Category: XFINITY Series

FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES

Great Clips 300

September 3, 2011

Atlanta Motor Speedway

EDWARDS GIVES MUSTANG 10TH WIN OF 2011

. Carl Edwards won his sixth NASCAR Nationwide Series race of the season. . The win was Mustang’s 10th of the season, more than any other car make in 2011.

. Ricky Stenhouse maintained his points lead over second-place Elliott Sadler.

Ford Finishing Results:

1st – Carl Edwards

3rd – Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.

17th – Matt Carter

33rd – Trevor Bayne

35th – Clay Greenfield

36th – Timmy Hill

41st – Carl Long

TREVOR BAYNE – No. 16 Ford Drive One Mustang – “That’s the best mile-and-a-half car we’ve ever had, I believe. We had a shot to win this thing on a short run. I got a little bit free after about 20-25 laps and we were at a run that was gonna be 20 laps. It was gonna be perfect. We should have been around fifth and we came out 11th and you just get back there where you shouldn’t be and get around some guys that are racing really hard and end up getting wrecked. That was a hard hit and I hate it for this Ford Mustang because I think it could have had confetti on it tonight, but I’m really proud of what my guys have done – Chad Norris and everybody for giving me a great car – so we’ll just take it to them at Richmond, I guess.”

RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – No. 6 Blackwell Angus Ford Mustang – “Our Blackwell Angus Beef and Cargo Mustang was strong all night. We struggled there in the pits in the middle part of the race and were able to overcome it. We caught a right-front tire that almost gave us some trouble there. It almost went down, but I’ve just got to thank all the fans for coming out. We had a good crowd tonight, and Nationwide Insurance. I’m just glad to have this Blackwell Angus Beef and Cargo Mustang paint job back on this thing.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 60 Fastenal Ford Mustang – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – “I’ve got to say Happy Birthday to my grandma, Phyllis. They’re watching the race from Kirkwood, Missouri and we’re gonna take the trophy home to grandma. Thank you guys, I love you. I’ve got to thank Fastenal. This was a big week for Fastenal. We announced a big partnership for next year. That’s huge. I’ve got to thank Ford, Valvoline, the Nationwide Series, all the fans here, Wiley X and Aflac. We had a big day yesterday and I was inspired by the kids at the Aflac Cancer Center, so if you folks want to donate, Aflac will double your donation at Aflac.com/friends, so it’s a big weekend for us here. I can’t believe we got the pole and the win. What a heck of a race.”

YOU TRIED TO STAY POSITIVE AND KEEP YOUR TEAM IN IT EARLY ON. “I’ve got a great team. These are great guys. Man, everybody raced really well. That was as hard as we could race out there. Kyle and I, Kevin. I raced Kasey. That was a lot of fun. This track is as good as it gets. This is a blast. I can’t wait for tomorrow.”

RICKY STENHOUSE JR. PRESS CONFERENCE – “The race itself was fun. This race track is a lot of fun. It’s old and it wears the tires out and it’s rough. That’s my kind of race track. I like to get up on the wheel and drive it hard and it worked out for us tonight. Our Blackwell Angus Beef and Cargo Mustang really ran well. We struggled in the pits and got behind and had to make some time up, but once we did we were okay. We caught a good break and caught the right-front tire, it shredded but it didn’t blow, so we caught that. If we would have stayed out one more lap it probably would have blown the right-front and there at the end it was just fun racing with Kyle and Kevin. I wish we could have had a little more for Carl, but it was a good weekend for Roush Fenway. The last few laps there, the last run, I think we had a tire coming loose, so I kind of had to take it a little easy and made sure we finished and it was a good points night for us.”

DOES THIS TRACK REMIND YOU OF RUNNING YOUR SPRINT CAR AROUND THIS PART OF THE COUNTRY? “Definitely. I think that’s one of the reasons why I like this place. You can move all over the race track. You’re sliding no matter what. There are other race tracks you can slide, but not everybody is sliding so it doesn’t pay off. When everybody starts slipping and sliding and you can turn right going through the corner most of the time it reminds me of any sprint car race track that I’ve run on. I think that’s where it helped us out here tonight.”

