Category: XFINITY Series

JASON LEFFLER QUICK FACTS

No. 38 Great Clips Impala

New Hampshire Motor Speedway

New England 200

July 16, 2011

No. 38 Great Clips Chevrolet News and Notes   Jason Leffler 2011 NNS Season Starts Poles  Wins Top-fives Top-10’s Avg. Start Avg. Finish DNFs 18 0 0 2 8 17.0 16.7 0

    * New Hampshire Motor Speedway, by the numbers… In eight NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS), Leffler has one top-five and two top-10 finishes. His best performance at the one-mile track came in 2004 when he started and finished third.        

* This week’s Impala… The No. 38 Great Clips team will unload chassis TMS-123 this weekend.  This chassis last saw action on the track at Nashville Superspeedway and Auto Club Speedway where Leffler finished 15th and 11th, respectively.     

* In the loop… Leffler sits in the top-10 of several categories according to NASCAR’s Loop Data Statistics for the season thus far including Average Running Position (9th), Fastest Early in a Run (10th), Fastest Late in a Run (9th), Fastest on Restarts (5th), Green-Flag Speed (9th), Laps in the Top-15 (9th), Quality Passes (6th) and Fastest Speed in Traffic (7th).     

* Turner Motorsports: In the hunt…In 18 Nationwide Series events in 2011, Turner Motorsports-prepared entries have notched three wins, 17 top-five and 38 top-10 finishes. All three of Turner Motorsports’ championship-contending drivers are inside the top-five in the driver point standings with Reed Sorenson in second, Justin Allgaier in fourth and Jason Leffler in fifth.     

*  Happy 10-Year Anniversary, Great Clips…This season marks Great Clips’ 10-year anniversary as a primary sponsor in the NNS.  The Minneapolis-based Great Clips, Inc., which is currently the longest-running primary sponsor in the series, came onto the scene in 2001 as a primary sponsor of Akins Motorsports No. 38 entry, then driven by Christian Elder.     

* Leffler on SIRIUS’ Morning Drive every Wednesday… Don’t forget to tune in to SIRIUS Radio’s “Morning Drive” with Mike Bagley and Pete Pistone every Wednesday at 10:30am to hear Leffler’s take on recent events in the Nationwide Series and what you can expect from the week’s upcoming race.

Follow the No. 38 team on Twitter!Twitter.com/No38TurnerNNS Follow Jason Leffler on Twitter!

Twitter.com/JasonLeffler   Follow Turner Motorsports on Facebook!

Facebook.com/TurnerMotorsports  

Leffler on racing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway “New Hampshire isn’t characterized as a short track, but it definitely has the characteristics of one.  Passing is tough and you have to be aggressive.  You really have to work on getting your carup off the corner without getting loose on exit.  We have had some strong runs in recent weeks and I feel like we can continue building on that momentum and bring home a solid top-five finish and maybe even contend for the win this weekend.”  

Jason Leffler Career Race by Race NNS Stats at New Hampshre Motor Speedway Year/Event Start Finish Laps Status Led 2000 41 24 198/200 running 0 2004 3 3 200/200 running 0 2005 23 29 195/201 running 0 2006 19 14 200/200 running 0 2007 22 12 200/200 running 0 2008 20 32 143/200 vibration 0 2009 12 10 200/200 running 0 2010 14 14 200/200 running 0   Avg. Start Avg. Finish Total Laps   Total Led 19.2 17.2 96%  0 Jason Leffler Career NNS Stats at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Starts Poles  Wins Top-fives Top-10’s DNFs 8 0 0 1 2 1   About Turner Motorsports: Turner Motorsports, LLC, established in 1999, is in the midst of its sophomore season of NASCAR competition. Owned by Texas-native, Steve Turner, the racing organization has expanded in 2011 from a two-truck operation in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series to become the largest stand-alone multi-series team in NASCAR’s top-tier touring series.  Turner Motorsports operates out of an 110,000 square-foot state-of-the art facility in Mooresville, N.C., and will house three entries in the Camping World Truck Series and four entries in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.  The team boasts an all-star driver line-up that includes Kasey Kahne, Mark Martin, Jason Leffler, Reed Sorenson, Justin Allgaier, Ricky Carmichael, James Buescher, Brad Sweet, Mikey Kile, Steve Arpin and Blake Feese.  The Chevrolet-backed team has created alliances with General Motors powerhouse teams Hendrick Motorsports, who will provide engine support for both its NNS and NCWTS programs, Kevin Harvick Inc. for body and aero support, and Earnhardt Technology Group for drive train and suspension technology assistance. Turner Motorsports’ marketing partners include Dollar General, Great Clips, Monster Energy, BRANDT, Rexall, Exide, AccuDoc Solutions, Wolfpack Rentals, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Fraternal Order of Eagles and ABF Freight. For more information on Turner Motorsports, visit www.turnermotorsportsllc.com

