Dollar General 300 at Chicagoland Speedway
No. 11 Shore Lodge Team Notes of Interest
· Brian Scott and the No. 11 Shore Lodge Toyota team visit Chicagoland Speedway for the second of the track’s 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series events. Scott will be looking for redemption during this weekend’s Dollar General 300. The No. 11 Shore Lodge Toyota team fielded a top-five performing car during the series’ June race at Chicagoland Speedway but came up a couple of laps short on fuel while running in the third position during the final laps of the race. Scott had to make a late stop for a splash of gas and eventually finished the race in 17th place.
· Prior to the June race at Chicago, the Boise, Idaho-native had made one other start at the 1.5-mile track in Nationwide Series competition. Scott picked up a third-place finish at Chicagoland’s only Nationwide Series race in 2010 after starting from the 18th position.
· The 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series is winding down with only seven races left for Scott and the No. 11 Shore Lodge Toyota Team to try to win. While the season has not been what the team had hoped for at the beginning of the year, the team is currently ranked in the top 10 in the Nationwide Series point standings. He is eight points behind Michael Annett in ninth place and 29 points behind Steven Wallace in eighth place.
· Through the first 27 races of the 2011 season, Scott has only failed to finish three events and he has completed 4,640 of the 4,997 laps run in Nationwide Series competition for a lap completion rate of 93 percent.
· Chassis #122 is the car the No. 11 Shore Lodge Team will race this weekend in Chicago. This chassis has been used by the team three times in 2011 and it has been raced to successful results at two of the three events. Scott earned top-10 finishes with Chassis #122 at Texas (10th place) and at Charlotte (eighth place). Scott also raced this car at Kentucky in July where he picked up a 15th-place finish. The backup car is Chassis #106 and it has not been raced during the 2011 season.
· Last Race: The No. 11 Shore Lodge Toyota team battled a tight-handling condition on the car during the early stages of last weekend’ Friday night race at Richmond International Raceway. The team was making progress with the handling issues as the race went past the halfway point. The team made a stop during the third caution at lap 140 for adjustments and sent Scott back onto the track. When racing resumed at lap 146 Scott was hit from behind by driver Aric Almirola and sent hard into the retaining wall. The chassis was too damaged to return to the race and Scott was scored with a 32nd-place finish that cost him a spot in the driver point standings.
· To access information on Brian Scott and No. 11 Team visit: www.joegibbsracing.com and follow twitter.com/bscottracing and twitter.com/joegibbsracing.
This weekend’s race at Chicago:
“I’m looking forward to Chicago. We had a really good run there earlier this year. We were running third with a lap to go and ran out of fuel. I know we’ll have a strong car. I think it’s one of my best tracks and it’s a great place to go after a frustrating Richmond race. I’ve got to study up on my fuel saving techniques so hopefully we won’t run out of gas. But I like the multiple grooves at Chicago where you can run the bottom and you can run the high side. It really suits my driving style. I tend to get into the corners pretty hard and then just really do everything to try to get the car to turn and then mash the gas. It just seems that track really suits that style.
“Additionally, the track is somewhat wore out so tires fall off so you have to manage the tires slightly. It’s not like an Atlanta or Richmond where you lose over a second over the course of a run. You definitely lose time on tires and you have to set your car up for the long run. I tend to be better at long runs than a short run. Looking at the lap time graphs I study every week I tend to give up time early in a run to guys like Kyle (Busch), my teammates and other guys that are fast early in a run. I just don’t have that right out of a gate speed. But for the rest of the run we are right there and eventually we are faster. That’s just how it works for me.
“I’ve always had good runs at Chicago so that gives me a level of confidence when we do race there. I feel like I’ve had really fast race cars so I know what I am looking for in regards to the feel of a race car when we are there.”
- Joe Gibbs Racing Press Release