DID YOU FEEL PRESSURED KNOWING SADLER WAS STRUGGLING OR DID YOU JUST TACKLE THIS RACE AS YOU ALWAYS DO? “When you have a good race car it’s really fun to drive and when you have an opening it’s tough not to take it as a race car driver. It seems like if you take that chance and kind of take control of it, you feel a little bit better instead of just riding. So I felt a little more in control making some of those moves, a few I probably shouldn’t have made, but they worked out.”

CARL EDWARDS PRESS CONFERENCE – “The car was spectacular from the first lap on the race track the car was great. Mike and Scott and all the guys did a really great job with it. It’s amazing how these cars have progressed over the last year to year-and-a-half. They’re really fast. Trevor was fast. Ricky was fast. Our car was great. It was just a fun race. I love this race track. Whatever it is about this race track that makes it so much fun to drive we need to figure out if we can engineer that into some other race tracks. This is as good as it gets, so I’m excited for tomorrow. I’m really excited to go run 500 miles here.”

MIKE BEAM, Crew Chief – No. 60 Fastenal Ford Mustang – “I thought we had a good strategy there and then we got penalized with the air hose, so we had to start at the rear. Then we wanted to go to lap 131 where we could go from there and then some of those guys started pitting, but we stuck to our plan and then the caution came out. It was nerve-wracking there for a while, but, like Carl said, the car was great and the engine ran great. It was just a lot of fun.”

JACK ROUSH, Car Owner – No. 60 Fastenal Ford Mustang – “I welcome the opportunity to share the stage here, to be subordinated by my real fast teammates. To be in the company of fast drivers and fast crew chiefs is a great honor for an owner like me. Mike is the unsung hero here. He’s kind of bucked the organization some and he’s provided leadership for this Nationwide team this year and he had really fast cars here and I know that he won an argument in the shop to get the car the way he wanted it here and we won’t talk about that, but Mike has really done a nice job this year. He has carried it to them and I’m real proud of Mike and I’m real proud of Carl.”

CARL EDWARDS CONTINUED – CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE BACK AND FORTH WITH KYLE AND KEVIN AND RICKY AND DO YOU ANTICIPATE THE SAME THING TOMORROW? “I think we’re gonna have just as good a racing tomorrow. I think the way the tire works with this track surface you can slide the cars, you can go in the corner and make a big mistake and get really sideways and you can save it. That was some door-to-door, hardcore racing out there. I don’t know what it looked like on the television or from the grandstands, but from the driver’s seat there was some really, really hard driving and I hope we get to see that tomorrow. We don’t race here enough. This place is a lot of fun. It’s really neat to race on a track like that.”

WERE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT BEING SHORT ON FUEL? “I was concerned then because one time we were supposed to make it to the end and we were half-a-lap short and that one got us. I’m just giving him a hard time because it’s not a perfect science. Jack explained it to me, you know he’s a mathematician and there’s a lot that goes into it. It’s very difficult with this new fuel system to determine exactly how far you can make it and that’s why we came down that second-to-last time. We went ahead and came for fuel just to make sure and, yeah, for a driver it’s important to really know. I don’t want him to lie to me because I know they wanted me to go out there and race really hard on the restart, so they didn’t want to tell me we were short, they wanted to tell me we were short 10 laps after the restart, but I said, ‘You’ve got to be honest with me. You’ve got to help me out here,’ so that was why.”

MIKE SAYS. “You’ve got to give us time to calculate it.”

CARL EDWARDS CONTINUED – KYLE SWEPT ACROSS YOU NOSE AT ONE POINT AND YOU OBJECTED TO THAT. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THAT INCIDENT? “Yeah, that was almost really ugly. I wasn’t very happy about that. He apologized through his spotter and then he raced me really clean after that, so that was just hard racing. It was getting really aggressive out there. Everybody was racing really hard and that was a case where he started coming up and I almost hooked his right-rear. It was all I could do to kind of get out of the way and he stopped and then I ran into his back bumper. I wasn’t very happy right then, but it was still early enough in the race that it didn’t tear anything up and since he apologized I figured we’d have a good, clean race at the end. Fortunately, he wasn’t able to catch us those last few laps.”