TREVOR BAYNE

Race: New Hampshire 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (1.058-mile oval)

Team: No. 16 NESN Ford Mustang

Crew Chief: Chris Andrews

Chassis: RK-667-Last ran at Darlington, May 2011, Finished 17th w/ Chris Buescher

FAST FACTS

* TREVOR BAYNE will make his 14th start of the season in the NASCAR Nationwide Series at New Hampshire Motor Speedway

* TREVOR BAYNE at Loudon …In one start Bayne has a fifth-place finish

* ON THE TRACK…The No. 16 team will carry the New England Sports Network as a primary paint scheme this weekend

QUOTES

Trevor Bayne on racing at Loudon: “Loudon is always a special place for us to visit because of our relationship with Fenway Sports Group. There are a ton of Red Sox fans that come out to the races when we are there and cheer us on; it’s great to have that kind of support. I only have one start at Loudon under my belt, but it was one of my best races of the year in 2010 because we started in 18th and drove our way to the front for a top-five finish.”

Crew chief Chris Andrews on racing at Loudon: “I am really excited about coming back to Loudon and competing for a win. Loudon is Red Sox country and it would be fitting for us to contend for a win in their backyard. We are taking our Darlington car to Loudon which has a lot of speed, so we are confident Trevor will be very comfortable in the seat when the green-flag drops.”

Kevin Harvick No. 33 Rheem Heating, Cooling & Water Heating Chevrolet Impala

NASCAR Nationwide Series Race 19 of 34 – New Hampshire Motor Speedway  

HARVICK HEADED TO THE MAGIC MILE: Kevin Harvick and the No. 33 Rheem Chevrolet team head north to New England this weekend for the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. This Saturday’s race will be the Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) co-owner’s 11th series start at the “Magic Mile.”  

BY THE NUMBERS:Two-time Nationwide Series champion Harvick has an impressive record at the Loudon, N.H., facility. In 10 starts, the driver has one win (2007), seven top-five and nine top-10 finishes. Harvick has collected four poles and led a total of 594 laps around the track.  

BATTER UP! THE KEVIN HARVICK FOUNDATION & RHEEM HEAD TO THE BALLPARK: The Kevin Harvick Foundation and longtime sponsor Rheem have teamed up with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats to bring a group of 50 youth from the Boys & Girls Club of Manchester to the Northeastern Delta Dental Eastern League All-Star game on Wednesday, July 13. The group of kids will participate in a Home Run Derby with Kevin and his wife, DeLana, members of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, TNT’s Matt Yocum and other members of the media. Harvick will pilot the No. 33 Rheem Chevrolet show car around the warning track on his way to the pitcher’s mound where he will throw out the first pitch. Following the first pitch, Ed Raniszeski of Rheem will present a $50,000 donation to the Kevin Harvick Foundation.   Rheem and the Kevin Harvick Foundation have also provided tickets to the Boys & Girls Club group for the Nationwide Series race on Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The No. 33 Rheem Chevrolet will carry a special decal commemorating the ballpark event during the weekend.  

CHASSIS HISTORY: Crew chief David Hyder and the No. 33 Rheem team will unload chassis No. 066 when they arrive at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. This chassis has been on track four times so far this season. Harvick drove the car to a third-place finish at Phoenix International Raceway in February and finished sixth at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in March. Paul Menard drove this particular chassis to a second-place finish at Richmond International Raceway in April. Austin Dillon climbed behind the wheel at Iowa Speedway in May where he finished 10th.  

