Category: XFINITY Series

[media-credit name=”Track ” align=”alignright” width=”241″][/media-credit]Elliott Sadler

No. 2 OneMain Financial Chevrolet Impala

NASCAR Nationwide Series Race 31 of 34 – Charlotte Motor Speedway

NORTH CAROLINA RACING: Elliott Sadler and the No. 2 OneMain Financial team will head to Charlotte Motor Speedway this weekend for the second NASCAR Nationwide Series event at the Concord, N.C., track this season. In the May event at Charlotte, the Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) team finished 10th after they battled an ill-handling car throughout the 200-lap event.

THINK PINK: The No. 2 OneMain Financial Chevrolet will carry a special paint scheme this week at Charlotte. In honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness month, pink will be added to the KHI Chevrolet. The cause is near to Sadler’s heart as his mother Bell was diagnosed in 2007. “It means a lot to me to run a paint scheme in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness month,” said Sadler. “It symbolizes a cause which is important to a lot of us, and I’m thrilled to have the support of OneMain Financial to run this pink No. 2 in Charlotte. My mom is a survivor and doing well now, and the pink car is her favorite, so I’m excited to run it this weekend. ”

CHARLOTTE REGULAR: Sadler knows his way around the 1.5-mile track. He has nine Nationwide Series starts at Charlotte with two top-10 and one top-five finish and a best finish of second in 2005. Sadler also has 25 Sprint Cup Series starts with one pole award, one top five, three top 10s and 192 laps led. In 2010, Sadler piloted a KHI truck for his Camping World Truck Series debut at the track with a fifth-place finish.

KHI AT CHARLOTTE: KHI has made 20 starts at Charlotte Motor Speedway since 2004, with a total of seven top-10 and one top-five finish. NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Tony Stewart collected the organization’s highest finish of fifth in 2004.

CHASSIS HISTORY: The No. 2 OneMain Financial team will unload chassis No. 070 this weekend at Charlotte. This is the ninth time this season the No. 2 team will compete with this particular chassis. The team has earned five top-five finishes with No. 070 thus far this season with a best finish of third at Darlington Raceway in May, Iowa Speedway in August and Kansas Speedway last weekend.

DASH-ING 4 CASH: Sadler is one of four drivers eligible for a chance to win $100,000 at Charlotte in the fourth of four Dash 4 Cash segments. The highest-finishing driver of the four this weekend will win the monetary prize from Nationwide Insurance. Sadler also competed in the Daytona International Speedway and Richmond International Raceway segments of the event.

PREVIOUS RACE RECAP: Sadler and the No. 2 OneMain Financial Chevrolet headed to Kansas Speedway last week for a Saturday afternoon showdown. Sadler started from the 12th position and worked his way toward the front of the field, where he would compete for most of the day. The OneMain Financial team battled to a third-place finish at the 1.5-mile track, scoring the team’s 11th top-five finish of the season.

TO THE POINT: With a solid finish at Kansas, Sadler picked up two points in the battle for the Nationwide Series Driver’s championship. Sadler currently sits 20 points behind the leader with four races left on the schedule.

MEET ELLIOTT SADLER: Fans will have the opportunity to meet Sadler at the OneMain Financial Branch at 2302 South Cannon Blvd., Kannapolis, N.C., on Oct. 12. From 3-4 p.m. Sadler will meet with fans, sign autographs and take photos.

THOUGHTS FROM THE DRIVER: Elliott Sadler

How do you feel heading into this week’s race at Charlotte?

“I’m really looking forward to Charlotte. It’s always fun to race there with so many friends and family coming out since it is so close in locale to most race teams. This is definitely a track that I feel comfortable at because I feel like it really fits my driving style well. With OneMain Financial’s blessing, we have the opportunity to run a pink paint scheme to celebrate National Breast Cancer Awareness, which is a cause that is near to my heart. We only have four races left on the schedule, so things are heating up on the track, but I’m as confident as ever in this team.”

MOST POPULAR DRIVER: Sadler is eligible for the 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series Most Popular Driver award. Fans can vote for Sadler now through November 17 on www.NASCARNationwideSeries.com.