MIKE BEAM CONTINUED – WERE YOU WORRIED AFTER THE PENALTY AND DID YOU CHANGE ANYTHING AFTER QUALIFYING? “About the air hose, luckily there was like only 14 cars on the lead lap, so I knew that we had plenty of time to make it up if things went our way. You just don’t ever know, but when you get in the dirty air you don’t know how it’s gonna react, but, luckily, the car was pretty good in traffic and the lap times were real competitive, so I just knew that if we kept our heads straight that we could get back to the front, so that worked out well. As far as after qualifying, we just did our normal deal, especially at a place like this. We didn’t run a lot in practice. We ran really 30 laps on the tires, but we just took a shot at it there. We figured the race track was gonna be loose at night and it worked out. We did tighten it up after qualifying a little bit and then we tightened it up during the race also.”

CARL EDWARDS CONTINUED – HOW NERVE-WRACKING IS IT TO BE BACK IN THE PACK AROUND CARS THAT AREN’T AS IN CONTROL AS YOURS? “My car was really, really good and it was still a handful to drive, and there were some guys back there that their cars were not handling well. I thought everybody was doing a pretty good job for as tough as this race track can be. It kind of takes the wind out of your sails to get a penalty like that. Most of them lately have been because I’ve been speeding on pit road. I thought when he said we had to do a stop-and-go that I had sped again. I figured Mike would be throwing stuff at me when I stopped there in front of the box, but, in a way, it was early enough in the race. We had a fast enough race car. I tried to just look at it as a challenge and something fun. I think sometimes everything happens for a reason. I thought that run, trying to come through the field, I learned a little bit more about my car than I had running up front, so, in the end, it may have helped me a little bit at the end. So I thought that was good.”

JACK ROUSH CONTINUED – DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR STEVE TURNER AND CAN YOU TALK ABOUT STENHOUSE HAVING A 13-POINT LEAD? “Working backwards, this is the first race in the last three or maybe four that we’ve been able to pad or add some to our points lead. I was watching it slip away and I’m glad we stopped that. As far as the Turner organization is concerned, it’s always a risk when you’ve got a championship-contending car and another car that needs to race for its sponsor with great enthusiasm and with great effect, but when the cars come out of the same shop, if they’re done correctly, they’ll have about the same amount of speed in them and then it becomes a question of whether the driver and the crew chief have made the same decisions on the car, either good or bad, to keep them the same. But it’s not a surprise that team cars run that close together, but my advice is, and it’s just advice, is that the guys that are not in championship contention should consider the needs of the car that is in championship contention to make sure you give them plenty of room.”

ARE YOU BACK FLYING 100 PERCENT NOW? “Carl hasn’t been brave enough to fly with me yet. I’ve just had my medical for about 10 days, so people should leave me alone for a while and just let me do my own thing. I flew from Detroit to Charlotte the other day by myself in my premier jet and it was fun. It was the first time in a year I haven’t had an argument with another pilot in the airplane.”

Camry driver Kyle Busch (second) was the top finishing Toyota driver in Saturday night’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Busch’s finish was his fourth runner-up finish at the 1.5-mile oval and third consecutive second-place finish in the NNS at the Georgia speedway.

Camry drivers Ryan Truex (11th), Brian Scott (12th), Steve Wallace (13th), Joe Nemechek (18th), Kenny Wallace (19th) and Michael Annett (20th) were also in the field.

Five Camry drivers are currently in the top-15 in the unofficial NNS point standings following 26 of 34 races in the 2011 season — K. Wallace (seventh), S. Wallace (eighth), Scott (ninth), Annett (10th) and Nemechek (14th).

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Z-Line Designs Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 2nd Did you have anything for Carl Edwards at the end of the race? “No. That’s it. We were all kind of stuck on the bottom tonight. Wish we would have spread out and moved around and never did. Now can’t say enough about these guys from Joe Gibbs Racing, all the guys here on this Z-Line Designs Furniture Toyota Camry. Good car, jut not good enough. We knew that it would be a race against the Fords. They got great under the hoods. Just hated that we didn’t have enough under the hood to run with them a little bit better, but even in the long haul we got real loose an those guys seem to be better. We would equal out. Then I would be better. Then he would be better. It was all about how you could get to the bottom of the race track and how you could run the bottom. Overall, thank Z-Line, NOS Energy Drink, Pizza Ranch, Toyota, everybody. Thanks again.”