PREVIOUS RACE RECAP: Kevin Harvick returned to the driver’s seat of the No. 33 Rheem Chevrolet Impala at Kentucky Speedway for NASCAR’s first triple-header weekend at the track. Harvick started from the sixth position and finished second after closing in on the race lead in the last 10 laps. The top-10 finish ties the driver with Tommy Houston for the most all-time Nationwide Series top-10 finishes with 198. The runner-up finish is the No. 33 team’s seventh top-five and 11th top-10 finish in 18 races this season.  

HARVICK’S THOUGHTS ON NEW HAMPSHIRE: “I always look forward to going to New Hampshire. I like this type of track because it’s flat, similar to the tracks out west where I started my racing career. The track hasn’t changed a lot and we’ve had a lot of success there in the past, so that always makes it fun to go back to.  

“This weekend, the Kevin Harvick Foundation and Rheem will have some special fans looking on. Fifty youth from the Boys & Girls Club Manchester, N.H., will be in the stands watching the race. We’re going to the ballpark in Manchester earlier in the week with them for the Northeastern Delta Dental Eastern League All-Star game. It’d be pretty cool to get this Rheem Chevrolet into victory lane with them there.”     

About Rheem: Rheem Manufacturing Company (www.rheem.com) is privately held with headquarters in Atlanta. In its 86th year of operation, the company manufactures a full-line of eco-friendly, technologically advanced residential and commercial heating and cooling systems; tank, tankless, solar and hybrid heat pump water heaters; whole-home standby generators, controls, swimming pool and spa heaters; indoor air-purification products; and commercial boilers throughout North America and world markets. The company’s premium brands, including Raypak, Ruud and Rheem, have been recognized with countless industry and consumer awards for reliability, innovative design and high quality. Rheem is the official heating, cooling and water-heating supplier to Richard Childress Racing (RCR), Kevin Harvick, Inc. (KHI) and is a primary sponsor of RCR’s No. 29 Sprint Cup Series car and KHI’s No. 33 Nationwide Series car and Camping World Truck Series No. 2 truck.  Harvick was named Nationwide Series “Driver of the Decade” in 2010.

Fast Facts:   Kevin Harvick Nationwide Series Statistics at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Starts: 10 Wins: 1 (2007) Poles: 4 Top 5: 7 Top 10: 9 Laps Led: 594 Average Start: 3.1 Average Finish: 5.4  

Race Info: July 16, 2011 New Hampshire Motor Speedway New England 200 1.058-Mile Oval 200 Laps/ 211.6 Miles  

Broadcast Info: TV:ESPN will broadcast live at 3:30 p.m. ET Radio:PRN will broadcast live at 3 p.m. ET  

CarSpecs: Chassis:066 Engine:Earnhardt-Childress Racing (ECR)

Elliott Sadler No. 2 OneMain Financial Chevrolet Impala

NASCAR Nationwide Series

Race 19 of 34 – New Hampshire Motor Speedway  

HEADING TO THE MAGIC MILE: Elliott Sadler and the No. 2 OneMain Financial team will head to New Hampshire Motor Speedway this weekend for the New England 200. The team will take to the 1.058-mile track for the first time this season in efforts to score the team’s first victory.  

WELL SEASONED AT LOUDON: In seven NASCAR Nationwide Series starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Sadler has one top-five finish with 21 laps led.  The Emporia, Va., native has a highest finishing position in a Nationwide car in 2008 with a fifth-place finish. Sadler also has 24 starts in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at New Hampshire with one top-five and six top-10 finishes and 41 laps led with a best finish of third in 2005.  

KHI AT NEW HAMPSHIRE: KHI has a total of eight Nationwide Series starts at the Loudon, N.H., track. Tony Stewart and team co-owner Kevin Harvick both placed fourth, serving as the highest-finishing KHI cars at the track.  Stewart raced his way into the top five in June 2007, and Harvick followed suit in 2008. The organization is looking for their first win at the 1.058-mile track this weekend.

POINTS LEADER: Sadler regained the Driver’s Point lead after the strong finish at Kentucky Speedway. This is the fourth time this season that Sadler has held the lead, now four points over second-place Reed Sorenson. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. sits 27 points back and Justin Allgaier 43. With 15 races left in the season, the No. 2 OneMain Financial team looks to continue working toward the goal of winning the series championship.  

