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Raybestos Rookie Joey Logano THIRD in AMP Energy 500

Sunday November 8, 2009

 

Where the Raybestos Rookies finished at Talladega:

Logano 3rd

Speed 27th

Papis 29th  

 

JOEY LOGANO IN THE No. 20 THE HOME DEPOT TOYOTA WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE AT TALLADEGA.

 

NOTES:

 

  • Logano scored a third-place finish in just his fourth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series restrictor plate start.  He racked up his third top-five of the season and his second in the last three races.  Logano captured Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the fourth consecutive race and for the 24th time in 2009.

 

  • Logano scored top-10 finishes on BOTH Talladega races this season.  He placed ninth here in the Aaron’s 499 this spring (race No. 9).  He is the first driver to score a top-five in the fall race at Talladega since Martin Truex Jr. placed fifth in the 2006 AMP Energy 500.

 

  • Logano led today’s race once for one lap and was the only Raybestos Rookie to lead the event.

 

  • Logano is just the seventh driver to score a top-five in the fall race at Talladega since 1975.  The others: 

                        1977:   Ricky Rudd, fourth

1981:   Ron Bouchard, FIRST

1987:   Davey Allison, second

1999:   Tony Stewart, fifth

2004:   Brendan Gaughan, fourth

2006:   Martin Truex Jr., fifth

 

LOGANO:  “It was a good run.  We battled hard all day.  These races are interesting, man.  You ride around the first part and you’re just really making sure that you don’t wreck.  That’s pretty much the main thing and just kind of trying to find friends.  Maybe make decisions that you wouldn’t make at the end of the race just to make a couple friends and try to have someone good at the end pushing you, trying to hook up with those guys again.  That was my game plan most of the time.  I think at the end of the run there we just kept pressing it and pressing it, hoping something would come out of it.  I had a good restart pushing the 9.  The 9 was pushing that whole row ahead.  That was really what got the third place finish.  It would have been interesting if we’d have had one more lap that’s for sure [smiles]. You never know.  I think anything could have happened.  I’ve got to congratulate the 26 team there.  That’s cool for them to get a win.  They needed one.”  DO YOU HAVE ANY STRATEGY IN A GREEN-WHITE-CHECKER FINISH AT TALLADEGA?  “You just go.  You can’t have a strategy because you don’t know what’s going to happen.  You don’t know what’s going to play out.  I focused on having a good start and that was the biggest deal.”  YOUR DAY LOOKED WILD.  WHAT DID IT LOOK LIKE FROM WHERE YOU WERE AT?  “I think it was wild for everybody out there [smiles].  It was pretty exciting there at the end.  Everyone started single-file out up there at the wall and you were waiting up there and who was going to make the first move down to the bottom.  And once that happened you wanted to get in that train.  I missed the train and was still was able to get some good track position there towards the end.  The last restart I was just pushing the 9, the 9 was pushing the 26, and got that whole row out ahead and just kept digging for all we were worth.  One more lap who knows what could have happened.  You never know.  The 9 was pressing the 26 and I don’t know where I was going to go at that point.  Either way it was a good run for the Home Depot Toyota today.”  WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT TALLADEGA TYPE RACING TODAY?  “A lot, believe me.  I was playing around for most of the race just getting behind cars seeing who I would work good with, trying to make some friends out there for the end of the race and trying to hook up with the right people.  Just trying to figure out where your car works the best behind other cars, beside cars, just trying to learn a little bit about this drafting deal.  It was cool to get a good finish out of it.  It was crazy [laughs].  It was exciting for me at least.  I’m sure it was for everybody.  You’ve got to expect that green-white-checker at Talladega coming to the end there.  Either was it was a good run for us.  One more lap I don’t know what would have happened but it was fun to be up there racing for the win with those guys so it was a good run for the Home Depot Toyota.”  WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS WHEN THEY ANNOUNCED PENALATIES FOR PUSHING IN THE TURNS?  “I didn’t see many people do it, really, until the end of the race and everyone just got aggressive but it wasn’t the type of getting two cars hooked up and going through the whole lap like that.  It was just kind of beating and banging through the corner but not just hooked up to each other.  I didn’t think it happened at all.  I know I didn’t do it any.  I might have seen one or two cars try it but they didn’t really even succeed on doing it.  It seemed like a lot of people were doing it down the straightaway which is expected and I was doing that, too, and then when we would get to the corner we would let people go.”  COMMENT ON THE LAST 10 LAPS.  “It was interesting.  You expect that stuff to happen.  We’d been running three, four wide most of the whole race and then you’d get the segments we’d get single-file out to the wall.  It’s just being at the right place at the right time and having the right people around you.  It’s kind of a crapshoot trying to get all that lined up at the end of a race.  I felt like me and the 42 worked good the whole race and he was lined up right behind me and then I think he wrecked or something there at the end.  There was back and forth and back and forth and really at the end it’s every man for himself so it’s pretty interesting.”             

