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The Frontstretch Foto Funnies! Phoenix, November 2009

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Where the Raybestos Rookies finished at Texas:

Speed 18^th

Logano 19^th

SCOTT SPEED IN THE No. 82 RED BULL TOYOTA WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE IN TODAY’S RACE AT TEXAS.

• Speed scored an 18^th-place finish and took Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the eighth time this season.

• BIG IMPROVEMENT: Speed posted a respectable finish in today’s race after failing to qualify for the spring race at Texas.

• Speed and Logano (19^th) were both running at the finish of the Dickies 500.       

SPEED:  “We were all right.  I made a big mistake in the beginning and we had to go to the tail end of the longest line and I think that cost us to be a lap down otherwise. I think we would have run on the lead lap all day.  We were fast enough to.  I’ve got to apologize to my guys for that.  We had a great car all race.  We made one mistake.  There was one run where we were way off but we fixed it and there at the end we were as fast as the leaders, I mean really holding our own.  It’s great.  It’s great for all of us.  It gives us more momentum and we’re figuring it out and reassuring us that yeah, we are getting it and we can go fast [smiles].”  THIS IS ONE OF YOUR BETTER RACES THIS SEASON.  “Yeah, I mean, we’re getting better [smiles].  It’s clear.  For three months we’ve definitely been better.  I mean if you look about where we are right now than where we were a year ago it’s like, are you kidding.  It’s kind of cool to be a part of, honestly, because not many people get that opportunity to do something and to really learn it and see the results.  But clearly we’re learning it and clearly we’re getting better and that’s great.”  IS IT JUST A MATTER OF GETTING SEAT TIME AND GETTING EXPERIENCE IN THESE HEAVY CARS?  “Believe it or not, stock cars are a lot different than Formula One.  This just in, it is a race car, technically, yes, but it is so different [smiles].  PHOENIX AND HOMESTEAD ARE BOTH TRACKS WHERE YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE IN THE CUP CAR.  “Miami I expect us to do well.  Last time we qualified second and finished 16^th so there are some expectations going in there at the end of the year to really kick it off with a bang.  And then Phoenix we’ve been there a couple times too.”  made

JIMMY ELLEDGE, CREW CHIEF, No. 82 RED BULL TOYOTA:  YOU HAD A SOLID RUN ALL DAY.  “Yeah it was.  Our Red Bull Toyota was good all day and you know we just battled it being a little bit loose and then once we got it tightened up it was too tight and that was the worse we were.  We maybe should have waved around and done a couple of things like that, caught some of those yellows, but I was trying to just race the race.  I felt like we had a good enough car to get the lucky dog or not get caught out.  It was all good.  We need to do that and just continue to build on it, get better and better.  It was a good day for us.  We just need to iron out a couple little small mistakes but at the end we put ourself in position on strategy and fuel mileage and all that.  Fuel mileage was great.  We were able to make it to the end.”  ARE YOU SURPRISED TO RUN WELL TODAY WHEN YOU MISSED THE RACE HERE IN THE SPRING?  “Not really.  I mean I think that in April that was right about the point in time we were just not good.  We just weren’t really understanding what Scott wanted in the cars and getting them comfortable for him.  We were kind of trying to bounce around and maybe try stuff that the other car was running and we really hadn’t had time to really fine-tune that.  He runs good on these big tracks, it’s just a matter of getting a feel for him that he wants.  It seems like we’re narrowing in on that and he’s narrowing in on fixing the things that need to be fixed and some of the things that you just have to deal with with this car.  We’re getting there.  It just takes time.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 THE HOME DEPOT TOYOTA:  “This is just a tough joint for me. Everyone did a good job.  We worked hard all day.  We got caught down a lap one time and never had the opportunity to get the lucky dog back.  That time we went down lap we could have waved around.  We had 20 laps on the tires already.  We tried to get the lucky dog, we chose to get the lucky dog and the air gun broke when we tried to do that.  That put us way back there and of course the caution come out two laps after that.  If we would have waved around or if the air gun didn’t break we probably could have got lucky dog and been on the lead lap.  We missed out on that opportunity.  Had the track cooled off and got more grip, we started getting more speed and by the end of the race our speeds weren’t that bad.  We were just far behind from during the day. We’ve got to figure out how get around these less grip racetracks.”  THIS PLACE LOOKS A LOT LIKE CHARLOTTE. WHAT IS SO CHALLENGING ABOUT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY?  “Everything you can imagine is different: grip level, banking, how long the turns are, the way the corner exits are here are a lot different.  You can’t really do the same thing that you do at Charlotte for sure.  You go from probably the most grip that we’ve got at any racetrack, at Charlotte, to one of the least amounts here.  It’s far from the same [smiles].”

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.