CHASSIS HISTORY: The No. 2 OneMain Financial team will unload chassis No. 068 in Loudon this weekend. The team has competed with No. 068 three times already this season, with a best finish of fourth at Richmond International Raceway in April. The team also took this chassis to Phoenix International Raceway in February and raced to a 12th-place finish and Iowa Speedway in May, where the team earned a fifth-place finish.  

PREVIOUS RACE RECAP:Last Friday night at Kentucky Speedway Elliott Sadler and the No. 2 OneMain Financial team scored their ninth top-five finish of the season and returned to  the NASCAR Nationwide Series Driver’s Point lead. Sadler began the race with the pole award in the No. 2 OneMain Financial Chevrolet, but as the green flag dropped, the driver had to fight through adversity and survive the fuel-mileage battle in his efforts to a fifth-place finish.  

THOUGHTS FROM THE DRIVER: Elliott Sadler How do you feel heading into this week’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway? “New Hampshire has been a really great track for me statistically in the past. It’s all about track position there. It’s a pretty hard place to pass, so we have to be good on pit road. The race is kind of short, so a lot of pit strategy will come into play. You will see a lot of two tires, fuel only stops to utilize the best strategy throughout the course of the race to end up front at the finish of the race. We have a really great setup on our OneMain Financial Chevrolet, and it’s the same car that we ran so well with at Richmond International Raceway and Iowa Speedway. That car has two top-five finishes already this year, and we have tweaked and worked on it to make it better for this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. This is definitely a track that I feel we will have a strong run at.”   

OneMain FinancialOneMain Financial is the premier community lender in the U.S.  With more than 1,300 locations across the country, OneMain Financial has been serving communities since 1912.

Sparta, Ky. (July 9, 2011) – Strategizing and conserving fuel earned Rusty Wallace Racing’s No. 62 Pilot Flying J team their third consecutive top-10 finish in the Bluegrass State this weekend. Driver Michael Annett’s seventh place finish in Friday night’s Feed the Children 300 at Kentucky Speedway advanced him to ninth in the Nationwide Series championship point standings and marked his fourth top-10 finish for the Rusty Wallace Racing organization in 2011.

“My crew chief, Rick Viers, made some great calls tonight that got us right where we needed to be for the finish. We were really close on fuel towards the end, but we tried some fuel saving strategies that kept us from running out,” said Annett, “I’m really proud of everyone on my team. They had great pit stops throughout the night and have been working really hard. We’re really excited to be on this streak of strong finishes. It’s just the momentum builder we needed heading into this summer stretch of races.”

Finishing seventh on Road America’s 4.048 mile, 14-turn road course, notching a sixth place superspeedway finish on the famed banks of Daytona International Speedway, and now finishing seventh on an intermediate track at Kentucky, Annett’s three-race streak of top-10s has been at a diverse group of tracks.

“Our finishes these past few weeks have been exactly what this No. 62 Pilot Flying J team needed, and we’re looking forward to continuing it,” said Annett, “I’m very thankful to Pilot Flying J and to Rusty Wallace Racing for giving me the opportunity to do this. Pilot Flying J has been a big supporter throughout my racing career, and I’m excited to give them the finishes they deserve.”

Next week, Annett and the No. 62 Pilot Flying J team compete at New Hampshire Motor Speedway as the Nationwide Series circuit heads to Loudon. For live coverage of the New England 200 from New Hampshire Motor Speedway, tune to ESPN at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.

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

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.

Camry driver Kyle Busch finished third in Friday night’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Kentucky Speedway.

Busch started 41st after having to go to a back-up car following an accident during qualifying.

Busch has finished third of better in 10-of-14 2011 NNS starts.

Camry drivers Kenny Wallace (sixth), Michael Annett (seventh) and Joey Logano (10th) also had top-10 results.

Other Toyota drivers in the field were Joe Nemechek (12th), Brian Scott (15th), David Reutimann (18th), Steve Wallace (21st) and John Jackson (42nd).

