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Raybestos Rookie Sam Hornish Jr. seventh in Sprint All-Star Race

Sunday May 18, 2008

 

Where the Raybestos Rookies finished in the Sprint All-Star Race:
Hornish Jr. 7th

RAYBESTOS ROOKIE CONTENDER QUOTES FOR THE SPRINT ALL-STAR RACE NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES RACE AT LOWE’S MOTOR SPEEDWAY, MAY 17, 2008, PAGE 5.

SAM HORNISH JR. IN THE No. 77 MOBIL 1 DODGE SCORED A SEVENTH-PLACE FINISH IN TONIGHT’S SPRINT ALL-STAR RACE.

Notes:

· Hornish is the first Raybestos Rookie to score a top-10 finish in the Sprint All-Star Race since Kasey Kahne finished seventh in 2004.

· Other Raybestos Rookie finishes in the Sprint All-Star Race: 1987: Davey Allison, 12th
1994: Jeff Burton, sixth
1998: Kenny Irwin, Jr., 13th
1999: Tony Stewart, second
2000: Dale Earnhardt Jr., FIRST
2001: Kevin Harvick, 21st
2002: Ryan Newman, FIRST
2002: Jimmie Johnson, fifth
2003: Jamie McMurray, 22nd
2004: Kasey Kahne, seventh
2004: Brian Vickers, 12th

HORNISH JR.: YOU SCRAPED THE WALL EARLY IN THE ALL-STAR RACE. “Oh yeah, we scraped it pretty good, too. We had a really good car. I thought we had a car that was capable of running in the top-10 here. Once we got out there running I think we had one that was capable of winning. I went down into that turn and I was right behind the 42 car. He’d been running the bottom and he moved up and it was either me go up in the marbles and try to keep from crashing or run over him. I did what I thought was the right thing to do and I had to move up a little bit and I got in the marbles and got the back end which drug the front. Then we get the flat tire and go two laps down and it was a struggle the whole day but we had a really good car. I wish that we would have been up a little bit better because we would have had an opportunity to maybe take some tires there on that last stop or do something a little bit differently or we would have just got better track position than what we had. I was just really happy with the way that the Mobil 1 Dodge handled. The guys did a great job in the pits. I think we had a car that could have ran in the top-three easy and I think that’s part of the learning process for a rookie is learning who to run around, who you can’t run around and who you need to be extra-careful about. It’s just unfortunate that it happens that way but the biggest bummer for me of the whole thing is that we don’t get any Raybestos Rookie of the Year points for this weekend [smiles].” YOU PASSED NINE CARS IN THE THIRD SEGMENT. DID YOU REALIZE THE CAR WAS THAT MUCH BETTER? “We were really good. I think we would have probably passed about 15 in the first segment if we hadn’t got up there and got into the wall and then we would have been able to take our time from then on out. The big thing was that we knew we had a really good car it’s just how do we get back on the lead lap. In all the all-star races that I’ve ever seen there’s been about 12 cars running at the end because everybody else was wrecked. This year there’s no yellows other than the mandatory ones. It was a strange deal but we got back on the lead lap. We finished seventh and I’m real happy about how all the guys on the Mobil 1 Dodge did. They’re making me really proud. We keep trying to advance all the time and we think we’re heading in the right direction and we just need to get the monkey off our back and get a little bit more luck. I’m just really, really blessed that I got to come down here and be part of the all-star race. It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever done, that’s for sure.”

CHRIS CARRIER, CREW CHIEF, No. 77 MOBIL 1 DODGE: CAN A RACE LIKE THIS TURN YOUR SEASON AROUND? “Undoubtedly. We talked about this a lot this past week, even before this past week, but especially after Darlington. We had a really sour weekend [at Darlington]. We thought we had a great car at Darlington. I thought Sam did a good job. We had a bad break down there, blew a tire out before the water got hot in the radiator at the start of the race and just ruined everything. But we talked about it this week and we said look, we’re going to go over here loose knowing that we don’t have a lot to lose. We’re going to try a couple of things that we’ve been talking about that we think will give us a performance advantage and those things worked very well. The guys did a great job in preparation. They continue to give us really good race cars, really good engines. We made a couple little bitty changes in our pit crew lineup this week and that gave us a little energy boost and those guys responded to that well. They didn’t get to do a lot really tonight the way things worked out. We didn’t get as much trial and error for them as we really wanted. It’s a shot in the arm for our team. It’s a confidence builder for Sam undoubtedly. That’s natural. We’ve got to come here next week and qualify for the race because we’re 36th in the points. That’s a pressure deal and it’s psychologically difficult. But you know a night like tonight it makes me look forward to it. I wish we were doing it tomorrow night because we’ve learned some stuff and we’ve got some momentum going, not only for next week here but it’s going to be good for the rest of the season. I told our engineer before the race tonight could be the night that whatever happens, as long as we perform, could be the shot in the arm that turns our whole season around. Momentum is a huge tool. It’s the best or worst tool there is in any competitive sport. Now we’ve got some momentum on our side and that’s what we’ve been looking for all year is to try to get a little bit of that and now we’ve got some of it. We’ll take it the rest of the season and we’ll come back here next week. We’ll take it one day and one week at a time. We came up six spots short of the big prize. Maybe we can get that real big prize next week [smiles].” HOW MUCH DAMAGE DID YOU HAVE WHEN HE HIT THE WALL IN THE FIRST SEGMENT? “Pretty good. These race cars, and I’m talking the COT cars and I’m talking about our Penske cars which all of our cars are completely built in our shop from ground up, they’re pretty doggone tough. Last week at Darlington we counted up I think throughout the weekend that car hit the wall 12-13 times. And we weren’t the only one. I’m not sure that we were the winner of that contest. There were some more and our car was running some really good lap times at the end of the race. And I’m thinking ‘Man, that’s a tough race car.’ When we get back home we take it apart. We take it to our engineering room. They measure it up and say ‘Hey, this car is bent beyond repair. It’s killed, it’s out of commission.’ I thinking good night, it just finished a race and we ran about as competitive as we run all year. I’m sure it bent some things a little bit out of line. What it does is it probably hurt you more aero-wise at a place like this. Thinking of it realistically from the human side of it, it’s got to unnerve the driver a little bit. He’s thinking I just ran into a concrete barrier at 200 miles per hour. Everything can’t be just perfect. Sam took a few laps there. He kind of just rode there a little bit and just hung on. I think after while he figured out ‘This thing is okay.’ The biggest thing was that it got the fender to rubbing against the tire and it cut the right rear tire down. He saved the car then, got it down pit road. We got two laps down but we preserved, got back in the same lap two caution flags later. And right there at the end we were close to doing what we had to do to win the race. But my hat’s off to Kasey Kahne and his crew. Kenny Francis and those guys do a great job. They were kidding me before the race started ‘Don’t lap us’ and stuff like that. They used good pit strategy, they adjusted their car very good, and they did a great job. My hat is off to them and their Dodge Charger. I’m proud of our whole race team, our company. Good night for the fans. I can understand why they enjoy this night and this event. We’ll come back next week and see if we can give ‘em something else to be excited about.”

®Raybestos® brand brakes are produced by the Affinia Under Vehicle Group, the leading manufacturer of braking systems and components for the automotive industry. The line includes everything from brake drums to rotors, pads, shoes and hydraulic parts. Affinia Under Vehicle Group is at the forefront of research and development in brake technology and operates manufacturing and distribution facilities throughout North America.

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