Martinsville, VA — October 26, 2009

Raybestos® NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rundown:
 
Denny Hamlin held off Jimmie Johnson in a green-white-checkered dash to win the TUMS Fast Relief 500 Sunday afternoon at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. 

 
Hamlin gave Raybestos® brand Brakes, a member of the Affinia Group family of brands, their eighth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win in 2009.  Cars using Raybestos® brand Brakes won four of the six short track races this season including a sweep of races at both Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and Richmond (Va.) International Raceway.

“I just think our short track package has been really good all year,” Hamlin said.  “I told Mike [Ford, crew chief] at the spring race here that our brakes were as good at lap 500 as they were at lap one.  Obviously everyone at Raybestos® and JGR has come up with a great package for us.  It’s been the one consistent thing that stayed with us pretty much through the whole year and been one of our strong suits.”

 Hamlin wrestled the lead away from Johnson on lap 363 of the 500-lap event and never again gave up the top spot.  After the race Johnson said he had one last chance to pass with about 40 laps to go but could not find a way around the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota.

“You’ve almost got to dive bomb yourself down in there and out-brake the guy getting into the corner,” Hamlin said.  “There’s not too much nowadays of guys actually getting a run off the corner.  It’s more about who can out-brake each other.  I feel our brake package is as good as it’s ever been so for him to be able to out-brake me, he was going to have to out-dive me getting into the corner.  And I saw him kind of going low so I got aggressive on the brakes and made sure I held my line.

“You know, he had a few opportunities.  He was right there, gave me a few taps with about 50 to go and I just really made sure I didn’t make any mistakes.  If I got up the racetrack and gave him a hole then it was shame on me but he was going to have to make a hole at that point.” 

  
Raybestos® brand Brakes swept the entire NASCAR weekend at Martinsville.  Timothy Peters won the Kroger 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at the .526-mile speedway on Saturday.  Peters edged Todd Bodine by 1.815 seconds to score his first truck series win in the No. 1 Strutmasters/Red Horse Racing Toyota.  Both Hamlin and Peters competed at Martinsville in late model races.

 
“I think it just shows that experience at this racetrack does matter,” Hamlin said.  He [Peters] obviously did a great job.  He was kind of my arch rival just as I was getting out of late models and he was the guy who always pushed you to be a little bit better.  It was good to see him get his first win at this racetrack.  I know it was big for him.  He lives right down in the road [in nearby Danville, Va.] from here.  And I just think it shows that track time really goes a long way, especially at this racetrack.”  

 
 Hamlin averaged 73.633 mph in a race that took 3 hours, 34 minutes and 44 seconds to complete.  There were 21 lead changes among 12 drivers and the pace was slowed by 15 cautions for 77 laps.  Hamlin is ninth in the series championship standings, two points behind eighth-place Greg Biffle and 61 ahead of 10th-place Carl Edwards. 

  
 To gain a competitive advantage at Martinsville, the Joe Gibbs cars used the Raybestos® Sprint Cup braking system.  The ultra-lightweight aluminum alloy six-piston calipers are the stiffest and lightest calipers available in all of NASCAR.  The innovative calipers were developed using Raybestos® technology partner Alcon’s state of the art “optimized design” process, and include an asymmetric body design and advanced between-piston and crossover cooling features.   The brake package also provides for the largest brake pad volume (surface area) and largest rotor (13.15” outside diameter, and 1.65” thick) available in NASCAR.
        
Joe Gibbs Racing Rundown:
 
Kyle Busch had a good run at Martinsville, posting a fourth-place finish and leading the race once for four laps.  Busch collected his ninth top-five and 12th top-10 of the season.

 
“I’m real proud of the effort,” Busch said.  “The guys had awesome pit stops all day.  We made a lot of changes.  Every stop we made a change on the car trying to make it better.  Tires were the name of the game.  We just seemed to be on the right strategy when we could come get tires and drive back through some guys.”