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 NOS Energy Drink Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 3rd How much fuel did you have at the finish? “Didn’t have much left. Came across with three pounds of pressure, so I imagine it’s out. But, we still made it back to pit road. I can’t say enough about these guys. I really put us behind. This NOS Energy Drink Camry was good tonight, just it wasn’t the primary car. So, it wasn’t as good as we would have liked it to have been — about a fifth or sixth-place car. It’s good to bring it home ‘P-3’ and have a good night. We’ll take it. We’re still lacking something somewhere and we’ll hopefully figure it out.”

How hard was it to get the back-up race car ready? “Great guys. The guys do such a great job. I screwed up qualifying today and ‘fenced’ the NOS Energy Drink Camry. But, we had another one in the truck. The guys did a great job putting it together and getting it ready and just in time. Probably didn’t have as much time as they would have liked to have spent on it, but all in all we gave it the best we had. Probably was going to be about a fifth or sixth before all the fuel exchanges and everything going on there at the end. Thank all the guys. They did a great one for me tonight. Wish we could get a little bit better. Maybe we will and try to challenge for some more wins here soon.”

How was your race tonight? “It was a good run for us considering what all happened today. The guys did a great job putting our NOS Energy Drink Camry — I guess getting the back-up out, not back together — and getting all the changes made to it and putting everything in it. We started pretty far behind, but we made up a lot of ground tonight — really good to see. Great finish for us with a third. We probably were only about a fifth or sixth-place tonight. So, we are still working on things trying to get better. Trying to get to where we can challenge for a win with the Fords, and the 22 (Brad Keselowski) was real fast tonight and (Kevin) Harvick was too”

Were you close to running out of fuel? “We were pretty close. We come across the line and we lost fuel pressure. So, I imagine there wasn’t much left. It was probably going to run out in one more lap.”

KENNY WALLACE, No. 09 UNOH Toyota Camry, RAB Racing with Brack Maggard Finishing Position: 6th How was the track tonight? “It was a little rough for us. I was loose all night getting in the corner and we didn’t have the car that I wanted to run in the top-10. Scott Zipadelli (crew chief), he just kept adjusting, adjusting and finally towards the end he made a real big adjustment. When he made that real big adjustment it lasted longer and it just seemed like everybody was struggling getting in. We were loose all night getting into both corners. We used a little fuel strategy at the end of the race when we come in and topped it off and it took us to the end.”

KENNY WALLACE, No. 09 UNOH Toyota Camry, RAB Racing with Brack Maggard (continued) How did strategy improve your finish tonight? “We’re sitting running around 15th and I said, ‘What position are we?’ Scott (Zipadelli, crew chief) said we’re 20th and I said, ‘How many cars are on the lead lap?’ Twenty three cars on the lead lap we decided to come in and, you know, cap that Toyota Camry off and we got to about 15th, and then we started saving a little bit of fuel. So it was a good run for this UNOH Toyota Camry.” MICHAEL ANNETT, No. 62 Pilot/Flying J Toyota Camry, Rusty Wallace Racing Finishing Position: 7th How was your race? “We got a good finish for where we ran all day. To get another top-10 — but we did it on fuel mileage. It’s not how you want to do it, but I guess if your car is not good enough you have to do whatever you can to get the best finish you can.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 GameStop Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 10th What happened on the final lap? “We ran out of gas. We started the race right where we needed to be and we got a little bit closer We’ve got to find more speed in our cars. Our cars aren’t fast enough. It seemed like me and Kyle (Busch) were fourth and fifth-place cars, pretty much. I don’t think we were going to try and make something happen, but it was just try to make it on fuel. I tried saving the best I can, but I just didn’t quite make it — just one lap short.”

Did you think you had enough fuel? “I was pretty sure I was going to make it and then I looked at the fuel pressure and thought, ‘Ugh, it’s not going to be good,’ and then I ran out, so that was that.”

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 97 Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Finishing Position: 12th

BRIAN SCOTT, No. 11 Shore Lodge Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 15th

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 64 Aspen Dental Toyota Camry, Rusty Wallace Racing Finishing Position: 18th How was tonight’s race?” “Long, unfortunately. We didn’t have a very good car. We struggled. It looks like we left a wheel loose and had to come down pit road under green. I fought the rest of the time trying to get our lap back. All in all, it’s just disappointing. They guys work really hard. It didn’t work out.”

