATOR: Guys, thank you very much. We enjoyed watching you race this year. We appreciate everything. Take care.

MARK MARTIN, NO. 5 KELLOGG’S/CARQUEST IMPALA SS – Finished 2nd in series standings

THE MODERATOR: If I could have your attention, please, we have tonight our 2009 runner up in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and that’s Mark Martin. He drives the No. 5 Kellogg’s CARQUEST Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.

Mark, I can’t say enough about the type of season you had. I know you gave it everything you possibly could and certainly put on a great show for all the fans and the competitors that follow this sport. Your thoughts about how things unfolded this evening and maybe this entire season for you.

MARK MARTIN: Well, there’s a little bit of a dark cloud over it all because the boss and the family in Charlotte. I’m sorry that he wasn’t that he needed to be there. We made history in multiple ways tonight at Hendrick Motorsports, and for me it’s just incredible, just incredible to have had a chance at it.

We were the only team in the garage that had earned a chance in the last race at it, and that’s quite an accomplishment.
And just what the fans have done and what the competitors have done means so much to me. I don’t have one of those trophies, so I don’t know what one of those things would mean to me. But I can’t imagine it meaning any more than the feeling that I felt from so many people, competitors and fans.

Q. I just wanted to ask you the same question I asked Jeff about trying to put this victory by Jimmie into context in terms of where he might belong.

MARK MARTIN: Jeff told you the same thing. It’s very difficult when it’s happening to make statements, and I don’t want to offend myself or any of my other old timers by making statements right now. Let’s just let it play out. He’s not done yet.

I look at that a little bit like that old question, are drivers athletes, and I say, who cares, because the race is still on whether we are or not, and we love racing, right? I look at that a little bit the same way. It’s like, what’s the argument? I mean, the numbers speak for themselves, and I don’t think they’re done yet.

Q. Congratulations on a great season coming back. Reflecting back to where you were at the start of the year with the goals you set for yourself and what you’ve accomplished, what’s your dominant emotion now? What are you feeling right now? Is it pride at what you’ve accomplished? Is it frustration at not

MARK MARTIN: There’s no frustration, man. I know you’d love it. I know y’all would love it, but there’s no frustration. There’s none. I’m very proud of what we accomplished.

I’m very proud of what we accomplished, and on top of all that, I had more fun than anybody. So how could you what else can you say, man? I had a blast. It’s been an honor and a privilege, and I didn’t leave nothing. I never left anything anywhere.

We got beat, and we got beat under any scenario that might have happened. I didn’t leave anything out there.
My race team dug as hard as they could dig, and we accomplished more than anybody else in the garage this year except for the 48. That ought to be enough to make you proud.

Q. In a lot of ways, your story has kind of made you like a beloved figure among your competitors in the garage. Do you think that is more fulfilling to you than any championship could have been?

MARK MARTIN: Look, I don’t have one, so I don’t know. That’s what sure, I can say that because I don’t have one. But when you’re young, it’s all about you, at least it was for me. And when you get older, you know, things look a little bit different, at least they do to me.

I am one of the luckiest guys in the world to have done what I’ve done and worked with the people that I’ve worked with and earned what I have earned.

Q. Rick has said this a couple times and said it when he was in here again on Friday. He felt like he needed to say something to you at the beginning of the season when he had talked you into coming back and you had a couple engine failures at a place where you probably never expected to. Just what were your thoughts at that point? Did you have some second thoughts at that time? Alan said that he had tried to keep he had to keep thinking, not looking at the hard numbers but looking at the potential.

MARK MARTIN: Well, it was bad luck, and it was a little gloomy. But we were running good. So it would have been so much worse if we’d have been running bad and all that stuff would have happened.

We just had to dig in, roll our sleeves up, and we made a tremendous year out of it. I’ve got enough experience, and I might use the word mature. I’m mature enough to realize that there’s more to this sport than four races, the first four.

Q. You were in a situation a couple years ago with Roush where all five cars made the Chase. Now you’ve been a bigger part of history with Hendrick finishing one, two, three in points. What did this situation have this year? You’ve been at Hendrick a year now; what gave Hendrick a little bit more of an edge to get you guys to that next level and be as dominant as you guys were this year, compared to Roush?

MARK MARTIN: I don’t know, we were pretty strong that year that we did that at Roush’s. The level of your competitiveness is cyclical; it don’t always you’re not always on top, you’re not always on the bottom and not always in the middle. And Hendrick does a good job of getting knocked off the top a little less than most.