Were you ‘dirt tracking’ around Atlanta? “That’s all it is here anymore. I hated that the track didn’t spread out more. I thought that this place would get to its normal self and we would be able to run the middle, run the top, but it never did. We were all kind if stuck around the bottom, so anytime you could get within three or four car lengths of the guy in front of you, you kind of stalled out and couldn’t get by them unless they would slip on the bottom or get caught up in lap traffic or something. We had a great car. I can’t say enough about the guys from Joe Gibbs Racing. They did a great job here on this Z-Line Designs Furniture Camry. Just hate it that we didn’t have enough to go for the win and enough to race with the Fords there under the hood down the straightaways, but we’ll take it and we’ll move on to the next one, where ever the heck it is.”

Why was the bottom groove the most popular tonight? “It was really great race overall, but just kind of disappointed the race track didn’t spread out more. We didn’t run the middle, the top or nothing. It was all kind of fast guys around the bottom, so that was unfortunate. But can’t say enough about all my guys here on the JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) Z-Line Designs Furniture Camry. They did a great job for me and gave me everything we needed, but just not quite enough. I felt like we were running them down and getting there, but maybe he (Carl Edwards) was toying with us.”

Have the Roush Nationwide cars closed the gap on Joe Gibbs Racing? “Yeah. We used to have an advantage through the corners with our cars and the setup with the old car. We didn’t have the advantage down the straightaway, so it equaled out. We were pretty good. Now, it seems like everybody is so equal through the corners that if you can get some straightaway speed that sort of accentuates your car and makes you look a little better. We don’t have straightaway speed right now. We’ve got to get to work on that and try to make it better.”

How do you feel about tonight’s race? “I guess it was a good race. Certainly, the track didn’t widen out like we always, normally expect it to do here. There didn’t seem to be a very good middle or top side. Everybody was kind of fighting for the bottom and trying to run that yellow line around the race track. Hard to pass guys in that case when you try to get up behind them and you’re slipping and sliding already and such on edge that when you get three or four car lengths behind them and lose more down force, then you’re sliding even worse. Certainly was an exciting race there for a little while on restarts. You would run back and forth and dive bomb guys and get on their outside, their inside and once it kind of single files out then it’s tough to go. You can see the cars that are free to start with kind of go to the front and then the guys that have better long run cars kind of come up through. I felt like we were one of the long run cars that certainly got better with laps. Just didn’t have enough on the front side. If we had enough on the front side and enough on the back side then we would have been the best car here. Z-Line Designs Camry just wasn’t quite what it needed to be, but was close and gave them a run for their money.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Z-Line Designs Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (continued) Why did the race track not widen out? “I don’t know. I tried it in practice today and both the Nationwide Series and the Cup car and both times I went to the top I was slower. I hate to say it, but I think we’re predicting the future for tomorrow and it’s going to be a crash fest to the bottom. It’s just too far around I guess and there’s not that much grip up there anymore that you can get that sort of advantage. All the cars are equal and run pretty well and fast around the bottom that there’s just not a good enough top side. The truck was the same way. I couldn’t get the truck to work around the top throughout the race either. Kind of disappointing, but it is what it is.”

RYAN TRUEX, No. 20 Schick Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 11th How was your race tonight? “It was long and hard. We started off really good for about 10 laps. I got us hung out on that first start and I got stuck in the middle and got freight-trained there. After that we were just loose. No matter what we did, we couldn’t fix it. At the end there we got lucky and we were able to put tires on and drive by a lot of those guys. I’m happy with the finish. I wish it could have been better, but I guess not bad for our first race together.”

What does this opportunity with Joe Gibbs Racing mean to you? “It means a lot. It’s a big deal for me. It’s Joe Gibbs Racing. To have six races with them is pretty awesome so I am just going to try to make the best of it.”

BRIAN SCOTT, No. 11 Boise State Broncos Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 12th How did your car handle in the race? “We fought hard all day. We had two runs where we were just way too loose and we gave up a bunch of track position. Luckily, a caution fell when we needed it to and we got the lucky dog and we got back in the game. We still had tires left – – we put tires on and we had a restart and we started 13th and I thought we were going to be pretty good with 20 laps to go or whatever. The 31 (Justin Allgaier) and the 32 (Reed Sorenson) wrecked and they just got a little piece of it down the right side. From that point on we were just too tight until the end of the race and we were hanging on just trying to get what we could get. Too fast to get up there and get a top-10, but all in all for a hard day here in Atlanta, we’ll take 12th and we’ll go on. Our Boise State Bronco isn’t torn up too bad and it’s a good car. It will live to race another day.”

