Friday

2011 Auto Club Speedway Quotes “Caught in the CatchFence” from Kevin Conway, Jennifer Jo Cobb and Mike Harmon

Filed under Featured, Nationwide Series, Sprint Cup Series

Kevin Conway:

“We’re very excited this weekend to be back in the Nationwide Series. It’s pretty cool because in 2009 when ExtenZe first came into the sport we partnered with Joe Nemechek and NEMCO Motorsports in conjunction with Braun Racing.We fielded the #87 then Toyota Camry and here we are 3 years later back in the #87 Toyota Camry with ExtenZe at Auto Club Speedway so we’re really excited. Things come full circle and it’s really cool to be back with NEMCO and back with Joe. He’s been a great mentor and a great help.”

Jennifer Jo Cobb:

“Hello, this is Jennifer Jo Cobb. I’m so happy to be in California opening a new chapter with Rick Ware Racing for my 1st Nationwide Series Event, my first race ever at the California Speedway (Auto Club Speedway). The weekend started with some fun. I got to take half of my crew and my nephew to The Jimmy Kimmel Show. We sat in the front row last night had just a wonderful time, lots of laughter and applause. It was really, really a nice release to head into the weekend. We are waiting for the weather to clear out, but absolutely excited to get the #41 Ford Mustang out on the track. My agreement with Rick Ware is only for California but we’ve both expressed that we’d really like to continue beyond this race and so we’re going to see what kind of dollars we can come up with to make this work. Unfortunately you just can’t race without the dollars whether that be from sponsorship and fans have been donating to our Paypal account to keep us going. Our biggest expense is tires. Tires are $2,000 a set and we need at least 4 sets a weekend so we’ve got to come up with that. We’ve got some great support that has come out of this and so I feel confident that we’ll continue racing for the rest of this year. Even if I have to miss a race or 2 I know that this is a new chapter and I’m so excited to continue on this journey and compete with now my teammate Timmy Hill for the Nationwide Series Rookie Of The Year title.”

Mike Harmon:

“We purchased a car from Tri-Star that they’ve run 1 time this year. The deal came together late and we got a late start on California but it looks like it’s going to turn out to be a pretty good deal. 3 people that used to sponsor me came together to put this deal together so it’s good to renew old relationships with people I’ve worked with in the past. Dan and Scott are here with me from our truck team. We didn’t get to do as much as we wanted to the car before leaving for California but practice went okay and we should be okay today and when we get back to North Carolina we’ll be ready for Texas and Talladega. I’m really looking forward to Talladega. I’m glad to be back racing. I’m not at liberty to mention all the people that helped us get here but I do want to thank James Whitener from Bakersfield, California. He is opening up a restaurant called Riverwalk Cafe and is hoping they will become a franchise so it’s good to spend time with him and his family this weekend. That was one of the main goals in coming to California, to renew that relationship. I just want to thank everybody who has helped us get here and we’re planning on running as many Nationwide races as we can the rest of this year and hope to run a few truck races this year, as well. I’m running the #74 here so maybe that will be good for us. Every time I’ve ever had a 7 on my car it’s been good for us so we’ll see what happens.”