But it’s still a moving target, and we’ve got our challenge on our hands for next year.

Q. Enough of this gloomy. There have been times when you were a little bit younger man when it seemed like you had the weight of the world on your shoulders. How do you think you’re going to feel when next season starts?

MARK MARTIN: Happy. I’m going to be happy. You know, this is the first time in in as long as I can remember that I’m not glad it’s over with. I’m fine. I’ve had a blast all year, and I do look forward to starting with a clean slate. But other than that, I’m a happy guy.

Q. Again, on a lighter note, about five years ago at your first retirement lunch, you told us Joey Logano, you’d hire him. What have you seen from him in the last five years, and where do you predict he’s going to be five years from now?

MARK MARTIN: It’s always nice to say I told you so, isn’t it? (Laughter.)
I guess that was obvious, blindingly obvious, what a great he was going to be. And will be. He’ll be fun to watch.

Q. We haven’t heard anything about the race. How did this thing go? Were you chasing the car, or what

MARK MARTIN: Yeah, our car didn’t work well today. It didn’t work well, and we really struggled with it. And as the sun went down and we went to the back, we came in and pitted and tried to do some work on it to try to improve it, and it didn’t really improve it a whole lot, so then we were stuck with sorry track position on top of not having a great race car. We just fought and fought and fought, and actually the last adjustment perked it up, and we drove from 21st to 10th, and then right at the end a couple of the guys got the high line going and got me back.

It was a great run, that last run. I mean, it wasn’t good enough. I mean, if we’d have been with that all day, then we were a top six car maybe, like that, but we would have needed to be like that the whole race and not just the last run.

We’ve got our work cut out for us to make our cars better for here. It didn’t work well.

You guys would just write it in the paper if I told you. How about I just say congratulations. I wanted to see him and Chad and all those guys who did a superior job. It’s incredible. What they’ve done is incredible. Ask anybody trying to beat them.

Q. As the night wore along and as it became semi obvious what the reality of the outcome was going to be, how much does it make you I don’t know if proud is the right word or not, that you were able to hang onto second for the season?

MARK MARTIN: I was concerned when I was very concerned when we made the stop and worked on the car, went to the back, because the car wasn’t good enough to drive back up through there. You know, and I wanted to when you’re third, you want to be second (laughing). And I had the third and the fourth place guy race me for it, as hard as they could go. But we made a great adjustment on the last stop, and we drove up through there pretty well. I was very pleased with the car the last run versus the way it had been all night.

Thank you guys for everything all year. You guys have been awesome. It’s been fun. Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Mark. We certainly enjoyed watching you race this year.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports

About General Motors: General Motors, one of the world’s largest automakers, traces its roots back to 1908. With its global headquarters in Detroit, GM employs 209,000 people in every major region of the world and does business in some 140 countries. GM and its strategic partners produce cars and trucks in 34 countries, and sell and service these vehicles through the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling. GM’s largest national market is the United States, followed by China, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia and Germany. GM’s OnStar subsidiary is the industry leader in vehicle safety, security and information services. General Motors acquired operations from General Motors Corporation on July 10, 2009, and references to prior periods in this and other press materials refer to operations of the old General Motors Corporation. More information on the new General Motors can be found at www.gm.com.

- GM Racing Communications, Press Release

Ryan Newman

This was Newman’s 2nd series pole of the 2009 season, and his 3rd series pole at Martinsville Speedway.

Sharing the front row with Newman, and with a lap speed of 96.519 mph, will be Jeff Gordon, while Martin Truex, Jr. (96.509) will start third, Mark Martin (96.504) fourth, David Reutimann (96.117) fifth, Casey Mears (96.054) sixth, Joey Logano (96.034) seventh, Bobby Labonte (96.010) eighth, Reed Sorenson (95.995) ninth, and Kevin Harvick (95.908) will round out the top-10 starting positions.

The #73, driven by Josh Wise, was the only car that failed to make the race.

The teams will have two more chances (practice sessions) on Saturday to tweak, complete overhaul or whatever it takes in preparation for the drop of the The TUMS Fast Relief 500 green flag, which is scheduled for 1:30 PM (EST) on Sunday.