What type of reaction did you get driving the Boise State car tonight? “I got a whole lot of boos going around and a whole lot of people yelling, ‘Bulldogs,’ so I just pointed at my suit and yelled, ‘Broncos’ back. It’s all been fun and it’s all been in good fun. It’s been a lot of fun to have the Boise State Broncos on the car and it’s gotten reactions out of people — good, bad, indifferent, but it’s fun to see people care.”

STEVE WALLACE, No. 66 5-Hour Energy Toyota Camry, Rusty Wallace Racing Finishing Position: 13th

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 97 NEMCO Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Finishing Position: 18th

KENNY WALLACE, No. 09 G-Oil Toyota Camry, RAB Racing with Brack Maggard Finishing Position: 19th

MICHAEL ANNETT, No. 62 Pilot/Flying J Toyota Camry, Rusty Wallace Racing Finishing Position: 20th

JOHN JACKSON, No. 72 crashclaimsR.US Toyota Camry Finishing Position: 31st

Saturday, Sept. 3, 2011

Dodge Motorsports PR

Atlanta Motor Speedway

Great Clips 300

NASCAR Nationwide Series

Final Race Quotes

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger R/T): YOU WERE RACING JASON LEFFLER HARD FOR POSITION AT THE END OF THE RACE AND HE SPUN. DID YOU MAKE CONTACT WITH HIM? “No. It looked like he just lost it, I’m not sure. I know I wasn’t anywhere near him. I don’t know what happened to him.”

HOW DID YOU FEEL OUT THERE BACK IN YOUR OLD RIDE? “It felt good to be back out there. Certainly would like to get a little bit better finish. I didn’t quite get it done there at the end of the race. I’ve got no one to blame but myself. Still just need to find a little bit more speed in these cars but there not far off for sure and keep plugging away with it with the Discount Tire team.”

YOU PASSED SEVERAL CARS FOR POSITION NEAR THE END OF THE RACE. WAS THAT THE BEST THE CAR HAD BEEN ALL NIGHT? “Yeah right there at the end it was starting to come alive. It didn’t take off good on the restart but after that it did.”

DID THE TRACK CHANGE DURING THE RACE TONIGHT? “I don’t know [laughs]. I really don’t. Wish I had a better answer for you.”

WHAT DID YOU LEARN TONIGHT THAT YOU CAN APPLY AT TEXAS OR CHARLOTTE? “We’re always learning that’s for sure. Little things about the car and what I need to better and things I could have done better, too.”

TODD GORDON (Crew Chief, No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger R/T): YOU SCORED A SEVENTH-PLACE FINISH BUT ARE YOU GUYS A LITTLE BIT FRUSTRATED? “Obviously with Brad returning you have higher expectations. Just one of those things where it didn’t seem like we got in the right line on restarts. We got choked up, especially that last one. We got stuck with the 66 [Steve Wallace] and he cost us a lot of track position. We finally got by him and just didn’t have enough time to run him back down but Brad was doing a good job of it. We chased the car a little bit tonight. We’ll go to Richmond next week and work on it again.”

BRAD PASSED SEVERAL CARS ON THAT LAST RUN OF THE RACE. WAS THAT THE BEST THAT THE CAR HAD BEEN ALL NIGHT? “After we got clear of the 66 I think we had pretty good speed. Just one of those things where there’s a lot of different levels of talent out here and speed and how you catch ‘em. And that seemed to be something we struggled with tonight was trying to catch people at the right places to not kill your speed. It’s good to have Brad back in the Discount Tire Dodge.”

DO YOU THINK THE TRACK CHANGED A LOT FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE RACE TO THE END? “No I didn’t really feel like the racetrack changed. Right off the bat we struggled with a few things and we kind of felt like we were a little off the whole night. Just didn’t have enough times to make a swing at it to get it where we needed it to be but felt like we were getting there at the end.”

DID YOU LEARN SOMETHING TONIGHT THAT WILL HELP YOU AT THE OTHER INTERMEDIATE TRACKS THIS SEASON? “I tell ya, this place is it’s own creature. As much as they look alike, Atlanta is its own creature. I think we’ll be fine come Texas and Charlotte.”