OneMain Financial

OneMain Financial (formerly CitiFinancial), based in Baltimore, Md, provides personalized loan solutions and one-on-one, local service at more than 1,300 branches nationwide. With a 99-year heritage of helping people realize their financial goals and dreams, their employees are part of the communities where they live and work. OneMain Financial works with each customer to find a solution that best fits their needs and budget, offering a simple and straightforward loan application, with fixed rates, and clear terms. Additional information may be found at OneMainFinancial.com.

Ryan Truex, No. 20 Martin Truex Jr. Foundation Toyota Kansas Speedway Post-Race Report

Kansas Speedway

Kansas Lottery 300

October 8, 2011

No. 20 Notes of Interest

-Ryan Truex qualified 3rd for Saturday’s race, only bested by Sprint Cup Series regulars Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski. Truex piloted the No. 20 Martin Truex Jr. Foundation Toyota Camry to a 10th place finish at Kansas. He was the 2nd highest finishing Toyota driver after his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Joey Logano. Truex also received the Sunoco Rookie of the Race Award for the fifth consecutive NASCAR Nationwide Series race.

-After back-to-back top-10 finishes at Kansas and Dover, a top-5 at Richmond and strong showings at Chicago and Atlanta, Truex is riding a wave of momentum. He has five consecutive top-15 finishes in just as many starts for Joe Gibbs Racing.

-In the first 65 laps of the race, Truex never fell out of the top-10 and hung in the top-5 consistently. After pitting during a caution brought out by debris, the handling on Truex’s car fell off to the point that he thought he may have a right rear tire going down. He dropped to 17th position and was battling a really loose race car, so the No. 20 team decided to pit under green to check the tires. That pit stop put him back in 29th position. Truex took the wave around during the caution on Lap 88 to get back on the lead lap. In the next 60 laps, he worked his way up to as high as 16th before he was forced to pit under green for fuel. With 60 laps to go, Ryan found himself in 24th but the No. 20 team had confidence in their car and their ability to battle back up to the front. Truex was the first car a lap down when the caution came out with 26 laps to go. After getting the “Lucky Dog,” he restarted 19th and was happy with how his car was handling after some good adjustments by his JGR team. Truex was able to pass a lead lap car almost every lap, and found himself back up in the 12th position with only 11 laps to go. After a strong final push, he broke into the top-10 during the closing laps of the race.

-Truex will be back on the track next weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the No. 99 Pastrana-Waltrip Toyota Camry. He is competing against Kenny Wallace, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Elliott Sadler for a $100,000 bonus in the Nationwide Series Dash 4 Cash program. He will return to the No. 20 car for Joe Gibbs Racing at Phoenix International Raceway in November.

Truex on Achieving a Top-10 Finish After Early Issues

“It seems like every race I’ve had to work my way from the back at some point. After just taking fuel on one stop, we went back out and I was just wicked loose. I thought we had a flat because the car was just evil. It was out of control and we dropped like a rock. We had to pit under green to get new tires, and so that put us behind. We got the wave-arounds and eventually the ‘Lucky Dog.’ At the end there we were able to put tires on and run back up

through the field. A top-10 is good after running as far back as we were, but I felt like we had a top-5 car again.”

Race Notes

– Brad Keselowski won the Kansas Lottery 300 by 2.795 seconds over Carl Edwards. Elliott Sadler, Paul Menard and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out the top-5.

Time of race: 2:23:08

Cautions: 6 for 30 laps

Lead changes: 9 among 5 drivers

Attendance: 68,000

Race Results

1 Brad Keselowski(i)

2 Carl Edwards(i)

3 Elliott Sadler

4 Paul Menard

5 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

6 Kevin Harvick

7 Joey Logano

8 Brian Vickers

9 Trevor Bayne

10 Ryan Truex #

11 Justin Allgaier

12 Aric Almirola

13 Jason Leffler

14 David Stremme

15 Danica Patrick

16 Michael Annett

17 Brian Scott

18 James Buescher

19 Kenny Wallace

20 Steve Wallace

21 Joe Nemechek

22 Mike Bliss

23 Jerermy Clements

24 Mike Wallace

25 Blake Koch #

26 Reed Sorenson

27 Morgan Shepherd

28 Kevin Lepage

29 Joey Gase

30 Derrike Cope

31 Eric McClure

32 Angela Cope

33 Josh Wise

34 Timmy Hill #

35 Matt Carter

36 Scott Riggs

37 Carl Long

38 Johnny Chapman

39 Chase Miller

40 Charles Lewandoski #

41 Jeff Green

42 T.J. Bell

43 J.J. Yeley

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CARL EDWARDS PRESS CONFERENCE