2009 TUMS Fast Relief 500 NSCS Starting Lineu

NSCS Mark Martin - (Photo Credit: John Harrelson/Getty Images)

Mark Martin captured his 47th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coors Light Pole Award, as he ran a qualifying lap speed of 126.808 mph, for Saturday night’s Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

This is Martin’s 6th series pole of 2009, which matches the most poles that he has captured in one season, dating back to 1989. This is also his fourth series pole at Richmond International Raceway.

Sharing the front row with Martin is Martin Truex Jr., who ran a speed of 126.731 mph, and they will be followed by Virginia native Denny Hamlin (126.630) starting third, Jimmie Johnson (126.541) fourth, Kasey Kahne (126.452) fifth, Brian Vickers (126.251) sixth, Jeff Gordon (125.992) seventh, Kyle Busch (125.962) eighth, Brad Keselowski (125.921) ninth and Carl Edwards (125.786) rounding out the top-10 starting positions.

Tony Raines, in the #37, was the only driver who failed to make the race.

2009 Chevy Rock & Roll 400 NSCS Starting Lineup

2009 NSCS Casey Mears - (Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images for NASCAR)

• This Week’s Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet at Daytona International Speedway … Casey Mears will pilot Chassis No. 242 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable in this weekend’s Coke Zero 400. This will be the on-track debut for this Jack Daniel’s Chevy Impala SS .

• Daytona by the Numbers … In 13 previous Sprint Cup Series starts on Daytona’s legendary high banks, Mears best finish was second in the 2006 Daytona 500. Over those same 13 starts, the 31-year old, seventh-year Sprint Cup Series veteran has notched one top-five and a pair of top-10 finishes at the “World Center of Racing.” He has a 22.3 average start, a 21.4 average finish, completed 2,085 of 2,228 laps (93.6 percent) and earned more than $3 million in purse money.

• Daytona Rewind … In his first outing for RCR, Mears drafted his way to a 15th-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500. After starting 25th, the Bakersfield, Calif. used savvy driving to narrowly escape two separate multi-car incidents to capture his fourth top-15 finish on the Daytona high banks.

• RCR Rocks Daytona … Dating back to 1986, RCR owns 24 total victories at DIS, including Dale Earnhardt’s emotional win in 1998, kicking off NASCAR’s 50th anniversary, and Kevin Harvick’s dramatic win in the 2007 season-opening Daytona 500. Additionally, RCR won 10 straight (1990-1999) qualifying races with Earnhardt. All told, RCR has won six Bud Shootouts, including Harvick’s win earlier this season, 13 qualifying races, two Coke Zero 400s and two Daytona 500s. Dale Earnhardt Jr. also won the February 2002 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona driving a car fielded by RCR and Harvick won the 2007 Nationwide Series opener at DIS in the No. 21 Chevrolet. In 111 points-paying Sprint Cup Series races at the historic 2.5-mile Daytona Beach race course, RCR has four wins, 10 poles, 27 top-five and 48 top-10 finishes. RCR-prepared race cars have also led 1,440 laps and earned just over $18 million in purse money. Richard Childress, a former driver in NASCAR’s premier division earned two of those top 10s between February 1976 and July 1980.

• Over the First 17 … Over the season’s first 17 races, the 2007 Coca-Cola 600 winner has posted two top-10 and seven top-20 finishes. He has accumulated a 28.2 average starting finish to go along with a respectable 20.2 average finishing position and has completed 4,892 of 5,034 (97.18 percent) laps contested thus far.

• Get to the Points … With nine races remaining before NASCAR set’s its 12-team playoff field, Mears & Co. sit 20th in the championship point standings, 302 markers in arrears to the 12th and final spot for making the Chase for the Sprint Cup. In 2007, Kurt Busch was able to overcome a 236-point deficit and charged his way from 15th to 10th in points by the time the checkered flag flew at Richmond.

• The Collective RCR … In 17 races this season, RCR-prepared Sprint Cup Series entries have notched seven top-five and 16 top-10 finishes. The No. 29 team kicked off the 2009 season with a win in the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona. RCR-prepared cars have also completed 19,474 laps with four different drivers including Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer, Harvick and Mears. Meanwhile, RCR teams have been atop the leaderboard for 95 laps and all four teams have earned just shy of $10.5 million combined purse money in 2009.

• Casey Mears Live … Mears is signing autographs at the Jack Daniel’s souvenir trailer located in the DIS display area outside Turn 4 on Saturday, July 4 at 4:30 p.m. (ET) Autographs will be available on a limited basis due to time constraints.