STEVE WALLACE, No. 66 5-Hour Energy Toyota Camry, Rusty Wallace Racing Finishing Position: 21st

JOHN JACKSON, No. 72 CrashClaimsR.us Toyota Camry Finishing Position: 42nd

Friday, July 8, 2011

Dodge Motorsports PR

Kentucky Speedway

Feed the Children 300 Post-Race Quotes

NASCAR Nationwide Series

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger R/T) Race Winner “Our Discount Tire Dodge Challenger was really fast tonight. It was a complete package tonight; a great Discount Tire Dodge Challenger with great fuel mileage. Great pit stops. Just a complete package. That’s what it takes to win. These guys are good. Carl (Edwards) and his team have been really fast all year. Kevin (Harvick) was no exception and Kyle (Busch). It feels good to win here in Kentucky.”

HOW TOUGH WAS IT IN THOSE FINAL LAPS? “It made for a lot of work. It was good. I was nervous.”

WHAT DID YOU THINK WHEN KEVIN HARVICK LOOKED LIKE HE WAS COMING TO PIT ROAD FOR FUEL AND DECIDED NOT TO? “Did he do that on purpose? That was my thought. I wasn’t sure if he was playing games and if he was, I wasn’t sure what that game was. Essentially, it opened the box up for me to be more aggressive saving fuel. I don’t know if we would have run out or not. It’s hard to tell. That opened up the box for us and kind of guaranteed us that we’d be OK.

DOES FUEL MEAN MORE NOW THAN TIRES? “I think it’s different at different tracks. I came down here and did get to do the tire test for the Cup side. I applauded Goodyear at the time because I thought they brought an excellent tire. You saw this weekend that the track took rubber extremely quick. What’s been different this week is that instead of taking rubber and still going like you see at Dover and Martinsville and building on top of the race track, this particular track-tire combination took rubber immediately and then stopped. It stopped building that gray area that made it multi-grooved and allowed you to race really well. I think this is a really good tire in that sense.”

HOW PRECISELY CAN YOU TELL HOW MUCH FUEL THAT YOU’RE SAVING? “I would like to say it’s a special gauge that we put in the car. I call it an “assonometer”.that’s my ass. That’s my gauge. We calibrate it every once in a while. When it hits the wall, it needs new calibration.

“I felt like we were pretty good the very first run. I didn’t think that I was good enough to beat the 60. It was kind of weird. I don’t know if he played possum at certain points of the race because he was really coming hard there at the end, from what I could see in my mirror. It’s hard to say. You never know when you have a race-winning car, especially when it transfers from day into night. I certain felt better about it when I got clean air. You get that clean air and these cars are just phenomenal to driver and mine was not exception. My car was really, really fast.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE RACE TRACK; WAS THE OUTSIDE LANE BETTER THAN THE INSIDE? HOW DO YOU SEE THAT PLAYING OUT TOMORROW? “The groove is always moving around. I’m sure it will move around in the Cup race probably more than it did in the Nationwide race today. I think the big thing is talking about the rubber and how it lays down. When the track lays rubber down like it did or has this weekend and doesn’t put the powder down on the track, just rubber in the track, the grooves tend to open up and the cars tend to be a little more predictable and you tend to be able to run more lanes. I think that’s what you saw here. I think you really can run the top or the bottom. At the end, when Harvick was running me down, he was running the bottom and I think that it’s a testament to the tire combination.”

TODD GORDON (crew chief, No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger R/T) “I think as you watch the race unfold, at the start of the race, we took an opportunity to take a fuel-only stop, saw some stuff during the Truck race yesterday with Parker (Kligerman) and just paid attention to what’s going on. I saw that we fired off really well with scuff tires and knew that we just needed to play the race backwards which is something that Brad and I talked about before the race started. We knew that we wanted to put it backwards and took tires when we needed too. That put us in a position that we could maintain track position.

“It’s good to get going. We had a monkey on our back to start the season, just seemed like we couldn’t put a whole situation together. I think we did that today. We had the dominant race car, ran fast laps and had the strategy at the end. Brad has done a great job all year. Discount Tire had done a wonderful job supporting us, Ruby Tuesday too. It’s a thrill to be here with Brad Keselowski and Penske Racing. We were about a lap short; he saved us a bunch earlier. We probably had enough to run a green-white-checkered if we had to. It’s a total package. These guys do a fabulous job.”