TELL US ABOUT YOUR RUN OUT THERE TODAY. YOU HAVE CHOPPED THE OWNERS POINTS LEAD DOWN TO SEVEN POINTS. “That is huge. That is the success story for us for the day, the owner’s points. Brad’s car was so fast. I knew after about 30 laps that unless something happened we were going to be racing pretty hard for second place. Fortunately there at the end I did get a chance to race with him a little bit. I am proud our guys finished the best we could and I am pretty excited about that owner’s championship. We have a bunch of wins this year and it would be nice to cap it off with a place at the table there in Homestead. That would be cool.”

WHAT WAS THE ISSUE YOU HAD ON PIT ROAD ON THE LAST STOP AND WHAT WAS THE RATIONALE FOR PICKING THE STALL YOU DID? “We didn’t really have an issue. For some reason Brad was running me down towards pit wall and I don’t know why he was doing that. I am not sure if he realized how fast his car was. He was kind of doing some funny stuff throughout the race like that. In my mind I thought he must have the pit stall before us. That was a little confusing because I didn’t know what he was doing. He might have been confused and thought his pit stall was earlier or something. We picked that pit stall based on a couple of things. First was the way the timing lines were laid out and second was that is the pit stall I am using tomorrow for the Cup race. Considering my little mistake I made last week I thought it might be good getting some practice getting out of my pit stall without speeding. And Mike Beam could have picked that first pit stall and I appreciate him taking the eighth one for us. As it stands I don’t think it made a difference in the outcome of the race, so that is good.”

I KNOW HOW MUCH YOU WANT TO WIN HERE, IS IT ANY EASIER NOT WINNING BY TWO SECONDS RATHER THAN TWO INCHES? “I would really like to win here. The thing that makes it easier is knowing we get to race tomorrow and I get another chance at it. It was fun to be able to race there at the end a little bit on that last restart. I had a little hope that maybe we could hold them off for awhile but as it ended up that was not the case. I guess I am just excited about tomorrow’s race. Second place is tough. I want to win here more than anything and second place is tough to swallow but hopefully we can do one better tomorrow.”

I THOUGHT THE MOST TELLING PART WAS HOW YOU AND BRAD BATTLED ON RESTARTS AND HOW HE DUSTED YOU WHEN HE TOOK YOUR LINE. “Telling as to what?”

IT SHOWED ME HIS CAR WAS SUPERIOR WHEN HE SWITCHED TO THE LINE YOU WERE USING. “The reason I cleared him on the one restart is because he was doing his best to get me black flagged. He lifted after he went to make sure I crossed the line first and then he let me clear him. I think he realized maybe they weren’t going to give me the black flag so he made sure to go back by. I thought that was pretty interesting. His car was very good. That is why I said after the race. If you guys could help me, just remind him when he starts complaining about our cars again like he does all the time, remind him of today because that was a spectacular car.”

YOU AND BRAD HAVE A LITTLE HISTORY AND HAVE BEEN DANCING AROUND IT TODAY. ARE YOU GETTING TIRED OF SEEING HIM LATE IN THESE RACES WITH SOME OF THE TACTICS THAT GO ON? “No. I think we raced pretty well. I just think today that he didn’t realize how fast his car was and I think he was maybe trying to just try every little trick he could to make sure he won. It is my opinion he didn’t have to do that. It was almost a little comical to watch a guy with that fast of a car trying to do all these little things that he didn’t need to do. Personally I have no problem. We shook hands and race well and it really was fun at the end of the race to get to race him a little bit. I had no clues on scuffed tires. That was frustrating to find out. But it was fun to get to race a little bit.”

I UNDERSTAND YOU ARE GOING TO BE KICKING SOME FIELD GOALS TUESDAY IN MIAMI. TELL ME ABOUT YOUR KICKING BACKGROUND. “I am kicking three field goals for, I think they are Ford Focus’s. There are three folks and I get three field goal attempts and then each one I make someone gets a free car. I hope I can do well.”