• Catch the Action … The Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway can be seen live Saturday, July 4 beginning at 6:30 p.m. (ET) on TNT and heard live on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 18tth, of 36, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events will air live on SPEED Friday, July 3 beginning at 4 p.m. and on MRN and Sirius XM Satellite Radio.

CASEY MEARS QUOTES:

How slick is the track at Daytona during the July race compared to the Daytona 500 in February?

“It’s a lot slicker. Obviously, running at night helps with bringing some grip back but being that it’s hot when the race starts, it’s definitely a lot slicker. It seems like we’ve been sliding around more than we have in years past, so the grip that you get towards the end of the race is very much welcomed.”

You finished 15th in your first race for RCR. How do you feel about RCR’s restrictor-plate program?

“I think it’s good. The No. 29 team finished second and because of the success they had, I think we’ll all have good runs. RCR has good equipment and we’ll all be bringing good cars to Daytona, so I’m really looking forward to this weekend.”

How hard is it to find teammates on the race track during this type of racing?

“You really can’t do it. At the end of a race, when it comes time to pushing a competitor or teammate, you push a teammate. But, throughout the race, it’s very hard to hook up and go from the back to the front. These days, you need all the downforce you can get going through the corners so, after about 10 laps, you’re looking for clean air going through the corner, like you would at any other track. It’s different at Talladega because it’s easier to hook up with a teammate and go. At Daytona, you need clean air.”

- Richard Childress Racing, Press Release

2009 NSCS Clint Bowyer - (Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

· This Week’s Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet at Infineon Raceway … Clint Bowyer will pilot Chassis No. 278 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable. Built new for 2009, this Chevrolet Impala SS will see action for the first time this weekend at Infineon.

· Stat Facts …

Infineon Facts … In three NSCS starts at Infineon Raceway, Bowyer’s best showing at the 1.99-mile road course is fourth, where he has finished twice. Additionally, the 30-year-old driver has a 19th-place average starting position, an eighth-place average finish and completed 100 percent of the laps contested (332 of 332).

Loop Data Says … According to NASCAR’s loop data statistics, Bowyer is tied for fourth best among closers at Infineon Raceway. He has gained 15 positions in the final 10 percent of laps in the last four races, trailing Joe Nemechek, RCR teammate Casey Mears and Ryan Newman.

Rearview Mirror … Bowyer and the Cheerios Racing team stretched their fuel mileage to pick up a top-10 finish at Michigan International Speedway last Sunday. Bowyer entered the LifeLock 400 on the strength of back-to-back top-12 finishes and carried that momentum by recording a career-best 10th-place finish at the two-mile, D-shaped oval.

Get to the Points … Bowyer enters Infineon 16th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship point standings. With 11 races remaining before the Chase for the Sprint Cup kicks off in September at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Bowyer sits 100 markers behind 12th-place point man and teammate Jeff Burton. The top 12 in the Sprint Cup Series points following the September 12 Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway are locked into NASCAR’s 12-team Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff field.

15 Down, 21 to Go … Over the season’s first 15 races, Bowyer has accumulated three top-five and five top-10 finishes, an average start of 19.1 and an average finish of 17.3. The two-time NSCS winner has led 16 laps of competition and has completed 4,318 of the 4,648 (92.9 percent) laps contested thus far.

RCR at Infineon … Richard Childress is third on the Infineon Raceway all-time car owner win list. Dale Earnhardt won the 1995 Save Mart Supermarkets 300 and Robby Gordon won the Dodge/Save Mart 350 in 2003. Additionally, in 40 starts at the 10-turn stadium course, RCR owns one pole, 11 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes. Meanwhile, the Welcome. N.C.,-based team has led 130 laps at Infineon, completed 4,016 of the 4,062 laps run over those 40 starts and recorded just one DNF (Did Not Finish) over that stretch. Kevin Harvick, Burton and Bowyer finished second, third and fourth, respectively, in the 2007 Toyota/Save Mart 350.

The Collective RCR … In 15 races this season, RCR-prepared Sprint Cup Series entries have notched seven top-five and 15 top-10 finishes. The No. 29 team kicked off the 2009 season with a win in the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona. RCR-prepared cars have also completed 17,994 laps with four different drivers including Burton, Bowyer, Harvick and Mears. Meanwhile, RCR teams have been atop the leaderboard for 95 laps and all four teams have earned just over $9.5 million combined purse money in 2009.

