Season Comes To A Close For Wise and the No. 00 Napa Auto Parts Toyota Camry Team

// Courtesy : Autostock Images //

Homestead, FL (November 12, 2008) – Josh Wise reflects on his season in the NASCAR Nationwide Series as he approaches the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday with the No. 00 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry team.

“Looking back, it has been a good year because I have learned so much thanks to Michael Waltrip Racing and Fitz Motorsports,” Wise said. “I only wish that we would have been in the position to run more Nationwide races with the No. 00 NAPA AUTO PA RT S Toyota . I have really enjoyed working with Paul Wolfe (crew chief) and everyone this year. It’s been a great experience and I’m so grateful that I have been able to race at this level and have such a great sponsor like NAPA on board these last few races.”  

There were many highlights for Wise in his 16 starts this year such as being credited with leading the race at Kentucky Speedway to finishing as high as fifth-place at O’Reilly Raceway Park in his 11th-career start. Overall, Wise recorded one top-five, one top-10, four top-15 and seven top-20 finishes. In two of the last three events, he earned top-15 finishes. He finished 13th and 11th at Dover International Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway, respectively. The Riverside , Calif. native was well on his way to a top-10 finish last weekend when he was involved in an accident that took him out of contention and was forced to settle for a 23rd-place finish at Phoenix International Raceway.

This weekend Wise feels like he still has a lot to prove as he takes his final ride in the No. 00 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota at Homestead-Miami Speedway this season.

“I really want to finish out the year with a strong finish for NAPA and Michael Waltrip Racing,” Wise said. “We’ve had some races this season where our results did not equal our performance. We’re capable of running well, but we’ve been in situations where we’ve been caught up in a couple accidents that we were not able to avoid. We just have to finish this weekend and somehow be more evasive. Ultimately, you always want to win every race, but if we can run up front and finish in the top-10 or top-five on Saturday, it will be good day for us and a nice way to end our abbreviated season.”

Live coverage of the NASCAR Nationwide Series event is on Saturday, November 15th on ESPN 2 begins at 4 p.m. ET and 4:30 p.m. ET on MRN Radio.