WHAT’S YOUR BACKGROUND KICKING FIELD GOALS? “I don’t have much background and I haven’t practiced at all. I have heard it is from the 20-yard line. Is that a difficult field goal to make? You never know. A blind squirrel finds a nut now and again. I might be up at the high school Monday practicing. I am a little nervous about it because I know how those things go. Somebody is going to be really excited or really disappointed. I hope that they are excited. They only told me about this like two days ago, so I haven’t had any time to practice.”

DID YOU GET SOMETHING OUT OF TODAY THAT CAN HELP YOU FOR TOMORROW? “I hope so. I saw some guys running different lines like Elliott was running a different line and I learned a little bit about the tire and the race track and having that pit stall was good practice to get in and out of that pit stall. I think it will help me for tomorrow.”

WHEN A GUY HAS A CAR THAT FAST, WHAT IS YOUR MENTALITY? AT SOME POINT DO YOU TIP YOUR CAP? “You guys remember Iowa with Ricky. If I had been paying a little more attention and focusing harder I might have won that race. Nobody expected him to blow up off of turn four. No offense Brad, he just walked in, but I was really hoping for something like that to happen and I was going as fast as I could. That was the only hope. If they had a flat tire or ran out of fuel or had some sort of trouble. You always go as hard as you can to the end because you never know what can happen in racing.”

Joey Logano (seventh) was the highest finishing Toyota driver in Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race at Kansas Speedway.

Logano has four top-10 finishes in as many starts at Kansas Speedway — including wins in 2009 and 2010.

Camry driver Ryan Truex also earned a top-10 result with a 10th-place finish in the 200-lap race — his third top-10 finish in five starts in the Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) No. 20 Camry this season.

Camry drivers Michael Annett (16th), Brian Scott (17th), Kenny Wallace (19th), Steve Wallace (20th) and Joe Nemechek (21st) were also in the field at the mile-and-a-half oval.

Five Camry drivers are currently in the top-15 in the unofficial NNS point standings following 30 of 34 races in the 2011 season — K. Wallace (seventh), S. Wallace (eighth), Scott (ninth), Annett (10th), and Nemechek (14th).

JOEY LOGANO, No. 18 GameStop Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 7th How was your race today? “It wasn’t quite good enough. At times we were decent. If we had the car decent — we could run up to third-place. But, as good as we could get it — balanced just right — we were just as good as the top-three cars. We were never as good as the 22 (Brad Keselowski) really, now that I think about it. We could hang with the 60 (Carl Edwards) and the 33 (Paul Menard) and the 2 (Elliott Sadler), when our car was good. With us, we were trying to fix a little bit tight in the center and we got too loose. And, then at the end we ran out of tires. We had to put ‘scuffs’ on and it cost us quite a bit of grip at the end. We couldn’t keep up with a lot of those guys. Trying to hold on for what I had — just hanging on there. I had a good time working with Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) and the 18 guys — they do a really good job. Learned a lot about the way they work and the way they do things, and things we can bring over to my team. Proud of what we learned. Just not the finish we wanted.”

RYAN TRUEX, No. 20 Schick Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 10th How did you manage a top-10 finish after some issues early in the race? “It seems like every race I’ve got to work my way from the back at some point. I don’t know. We came in and took fuel only and we went back out and we were just wicked loose. I thought we had a flat — a right rear flat — because the car was just evil. It was out of control and we dropped like a rock. We had to pit under green and get tires. And, then we just fell back from there. We got the wave-arounds. We got the ‘Lucky Dog.’ At the end there we were able to put tires on and run back up through the field. A top-10 is good after running — after being as far back as 25th or whatever. We had a top-five car again. I need to stop making mistakes pretty much so we can have a shot at these things.”

MICHAEL ANNETT, No. 62 Pilot Flying J Toyota Camry, Rusty Wallace Racing Finishing Position: 16th

BRIAN SCOTT, No. 11 Shore Lodge Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 17th What happened between you and Aric Almirola after today’s race? “Really, it’s an issue that’s been building all year. He’s (Aric Almirola) run into the back of me on restarts, he wrecked me at Richmond, he walls me at Chicago. He races like it’s the last lap every time he’s around me, and I’ve had enough of it. He’s cost me a car and he continues to race like that, so I went and told him, and I just told him how I felt. I told him that I owed him one and I told him if he’s going to continue to race like that then I’m probably going to slip up and wreck him.”