 

LOGANO PRESS CONFERENCE

 

HOW DID THINGS UNFOLD FOR YOU TODAY?  “Crazy like everybody else’s I guess.  We had a decent car I felt like.  Throughout the whole race I put my car in different positions trying to learn as much as I can about being around other cars and what helps and what doesn’t.  I tried to make as many friends out there as I can for the end of the race and be positioned right there at the end.  A lot of it is just being in the right place at the right time missing the wrecks and being ahead of it all.  Overall it was good.  It seemed like the last restart I just got behind Kasey and started shoving him and he was able to push the 26 ahead and got our whole lane going.  It was a good run for us today.”  HOW DOES IT AFFECT YOU AS A COMPETITIOR WHEN YOU ARE TOLD ONLY AN HOUR BEFORE YOU GO 200 MILES PER HOUR THAT YOU HAVE TO DO IT DIFFERENTLY?  “I don’t think it changed much of what I was going to do.  You know, I’m not the biggest pusher out there yet either.  You see people who were doing it down the straightaway still and you still saw the same benefit down the straightaway and they were letting up through the corners.  There was less wrecks today as far as during the race, during the long part of the race not at the end.  Overall I guess it was good.”  THIS IS YOUR SECOND SPRINT CUP RACE AT TALLADGA.  WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS WITH NEWMAN IN THE AIR AND THE BIG ONE AT THE END?  “I didn’t see any of ‘em.  I had my big one at Dover so I know you can survive and be okay [smiles].  I wasn’t really worried about it.  Like I said earlier the race seemed to be pretty calm until the end.  As far as having a strategy at the end of the race or anything, whoever was in front of me I was going to push like heck and hope for the best.  You almost can’t even have a plan.  I was sitting there in the red flag and thinking what I can do to get myself the best finish I can.  You sit there and think and it’s like the only thing you can do is just have a good restart and it all kind of depends on what the guys do in front of you.  I was able to get the good restart and then that caution came out anyway.”   

 

Raybestos® brand brake and chassis parts are produced by affiliated companies in Affinia’s Global Brake and Chassis Group, the leading manufacturer of braking systems and chassis parts in the transportation industry.  The brake line includes everything from brake drums to rotors, pads, shoes and hydraulic parts, while the chassis line features tie rods, ball points, idler arms and sway bar links.  Raybestos brand braking and chassis systems are also the only systems used by NASCAR’s Joe Gibbs Racing in competition.  For more information about Raybestos brakes, visit Raybestos.com.  For more information on Raybestos Chassis visit RaybestosChassis.com

 

Affinia Group Inc. is a global leader in the on and off-highway replacement products and service industry.  In North America the Affinia family of brands includes WIX® Filters, Raybestos®, AIMCO® and BrakePro® brake products, and McQuay-Norris® and Raybestos™ Chassis parts.  South American and European brands include Nakata®, Filtron®, Urba® and Quinton Hazell®.  For more information, visit affiniagroup.com.

 

* Affinia Group Inc.’s affiliated companies include Brake Parts Inc. WIX Filtration Corp LLC, Affinia Products  Corp LLC and other high quality manufacturers of the Affinia family of brands.

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This report was provided by an outside PR source and posted by Beth Lunkenheimer.

 

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