Nov 23
Tuesday
Filed under Press Releases, Sprint Cup Series
Raybestos Rookie of the Year Contender Logo
- Kevin Conway is the 2009 Raybestos® Rookie of the Year in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Conway captured top rookie honors 28 times in 36 races and officially claimed the honor by 172 points (227-55) over Terry Cook. He scored a season-best 14th-place finish in the July 3 Coke Zero 400 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, which is also the best finish in the five-year history of Front Row Motorsports.
RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER POINT STANDINGS
DRIVER POINTS
Kevin Conway 227
Terry Cook 55
HIGHEST-FINISHING RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE BY RACE
EVENT HIGHEST-FINISHING ROOKIE
Auto Club 500 Kevin Conway, 31st
Shelby American Kevin Conway, 36th
Kobalt Tools 500 Kevin Conway, 31st
Food City 500 Kevin Conway, 28th
Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 Kevin Conway, 31st
Subway Fresh Fit 600 Kevin Conway, 33rd
Samsung Mobile 500 Kevin Conway, 27th
Aaron’s 499 Kevin Conway, 30th
Crown Royal 300 Kevin Conway, 37th
SHOWTIME Southern 500 Kevin Conway, 33rd
Autism Speaks 400 Kevin Conway, 33rd
Coca-Cola 600 Kevin Conway, 35th
Gillette Fusion ProGlide 500 Kevin Conway, 35th
Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400 Kevin Conway, 40th
Toyota/Save Mart 350 Kevin Conway, 28th
LENOX Industrial Tools 301 Kevin Conway, 32nd
Coke Zero 400 Kevin Conway, 14th
LifeLock.com 400 Kevin Conway, 33rd
Brickyard 400 Kevin Conway, 34th
Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 Kevin Conway, 31st
Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen Kevin Conway, 31st
IRWIN Tools Night Race Kevin Conway, 36th
Emory Healthcare 500 Kevin Conway, 37th
Air Guard 400 Kevin Conway, 41st
AAA 400 Kevin Conway, 37th
Price Chopper 400 Kevin Conway, 38th
Pepsi MAX 400 Kevin Conway, 31st
Ford 400 Kevin Conway, 30th
RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE HISTORY
- Joey Logano won 2009 Raybestos® Rookie of the Year in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Logano captured top rookie honors 26 times in 36 races and officially claimed the honor by 33 points (270-237) over Scott Speed. At 19 years of age, Logano became the youngest driver to win Raybestos® Rookie of the Year in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
- Logano scored his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory in at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (race No. 17). The victory came in his 20th career start. He finished the season with one win, three top-five and seven top-10 finishes and placed 20th in the final series championship standings.
- Logano is the THIRD driver from Joe Gibbs Racing to win Raybestos® Rookie of the Year, joining Tony Stewart (1999) and Denny Hamlin (2006).
- DID YOU KNOW? Logano is the most recent Raybestos® Rookie to win a Sprint Cup Series race, capturing the 2009 LENOX Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway ahead of second-place Jeff Gordon (56 races).
- DID YOU KNOW? The most recent Raybestos® Rookie to win a pole position in the Sprint Cup Series is Patrick Carpentier. Carpentier captured the top starting spot for the 2008 LENOX Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (92 races).
- DID YOU KNOW? The most recent Raybestos® Rookie to score a top-five finish is Logano, who placed third in the 2009 AMP Energy Juice 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway (41 races).
- Regan Smith (2008) is the only Raybestos® Rookie of the Year in the 54-year history of the program without a DNF (did not finish). He was running at the finish in all 34 starts he made and captured top rookie honors over Sam Hornish Jr. by just seven points (236-229).
- The 2008 season marked the first time in NASCAR’s modern-era (since 1972) that THREE drivers shared the lead in the Raybestos® Rookie standings. After the second race of the season, Sam Hornish, Jr., Dario Franchitti and Regan Smith were all tied at the top of the standings.
- Ryan Newman holds the all-time Raybestos® Rookie record for most poles (6), most top-fives (14) and most top-10s (22).
- Denny Hamlin is the only Raybestos® Rookie to qualify for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup since the format began in 2004.
- The record for most earnings by a Raybestos® Rookie Hamlin holds the record for most earnings by a Raybestos® Rookie ($6.6 million in 2006).
- The record for most wins by a Raybestos® Rookie is THREE, shared by Tony Stewart (1999) and Jimmie Johnson (2002).
- A Raybestos® Rookie has posted multiple victories SEVEN times in NASCAR Sprint Cup:
1987: Davey Allison, two
1999: Tony Stewart, three
2000: Dale Earnhardt Jr., two
2001: Kevin Harvick, two
2002: Jimmie Johnson, three
2005: Kyle Busch, two
2006: Denny Hamlin, two
- More than one Raybestos® Rookie has posted victories during their first season only three times:
1981: Morgan Shepherd (one) and Ron Bouchard (one)
2000: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (two) and Matt Kenseth (one)
2002: Jimmie Johnson (three) and Ryan Newman (one)
- The way to the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship is to win Raybestos® Rookie of the Year. Since 1979, six Raybestos® Rookie of the Year drivers have gone on to win a NASCAR Sprint Cup title: Dale Earnhardt (1979), Rusty Wallace (1984), Alan Kulwicki (1986), Jeff Gordon (1993), Tony Stewart (1999) and Matt Kenseth (2000).
- The longest streak for a Raybestos® Rookie to be in the top-10 in the Sprint Cup Series championship standings during the sport’s modern-era is 60 races (2001 MBNA Platinum 400 through 2002 Ford 400).
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.
*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.