What happened on the race track that led you to confront Aric Almirola? “He (Aric Almirola) just races like, I don’t know any other better word for it than a jack you know what. He runs you tight — tighter than anybody. He tried to pass us on pit road and tried to block me from getting into my pits. It’s just an every week thing and I’m sick of it. I’m not going to put up with it anymore and that’s what I told him. Right there, he was blocking me from getting into the pits and his pit stall is way down there. He obviously has an issue with me and now I have a pretty big issue with him.”

KENNY WALLACE, No. 09 Family Farmers Toyota Camry, RAB Racing with Brack Maggard Finishing Position: 19th

STEVE WALLACE, No. 66 5-Hour Energy Toyota Camry, Rusty Wallace Racing Finishing Position: 20th

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 NEMCO Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Finishing Position: 21st

Ford Finishing Results:

2nd Carl Edwards

5th Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

9th Trevor Bayne

34th Timmy Hill

35th Matthew Carter

37th Carl Long

43rd JJ Yeley

Carl Edwards, No. 60 Fastenal Ford (Finished 2nd) – Pit Road Interview WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOUR CAR AND THE 22? “His went through the corner a little faster and down the straightaway a little faster. The thing is, each week people have different dominant cars. I am just hoping that when he starts complaining like he does about our car that someone can remind him about this race (joking). I think that car was spectacular. He did a good job too. I thought we were going to have a chance to race there pretty hard at the end but once he got by me I couldn’t do anything. I am pretty excited about the race tomorrow. I think it is going to be fun and I wish we could have won this for all the folks that came here to support me today but we did our best and I am proud of our effort.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 6 Ricky vs. Trevor Ford (Finished ) IT WAS AN UP AND DOWN DAY BUT YOU FINISHED TOP FIVE, A GOOD RECOVERY FOR YOU GUYS. “It was. We didn’t start out very good, not like we wanted to or normally do. We were on the loose side, on the tight side and couldn’t hit it in the middle like we needed to. To battle back from three pit road issues we had, I stalled it once, got a penalty for speeding and had a slow stop. To still come back and run top five is not too bad.

WHAT DOES THIS SAY ABOUT YOUR TEAM TO FINISH WELL ON A DAY THINGS WENT WRONG? “That we are strong. We are ready to do this. They work hard each and every week in the shop and here at the race track. We make good changes we just have to get dialed in just a little bit better. We have the race team to do this.”

One year after joining Roush Fenway, Bayne looks to drive into Kansas Victory Lane

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (Oct. 7, 2011) – A year ago Trevor Bayne made his Roush Fenway debut at Kansas Speedway, just a few days after joining the organization. Driving the No. 17 Ford, with a new team, Bayne and the team had their work cut out for them, yet still showed the promise that has made Bayne one of the hottest young drivers in the Nationwide Series.

“I’ve only been to Kansas one time, but it was a pretty big step for me in my career as it was my first race with Roush Fenway Racing,” said Bayne. “It was as really cool deal and a huge step in my career. I can remember we had not even been there a week and everything was so new for me, it made for a pretty tough race.”

This weekend, Bayne returns to the scene of his Roush Fenway debut, but this time looking for much more than acclimation to a new race team. This year Bayne along with crew chief Chad Norris will look for a trip to the winner circle.

“I’m looking forward to going back this year,” added Bayne. “I really like Kansas. It’s a great place to race and those style of tracks are great to race on. Hopefully we can get our first win there this weekend, where we made our first start with Roush Fenway last season.”

Bayne and the No. 16 team will look for Roush Fenway’s second Nationwide Series win at Kansas, and its first since Jeff Burton took the checkered flag there in 2002. Roush Fenway has won seven times in NASCAR action at Kansas.

Roush Fenway Racing is NASCAR’s largest team operating in both the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series with drivers Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, David Ragan, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Trevor Bayne. Celebrating 25 winning years in 2012, Roush Fenway is the leader in NASCAR marketing solutions with its exclusive RoushFenwayOnTrack sponsorship measurement services, motorsport’s only team-focused TV show, and its social marketing channel RickyvsTrevor.com bringing unmatched brand opportunities to sponsors. Visit file:///C:UserskdwoodAppDataLocalTempXPgrpwisewww.RoushFenway.com> www.RoushFenway.com, become a fan on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/roushfenway www.facebook.com/roushfenway and follow on Twitter at @roushfenway. For sponsorship inquiries call John Younger at 704.720.4620.