125 and Counting … This weekend’s race at Infineon Raceway will mark Bowyer’s 125th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start. Bowyer has logged two poles, two wins, 19 top-five and 50 top-10 finishes since his first start at Phoenix International Raceway on April 23, 2005.

Homecoming … Engineer John Dullam is the only native Californian on the Cheerios/Hamburger Helper team. Dullam grew up in San Diego, roughly 530 miles south of the Sonoma area.

Testing, 1-2-3 … Bowyer tested at Virginia International Raceway Tuesday, June 2 in preparation for this weekend’s event at Infineon Raceway.

Speaking of Testing … Bowyer spent Monday, June 15 and Tuesday, June 16 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway testing tires on behalf of Goodyear.

Happy Father’s Day … Bowyer’s father, Chris, will spend his Father’s Day the same way he spends most of his weekends, at the track with his son. “Pops” serves as his son’s spotter for each weekend’s practice sessions before turning the duties over to RCR’s Vice President of Competition Mike Dillon on race day. The elder Bowyer will assist Dillon in covering the race on Sunday.

Ride Along … The No. 33 Chevrolet will have an in-car camera for this weekend’s race coverage on TNT, courtesy of Coke Zero. A camera mounted on the front bumper of Bowyer’s Impala SS will provide an interesting view of the more than 160 feet of elevation change from Infineon Raceway’s highest to lowest points, approximately the same height as a 16-story building.

Catch the Action … Live coverage of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 from Infineon Raceway will take the green flag Sunday, June 21 beginning at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The race will be televised live on TNT and broadcast on the Performance Racing Network and Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 16th points-paying race on the 2009 schedule will be telecast live on SPEED Friday, June 19 beginning at 6:30 p.m. EDT.

CLINT BOWYER QUOTES:

You have posted back-to-back fourth-place finishes at Infineon. Not bad for a dirt racer from Kansas.

“It’s definitely not my forte. Believe it or not, I really enjoy racing at Infineon. I’ve been halfway decent there and I look forward to having another good run. You’ve got to be solid all day. It seems like it always comes right down to the end. There’ll be a late caution and everybody goes a little berserk and ends up wrecking. You’ve got to make sure you can get through that and, if you do, you’ll probably come out of there with a good finish.”

Did you ever think you’d be as good as you are there?

“No, I was scared to death to be honest with you. You hear the horror stories of the elevation changes and the blind corners but I took to it fairly quickly. I really do enjoy racing there and I am excited to get back out there.”

Did you do much road course testing prior to racing out there?

“Not really. I don’t know a lot about what the car needs to be like, so I lean a lot on my teammate Kevin Harvick for some guidance out there. We go to VIR (Virginia International Raceway) to get acclimated with going through the gearbox and braking before we head west.”

- Richard Childress Racing, Press Release

2009 NSCS Tony Stewart - (Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Stewart, with his 34th career series win, had to start the Pocono 500 from the back of the field in a backup car due to a wreck in Saturday morning’s practice, was able to work his way to the lead and hod off Carl Edwards by 2.004 seconds.

Stewart and Edwards were followed to the drop of the checkered flag by David Reutimann in third, Jeff Gordon fourth, Ryan Newman fifth, Marcos Ambrose sixth, Jimmie Johnson seventh, Juan Pablo Montoya eighth, Jeff Burton ninth and Sam Hornish, Jr., rounded out the top-10 finishers.

Unofficial Top-12 in the Points Standings: 1. Tony Stewart – 2043 2. Jeff Gordon – 1972 (-71 Behind Leader) 3. Jimmie Johnson – 1940 (-103) 4. Ryan Newman – 1840 (-203) 5. Kurt Busch – 1819 (-224) 6. Carl Edwards – 1762 (-281) 7. Greg Biffle – 1753 (-290) 8. Matt Kenseth – 1745 (-298) 9. Kyle Busch – 1731 (-312) 10. Jeff Burton – 1725 (-318)11. David Reutimann – 1701 (-342) 12. Denny Hamlin – 1679 (-364)

2009 Pocono 500 NSCS Race Results

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series was able to get qualifying in on Saturday, but that was all Mother Nature would allow, as she brought back more rain (Friday’s Cup Series qualifying was rained out). With no relief in sight on the radar, NASCAR officials decided to cancel all track activity at Martinsville Speedway, meaning there would be no second round or final practices for the Sprint Cup Series teams, nor would the trucks be running the Kroger 250 that was scheduled. The series’ race will now run on Monday at noon, but hopefully Mother Nature will allow the Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 Cup race to proceed as scheduled on Sunday.