The Headlines:

Previous Race Recap: In the No. 62 Pilot Flying J team’s last race, driver Michael Annett earned the Mobil 1 Driver of the Race award for his sixth place finish on the home track of his Knoxville, Tennessee-based sponsor. Annett’s sixth place finish in Bristol Motor Speedway’s Food City 250 was his sixth top-10 finish of the 2011 season tallying the Rusty Wallace Racing’s organization’s 12th top-10 this year. Annett remains 10th in the Nationwide Series championship point standings, only five points behind ninth place Brian Scott.

Michael Annett at Atlanta: Saturday’s Great Clips 300 will be Annett’s third career Nationwide Series start at Atlanta Motor Speedway’s 1.54 mile quad-oval. The 25-year-old driver’s best finish on the Hampton, Georgia track was during his rookie season in NASCAR’s second tiered series. Annett secured a 14th place Rookie of the Race finish and earned the Mobil 1 Driver of the Race award in 2009 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

RWR Stats at AMS: The Mooresville, North Carolina-based Rusty Wallace Racing organization claims two top-10’s in 11 career starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Annett Tees Up for Charity: Annett will join friend and fellow Nationwide Series competitor Reed Sorenson on Thursday, September 1, by participating in the Reed Sorenson Charity Golf Classic at Crystal Lake Golf Club in Hampton, Georgia. All proceeds from Thursday’s race-related golf tournament benefit Speedway Children’s Charities.

Nationwide Offers Code Spotter Contest: Nationwide Insurance is giving a lucky fan the chance to win a VIP prize of spending the day with the 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series champion. Enter to win at www.codespotter.com, and type in Michael Annett’s code “ANNETT”. Fans can enter once per day through midnight on September 5 to win Nationwide’s exclusive NASCAR Champion VIP Experience.

Cast Your Vote: Nationwide Series Most Popular Driver voting has returned for the fourth consecutive year in 2011 and is underway on NASCAR.com. Fans can cast their vote for Michael Annett once per day by visiting www.NASCAR.com/nnsmpd. Voting runs from now until November 17. The winner of the Nationwide Series Most Popular Driver award will be announced at the year-end banquet on November 21.

For the latest updates on Michael Annett, visit www.michaelannett.com.

From the Cockpit:

Michael Annett on the No. 62 team’s progress:

“Last week’s strong run was a testament to how much hard work and effort this No. 62 Pilot Flying J team puts forward. We’re really excited about finishing sixth on Pilot Flying J’s home track, Bristol, last week, and we’re looking forward to giving them another top notch performance this weekend at Atlanta. We’ve definitely got the momentum we need heading into this last stretch of races.”

Talking Shop:

Crew chief Rick Viers heading into Atlanta:

“We’ve got a great group of guys assembled for our No. 62 program, and we’ve got some good momentum going leading us into our last nine races of the season. We have been working really hard on our mile-and-a-half setups, and we feel that our cars are getting better and better every week. We’re looking forward to getting to Atlanta this weekend and bringing home another solid finish for Rusty Wallace Racing and Pilot Flying J.”

The Machines:

Team 62 Primary: RWR-063 – The No. 62 Pilot Flying J team’s only outing with this chassis was at Iowa Speedway in August where Annett finished 12th.

Team 62 Back-Up: RWR-051 – The No. 62 Pilot Flying J team’s last race competing with this chassis was at Bristol Motor Speedway in March.

Pilot Flying J Locations on Your Way:

Pilot Flying J provides 32 Pilot Travel Centers and Flying J locations throughout the state of Georgia. Seven of these locations are conveniently positioned within a 50 mile radius of Atlanta Motor Speedway. For more information on Pilot Flying J and to map their nearest locations along your route, please visit www.pilotflyingj.com.

Flying J

I-75 Exit 201

I-75 & Exit 66 Bucksnort Rd.

Jackson, GA 30233

Pilot Travel Center

I-285 Exit 51

2605 Bouldercrest

Atlanta, GA 30316

Pilot Travel Center

I-85 Exit 41

1645 South Highway 29

Newnan, GA 30263

Pilot Travel Center

I-285 Exit 16

4600 South Atlanta Rd.

Smyrna, GA 30080

Pilot Travel Center

I-20 Exit 114

1881 Eatonton Rd.

Madison, GA 30650

Flying J

I-20 & Hwy 113 Exit 19

15 Villa Rosa Rd.

Temple, GA 30179

Pilot Travel Center

I-20 Exit 19

625 Carrollton St.

Temple, GA 30179

About Pilot Flying J:

Pilot Flying J is headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, and has more than 550 locations in North America. The company employs more than 20,000 people and is the largest retail operator of travel centers in North America. Follow Pilot Flying J on Twitter at @pilottravel.