After the race Busch spoke briefly with second-place finisher Jimmie Johnson on pit road.

“I just went over to him and said, ‘It’s either you or the 11 [Hamlin] here,’” Busch said.  “They finished top-two here like the last six times.  From the gain we made this spring to right now, we need to make that gain again and I think we can win one.”

The TUMS Fast Relief 500 was the first race at Martinsville featuring the double-file restarts.  Busch said the change in race procedure altered things on the track but worked to his advantage.

“It changed it a little bit, especially the guys that had tires versus guys that didn’t have tires,” Busch said.  “It mixed up the complexion of the race a lot.  For us, it seemed to work.  We were always on the right strategy.  Whoever was on the wrong one would just go backwards.  Tires seemed to mean something here today.  Normally you don’t see that at Martinsville.  Guys are always staying out on 100-lap tires, but today with this car, you needed tires.”
Joey Logano posted a 12th-place finish at Martinsville and took top rookie honors for the third consecutive race.  Logano leads Scott Speed by 29 points (227-198) in the chase for Raybestos® Rookie of the Year.   

 
“This is a very, very tough racetrack,” Logano said moments after the race.  “I feel like we fought ourselves all day more than anything else.  Couldn’t make a good pit stop and kept losing track position.  We were only good in long runs and there wasn’t many, except that one and we were able to gain a lot of track position there.  I’ve got to apologize to the 44 [AJ Allmendinger].  I got into him when I got loose on the bottom.  We finished 12th and that’s still okay.  I’m glad it’s over [smiles].”
 
Raybestos® NASCAR Nationwide Series Rundown:

Brad Keselowski survived a green white checkered finish plus a nudge from Kyle Busch off Turn 4 on the final lap to win Saturday’s Kroger On Track for the Cure 250 at Memphis (Millington, Tenn.) Motorsports Park.

Keselowski claimed his sixth victory in 101 NASCAR Nationwide Series races and his fourth of the 2009 season.  He won for the first time in four races at Memphis and led twice for 34 laps including the final 16.

There were 13 lead changes among eight drivers in a race that took 2 hours, 33 minutes and 41 seconds to complete.  Fourteen cautions slowed the race for 72 laps and dropped the average speed to 74.374 mph.  The official margin of victory for Keselowski over Busch was a scant .090 seconds (less than one car length).

Brendan Gaughan was the Raybestos® Rookie of the Race at Memphis.  Gaughan scored a fifth-place finish, his third top-five and eighth top-10 of the season led once for eight laps.  He claimed top rookie honors for the seventh time this season and trails Justin Allgaier by 10 points (227-217) in the overall Raybestos® Rookie standings. 

Gaughan is ninth in the series championship standings.

Allgaier won the pole at Memphis, his first in 36 NASCAR Nationwide Series races.  He is the third Raybestos Rookie to win a pole in 2009 joining Gaughan and Erik Darnell.  Allgaier led the first 34 laps of the race but was forced to settle for a 19th-place finish after being involved in an accident on lap 242 of the 250-lap race.  He is fifth in the series championship standings, best of any Raybestos® Rookie.

The rest of the class: Michael Annett (16th), Michael McDowell (21st), Erik Darnell (31st) and John Wes Townley (40th).   
       
Raybestos® NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Rundown:
 
Timothy Peters held off Todd Bodine to score his first career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win Saturday in the Kroger 200 at Martinsville.  Peters and the Red Horse Racing Team use Raybestos® brakes on the No. 1 Strutmasters Toyota.  The victory was the second for trucks using Raybestos® brake products this season.

Peters led just once but it covered the final 84 laps and he took the checkered flag 1.815 seconds ahead of Bodine.  The victory came in his 64th series start and came in his eighth race at Martinsville.