A “Cheers & Jeers” In Auto Racing For Over 11-years

If your a Kyle Busch fan, you’re definitely going to be throwing out the green flag on his pole position, but will want to throw out a black flag to the engine department on having to change engines, forcing Kyle to have to start the Shelby 427 from the rear of the field. But then, maybe Kyle needs to change engines every week,as starting from the rear didn’t stop him from taking his #18 M&M’s JGR Toyota to the front, and keeping it there when it mattered the most.

“The M&M’s guys worked so hard on Friday to change the engine,” Busch said. “It put us in a hole, but we came back and won the pole and worked on the car because we knew Sunday was the day that counted the most.”

Kyle throws a green flag to Steve Addington, the crew chief for the #18 team; as well as the rest of the crew, for their work on getting the engine changed, and the car setup for Kyle.

“This team does a phenomenal job for me – they’re so great, added the hometown hero. “They believe in me, they believe in Steve Addington (crew chief) and that’s the mixture that we need. We’re able to win races. We didn’t have the best car today, but I feel like I drove a smart race anyway and did what we needed to do. We worked on it all day and kept making it better.

Roush Fenway Racing has a couple black flags flying, as Matt Kenseth and teammates David Ragan (finished 42nd) and Carl Edwards (unlike with Kenseth and Ragan’s early engine failures, Edwards’ woes came on the last lap, and finished 17th), all suffered engine failure during the Shelby 427.

Matt Kenseth, who won the first two races of the season and finished 43rd Sunday, throws a black flag, as the engine failure kept him from trying to win three-in-a-row, and it all happened on the first lap of the race. This could have been an historical event, as no one has ever won the first three races of the season.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever dropped out on lap one before. It’s never really easy. We didn’t even really get to race today and we qualified bad, so it was a pretty long weekend for nothing. It’s disappointing no matter what. I’m glad we did great the last two weeks, but, really, you take it one week at a time and shift your focus to that race each and every week, so it’s always disappointing when something like that happens.”

Engine woes weren’t limited to Toyota or Ford, but Chevrolet had them as well, as for the second week in a row, Mark Martin, driver of the #5 Hendrick Motorsports car, suffered engine failure and finished 40th. Martin was running 4th at the time when something let go in his engine, but unlike last week where the failure was easily explainable, this week’s failure left them scratching their heads.

“I know we probably knocked our bearings out. We broke a rod. They’ll figure it out. They’re already all over it. Last week was pretty explainable. It was a different batch of valve springs. I’ve seen that movie before in my career. I know how that works. So, this one is a little bit more puzzling. The oil pump belt is still on it. I can’t understand what happened. This stuff is usually bulletproof. But I feel bad for Alan and the whole race team. They’re getting it done. They’re doing a great job. We’re getting better. We were better today. I think we were making progress also throughout the race. And we’ll get better. But it’s a pretty devastating result for us today.”

A green flag goes out to Jamie McMurray, driver of the #26 Roush Fenway Racing Ford Fusion, for his control of an out of control race car while fighting the flu, and finishing 9th despite of all that.

“Someone got into my left rear and it just got me loose. I didn’t hold it wide open the whole time, but I just modulated the gas pedal and the steering wheel,” stated McMurray on his car getting sideways for most of the turn. “I was really worried because I was a little groggy from having a cold and I didn’t feel like I was as alert as what I needed to be and when that was over I thought, ‘Pretty alert.’ …It took me three or four laps to get gathered up. When everyone passed me then I was just kind of like, ‘I need to get going here.

Last but not least, several green flags go out to Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, David Reutimann and Bobby Labonte, for their solid runs and finishing second, third, fourth and fifth respectfully.

Due to Matt Kenseth’s misfortune in Sunday’s Shelby 427, Jeff Gordon took over the top spot in the point standings, with Clint Bowyer, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and David Reutimann rounding out the top-5.

Next up on the Sprint Cup agenda is Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 8th, another fast track where the teams will have to keep an eye on rpm and tires. (Note: There will be an off-weekend the following weekend after Atlanta).