Broadcast Info:

Final Practice

Saturday, September 3, 11:30 a.m. ET

SPEED

Qualifying

Saturday, September 3, 3:30 p.m. ET

SPEED

Great Clips 300

Saturday, September 3, 7:30 p.m. ET

ESPN 2

Ryan Truex, No. 20 Schick Xtreme3 Toyota Camry

Atlanta Motor Speedway Preview

Atlanta Motor Speedway

Great Clips 300

September 3, 2011

TV: ESPN2 at 7:30 PM ET Radio: PRN at 7:00 PM ET

No. 20 Notes of Interest -Saturday marks Truex’s first start at Atlanta Motor Speedway in a NASCAR series, and his 11th start in the Nationwide Series in 2011. -Schick Xtreme3 came aboard to sponsor the No. 20 in Atlanta and will have the Get Fresh Mobile Tour set up in the sponsor area outside the Speedway on Friday and Saturday. Fans can try out the Xtreme3 Fitstyle Refresh razor, win great prizes and get autographs from Ryan and his brother, Martin Truex Jr. To learn more visit: -Truex will also be behind the wheel of the No. 20 in Richmond, Chicago, Dover, Kansas and Phoenix. While sponsorship for a portion of the six-race schedule was announced, opportunities for partnership still exist.

Ryan Truex on Racing in Atlanta “From what I’ve heard and seen, Atlanta is a very fast track and I expect it to be hot and slick, so it will all come down to having a good car. Adam (Stevens) and I have been talking a lot and preparing for this weekend. We plan to go into practice and the race with no expectations. My goal is to finish the race with the car in one piece and hopefully have a great finish.”

No. 20 Crew Chief, Adam Stevens, on Racing with Ryan Truex at Atlanta “Ryan and I have spent quite a lot of time together the past few weeks. I can say with confidence he is focused and ready to get in the car. Atlanta is going to be quite a test for our first race together. He has never driven there and the NNS series has never raced the new car there. Atlanta is extremely fast and has very little grip due to the old surface. It is the most difficult 1.5 mile track to prepare for because it is truly one of a kind.  I’m excited to get to the track and see what we can do.”

J.D. Gibbs on Ryan Truex Joining JGR “We’re thrilled to bring Ryan into our Nationwide Series program. His family has a great history in our sport and he has really proven himself with the opportunities he has had thus far in his young career. When you look at what he’s already achieved in the K&N Series and with the opportunities he has already had in Nationwide, we’re looking forward to him accomplishing great things for our team.”

Ryan Truex on Joining Joe Gibbs Racing “I’m honored to have the opportunity to compete with Joe Gibbs Racing in the Nationwide Series. I appreciate the support from Joe, J.D. and the rest of the JGR organization. I can’t wait to strap into the No. 20 Toyota Camry. I’d like to thank Michael Waltrip Racing for their support over the past few years, without them, I wouldn’t be in this position as a driver. It goes without saying that my dad, my brother and many others have supported me throughout my career and I’d like to thank all of them as well.”

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JR MOTORSPORTS TEAM PREVIEW

No. 88 Hellmann’s Chevrolet No. 7 GoDaddy.com/Get Together/Get Online.ORG Chevrolet

EVENT – Great Clips 300 (195 laps / 300.3 miles)

TRACK – Atlanta Motor Speedway (1.5-mile quad-oval)

DATE – Saturday, Sept. 3, 2011

TV / RADIO – ESPN2 (coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. EST) / PRN (broadcast begins at 7 p.m. EST)

Aric Almirola No. 88 Hellmann’s Chevrolet “Atlanta is such a fast track. It’s a little bumpy, and man, you’re flying. You’re wide open, going across the bumps, chewing up tires. That place eats tires alive. You can go out on stickers and run two or three laps, come in, then go back out and you’ll be half a second slower. Handling is critical. Atlanta is old and wore out. For the 300 miles we race there you better be prepared to slide all over the place. It makes for a crew chief’s nightmare. You’re always on the edge of out of control there. But you have the option to move around. Up top, there’s fresher pavement, so you can find some grip up there.”