WOULD YOU HAVE RUN OUT OF GAS IF KEVIN DID MISS HIS ATTEMPT TO PIT? “No. By calculations when we looked at the whole mileage number, you play a race pretty conservatively. I told Brad five laps (short) to start with just to make sure that we saw what we saw. As the race unfolded, we saved enough to get there. I feel like the car was fast enough to separate ourselves and save a little. Brad did a great job of that. Where we were at that point, I don’t think we were in jeopardy of it (running out of fuel). You always have to count on a green-white-checkered flag situation and those are the laps we would have been in jeopardy.”

DOES FUEL MEAN MORE NOW THAN TIRES? “I would say that here the falloff didn’t happen, so the tire had long-run speed and would repeat. So fuel was the premium tonight. We took fuel only on that last stop and still maintained our lead and kept our relative speed.”

TRAVIS GEISLER (Director of Competition, Penske Racing) “It was a great win for everyone on that 22 team. We wanted to get Brad (Keselowski) back to victory lane so bad and tonight was the night. There was no doubt who had the dominant car. I’m really happy for Todd (Gordon, crew chief) and all the guys who work on this car. We let Brad down a few times this year, but he kept working and working and tonight it finally paid off. His Discount Tire Dodge Challenger was really fast. Great pit stops and strategy all through the race by Todd and the guys. A great win for everyone.”

SPARTA, Ky. – Brad Keselowski leaned on pure power provided by a brand new No. 22 Penske Racing Dodge to lead the final 131 of 133 laps en route to taking his first career Kentucky Speedway victory by 1.180 seconds over Kevin Harvick in the NASCAR Nationwide Series “Feed The Children 300” in front of 52,000 fans tonight.

The Rochester, Mich., driver jousted with Kevin Harvick and his No. 33 Kevin Harvick, Inc., Chevrolet through the first quarter of the race before gaining the upper hand for good on Lap 68 by taking the lead from Joe Nemechek, who kept his No. 87 NEMCO Racing car on the track following the second of five caution periods of the night on Lap 66.

Keselowski muscled up from that point, survived three caution periods in the closing 99 laps and a fuel scare during a series track record 64-lap green flag run to the finish line that brought him his first NNS victory of the season along with his seventh top five and 11th top-10 finish.

He ended the night having lead a race-high 132 laps and now owns four top-five NNS Kentucky finishes in as many starts.

“This car was awesome. The boys at Penske Racing spent some extra hours on it and it feels good. I think we got more in the hopper. To see this team start coming along feels great.

“The guys at Discount Tire have been behind me, supporting me. They made this program possible so we could win the championship last year. (We) got banned from it this year, so now we’re just out here having fun.

“If you keep doing the right things long enough, you will be rewarded and today was a day of reward. I can’t wait to see a bunch of the Discount Tire guys this week bring them home a trophy,” Keselowski said.

Harvick brought home his third NNS top-five and fourth top-10 finish of season in his ninth start. The winner of the inaugural Kentucky Speedway 300-mile NNS event closed out his second top-five and third top-10 series finish in his third overall series start at the track and his first since 2006.

He also battled tight fuel mileage down the stretch as well as a bit of confusion from the pit box regarding the right time to take his final pit stop of the race.

“I knew I had a good lap to two laps that I had saved under caution because I came right out of the pits (on lap 138) and started saving gas. They never told me on the radio that I needed to do anything until eight or nine laps to go. We just have to learn to race better,” Harvick said.

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch followed up last night’s Kentucky Speedway NASCAR Camping World Truck Series “UNOH 225” victory with a third-place showing that marked his third career top-five NNS finish in the commonwealth. He additionally charted his 11th top-five and 12th top-10 series finish of the season in his 14th start.

Kasey Kahne crossed the “Feed The Children 300” finish line fourth with his first career Kentucky NNS start and Elliott Sadler closed out his series track debut with a fifth-place showing.

Sadler picked up his ninth top-five and 13th top-10 finish of the season along with the series points lead. He will hold a four-point advantage over Reed Sorenson when teams arrive at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for a July 16 race.