  
“Nothing is better than Raybestos® in my book.” Peters said.  “I’ve never had the opportunity to be on the product until joining Tom [DeLoach, truck owner] and Red Horse.  It’s been a pleasure to work with the guys week in and week out at the track as well as the salesmen in the shop.  We had great brakes today.  It was the most that I’ve ever been able to play with the brake balance ever at Martinsville and it was the first time to win with ‘em too so that’s a good thing [smiles].”

Chad Kendrick, Peters’ crew chief, added that the team didn’t use the traditional short track package at the tight .526-mile speedway.

“We actually didn’t even run the big, big brake package here,” said Kendrick.  “We ran the somewhat scaled down version with the big rotor.  In practice we didn’t have much opening and we were kind of worried about ‘em but we opened the nose up and hooked the other hose up and they worked fine.  They worked great.  They were awesome.  We actually have never run the Raybestos® stuff before we came to Red Horse.”

Peters averaged 69.312 mph in a race that took one hour, 31 minutes and four seconds to complete.  There were eight cautions for 39 laps and three lead changes among three drivers. 

    
James Buescher scored an 11th-place finish and took top Raybestos® Rookie honors for the fourth time this season.  Buescher was the top rookie in both races at Martinsville this season and scored an 11th-place finish in both events.

“We kind of gambled part of the way through the race,” Buescher said.  “I think we were 115 laps into the thing or so and we came in and pitted and put tires on and gambled that several would stay out.  It got so tight with the fuel burning off that we started falling back.  We about lost a lap there and finally the caution came out with 28 or so to go.  Got four tires on it and worked our way back up there.  We got up to where we were in the spring and I’m the Raybestos® Rookie of the Race again so what more can you ask for.  I didn’t knock the fenders around too bad [smiles].
“Strategy is big here because track position is so important and it’s so hard to pass.  I think we had the strategy figured out.  The truck just fell off so we had to come in and try again.  The second time it worked a little better.  All in all I got a decent finish.  I think 50 more laps might have got us to a top-five or something.  Probably could have used some more cautions at the end.  Everybody got so strung out.

“It’s always good to run good and carry the momentum.  We run five weeks in a row and it’s good to start off those five weeks good instead of bad.  Hopefully we’ll finish up the year strong.”

The rest of the class: Johnny Sauter (16th), Chris Jones (22nd), Tayler Malsam (28th) and Brent Raymer (29th).   

Raybestos® Brakes Status Sheet:
TUMS Relief 500                                           
1.  Denny Hamlin                6.  Jamie McMurray                                                                                                   2.  Jimmie Johnson              7.  Ryan Newman                                                                           
3.  Juan Montoya                8.  Mark Martin             
4.  Kyle Busch                    9.  Tony Stewart                         
5.  Jeff Gordon                 10. Kevin Harvick                  

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Points:

1. Jimmie Johnson   6,098
2. Mark Martin     5,980        
3. Jeff Gordon     5,948
4. Tony Stewart     5,906 
5. Juan Pablo Montoya  5,898
6. Kurt Busch    5,858          
7. Ryan Newman    5,786  
8. Greg Biffle     5,748
9. Denny Hamlin       5,746       
10. Carl Edwards     5,685
 
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Raybestos® Rookie of the Year: 
 1. Joey Logano    227
2. Scott Speed    198
3. Max Papis    130   

NASCAR Nationwide Series Raybestos® Rookie of the Year:

1. Justin Allgaier        227
2. Brendan Gaughan    217 
3. Michael McDowell   191
4. Michael Annett    188
5. Erik Darnell   156 
6. Scott Lagasse Jr.   154
7. John Wes Townley  129
8. Ken Butler III     87
9. Terry Cook     49 

NASCAR Camping World Series Raybestos® Rookie of the Year:

1. Johnny Sauter  212   
2. Tayler Malsam    176
3. James Buescher  160
4. Ricky Carmichael  127
5. Brian Ickler    95
6. J R Fitzpatrick    88
7. Chris Jones    75
8. Brent Raymer        72