Jamie McMurray No. 7 GoDaddy.com/Get Together/Get Online.ORG Chevrolet “I can’t think of a better place to reunite with JRM than at Atlanta. I had a ton of fun running with these guys last summer, and I’m excited to be coming back as the defending race winner here. Last year, we had a lot of success with the 88 team, but this time around I’ll be with Tony (Eury) Jr. and the 7 team. Looking at a 300-mile race at Atlanta, you can’t underestimate the importance of clean air at that track. Being out front was critical with the cars last year, and it will be even more with the new cars in the Nationwide Series this year.”

JR MOTORSPORTS NOTEBOOK –

NO. 88 HELLMANN’S TEAM IN DOMINANT FORM – Almirola and the No. 88 Hellmann’s team are riding a solid streak of success into Atlanta Motor Speedway. The team earned its fifth top-five finish in the past seven races in last weekend’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Almirola has scored the most points of any Nationwide Series regular in that span (256). The Hellmann’s team’s season tally now stands at six top-five and 14 top-10 finishes. The team is ranked eighth in owner points.

MCMURRAY TO DRIVE THREE RACES IN NO. 7 CHEVROLET – Jamie McMurray, the 2010 Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 champion in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, will rejoin JR Motorsports to pilot the team’s No. 7 Chevrolet beginning this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. McMurray is the defending race winner of the Great Clips 300. His victory accompanied four top-fives, six top-10s, and 72 laps led with the No. 88 team last season. The Joplin, Mo. native holds an average finish of 6.2 with JRM. This year he’ll be paired with crew chief Tony Eury Jr. in races at Chicagoland Speedway (Sept. 17) and Dover International Speedway (Oct. 1).

DEFENDING RACE WINNERS –The No. 88 Hellmann’s team contended from the very beginning of last year’s Great Clips 300, leading 48 laps on the night. But it was a stellar restart on lap 172 which proved the deciding factor for the team. The No. 88 machine powered past Brad Keselowski on the inside line and held the lead for the final 23 laps to earn JRM its first victory of 2010 and ninth overall win.

.ORG LOGO FEATURED ON NO. 7 CHEVROLET- .ORG is the domain of choice for companies, organizations, and individuals – all of whom share the belief that channeling passion toward a shared purpose is the foundation of success. People turn to .ORG to mobilize their communities, achieve a common goal, or pursue a shared cause.

1.5-MILE TRACKS IN 2011 – The JR Motorsports team has three top-five and five top-10 finishes at 1.5-mile facilities this season. This includes races at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, Kentucky Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

McMURRAY IN THE NATIONWIDE SERIES – McMurray has two wins (2002, 2010), two top-five and four top-10s at Atlanta Motor Speedway with 54 laps led. He has two starts in NNS competition this season, driving for James Finch at Talladega and Daytona.

ALMIROLA AT ATLANTA – Almirola holds one start at Atlanta in Nationwide Series competition and a single start in the Sprint Cup Series in 2009. The bulk of his success at the 1.5-mile facility came in the Camping World Truck Series where he has a best finish of third.

NO. 7 SEASON STATS – The No. 7 team holds six top-five and 11 top-10 finishes in 2011. The team occupies 11th position in owner points.

ALMIROLA AUTOGRAPH SIGNINGS – Aric Almirola will signautographs at the JR Nation merchandise hauler, located in the fan concourse area, on Saturday, Sept. 3, from 5:15 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. EST.

JR NATION GREAT GIVEWAY – From Aug. 28 to Oct. 16, 2011, the JR Nation web site, the official fan club site for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and JR Motorsports, is giving away a prize a day for 50 days to both new and existing fan club members. All fans must do is log on to www.jrnation.com and click on the register now banner. In addition to the 50 daily prizes, JR Nation is offering a grand prize of an $888 gift card for use in the JR Nation online store. 10 second-place winners will receive an $88 gift card also for use in the JR Nation online store. Daily prizes include autographed memorabilia from Aric Almirola, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick and Josh Wise.

WATCH JRM RACING.COM’s VIDEO SERIES – In a continued effort to be at the forefront of web-based content through its website www.jrmracing.com, the team has added a multitude of videos into its video gallery. Click hereto view race preview videos, the “JRM 360” series and more.