“That’s what great teams do-what championship caliber race teams do. We had a track bar mount issue that was rubbing the inside of the right rear tire. We came in, took the time to fix it, and a great call by (Crew Chief) Ernie (Cope) and the guys to stay out for pit strategy at the end.

“Great run for our OneMain Financial Chevrolet. Great first time at Kentucky. It’s not the win that we wanted, but it was a great Top 5 finish and far as the big picture is concerned, great for us,” Sadler said.

Kentucky Speedway parking lots open at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow for “Quaker State 400” race day. Fans can enjoy shopping and interactive displays on the display midway before gates open at 2:00 p.m. Country music artist Clay Walker takes the prerace concert stage at 5:00 p.m., and the 43-car “Quaker State 400” field will rumble to life just after 7:30 p.m. in front of a sellout crowd.

Standing room only tickets can be purchased at the speedway gates.

The Finish: Joey Logano and the No. 20 GameStop Toyota ran in the top-10 all night in the NASCAR Nationwide Series event at Kentucky Speedway and things were looking good when Logano crossed the start/finish line in fourth place as the white flag flew. Unfortunately though, Logano was one lap short from making it to the end on fuel and coasted around the 1.5-mile track, crossing the line in 10th-place.

The Race Recap: Coming into Friday, Logano and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team had high hopes for the Feed the Children 300 at Kentucky Speedway. Logano was coming off of a win last week at Daytona International Speedway and was the three-time defending winner at Kentucky Speedway in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Logano’s streak of three-straight poles at the track was snapped in qualifying when the No. 20 GameStop Toyota qualified fourth for Friday night’s event. When the green flag flew, Logano tucked into fifth and rode for the first portion of the event. All night long, Logano fought handling issues and made several stops to correct them. Crew Chief Adam Stevens made great calls in the pits, getting the No. 20 GameStop Toyota handling the best it had near the end of the night. With 40 laps to go and Logano cruising in the back half of the top-10, the race turned into a fuel mileage event. Stevens told Logano to “conserve” as much fuel as he could. As the laps wound down, several of the front-running competitors began to pit for fuel or run out on the track. Logano and the No. 20 team decided to gamble and try and make it to the finish. When the white flag flew, Logano found himself running fourth. However, just as he crossed the start/finish line, the engine in the No. 20 Toyota sputtered and Logano radioed he was out of fuel. The 21-year-old was able to get the car back to the checkered flag, but not before falling from fourth to 10th in the final lap.

Joey’s Quotes: “There isn’t much to say about the end of that race. We didn’t have anything to lose. We are not racing for points. We are just racing for wins. So we knew it was going to be close and we decided to just go for it. Adam (Stevens) said we were about four laps short, so I was doing all I could to save fuel. And I thought we were going to make it there at the end. We were in fourth and things were looking good. But just as we were getting ready to cross the line to get the white, the car started to cut out and then it just cut off completely. I got the car down and just willed it to make sure it crossed the line. It killed me to see all of those guys pass us while we were just coasting back, but when you have no power there is nothing you can do. We took a chance and it almost paid off. We were just about a lap and a half short.

“We had an ok GameStop Toyota tonight. We struggled with the handle at the beginning but fixed it with a number of adjustments all night long. Heck, we threw the kitchen sink at it one time and changed air pressure, took some wedge out and put in a spring rubber. Finally, we got the balance good, but we just lacked the all-around grip we were looking for. That and we were still just struggling for speed. We didn’t have a car to compete for the win tonight, but we were better than 10th where we finished. But when you take chances like we did tonight, and that was the right thing to try, that is what happens. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. In this position, we’d do it every time. We are here to win races and that is what we were trying to do tonight.

“It sucks to see the streak here at Kentucky come to an end, but it was going to happen at some point. There are just too many good cars out here. If nothing else though, that just means we can work on starting a new streak here next year. Maybe we can start a streak here in the Sprint Cup race tomorrow as well.”

What’s Next: The No. 20 GameStop Toyota will head to New Hampshire Motor Speedway next Saturday for the New England 200 at Logano’s home track on the Nationwide Series schedule, located in Loudon, NH.