Reutimann Challenges for Win, Finishes Fourth at Atlanta

HAMPTON, Ga. (September 7, 2009) – David Reutimann, running a special camouflage paint scheme at Sunday's Pep Boys Auto 500, was able to sneak up on the competition and score a fourth-place finish - his career-best in the Sprint Cup series at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The fantastic finish also moved the driver of the Aaron's Dream Machine up one point in the standings to 15th and mathematically keeps him within reach of the Chase for the Championship.

Even though he runs well as similar tracks, Reutimann hasn't had the best of luck at Atlanta. So when he qualified 28th on Saturday it looked like his luck might continue. But when the green flag dropped on Sunday evening Reutimann immediately served notice that he was determined to be a factor in the race, marching into the top 20 within the first 25 laps.

However, the Aaron's Outdoors/Mossy Oak Dream Machine was a little too loose at the start of the race. “It's loose everywhere,” said Reutimann to crew chief Rodney Childers. So on lap 38 the Aaron's crew went to work making air pressure changes to the No. 00 Toyota.

The changes worked well as Reutimann was soon knocking on the door of the top 15. Making very minor adjustments throughout the middle part of the race the No. 00 Aaron's Outdoors/Mossy Oak Dream Machine was able to maintain position around the top ten.

Nearing 200 laps into the race, Reutimann radioed in to let the team know the handling was starting to go away. “This thing is horrible. Way too tight. Maybe it's just a bad set of tires.”

As always, Childers calmly assured his driver the crew would take care of the problem and by lap 253 Reutimann again cracked the top ten.

By the time Joey Logano brought out a caution flag on lap 268 Reutimann was all the way up to sixth and moving fast. He was also very happy with the performance of his Aaron's Dream Machine and pleaded with his team to not make any changes to it.

Restarting sixth after the pit stop, Reutimann again charged for toward the front, moving up to third place and gaining on second when the final caution came out on lap 309.

Unfortunately, the short runs weren’t favorable to the Aaron's Dream Machine and Reutimann wasn't able to track down the leaders over the last eleven laps. Nonetheless the top-five finish was a great night for the Aaron's team.

“We didn’t run badly at Atlanta – that’s something we haven’t been able to say in a while,” said Reutimann. “I’m really proud of my guys. I had a really great Aaron’s Dream Machine towards the end. We’ve got the Aaron's Outdoors camo paint scheme this weekend and that's a pretty cool deal. We ran so well maybe I'll have to ask about running it more often.”

Kasey Kahne captured the win - his second victory of the 2009 season, with Kevin Harvick and Juan Pablo Montoya following him across the finish line. Mark Martin rounded out the top five.

With his strong performance Reutimann moves up a place in the points standings to 15th as he heads to Richmond, a track where he's had a lot of success in the past. ABC will provide the television coverage for next Sunday's Chevy Rock & Roll 400, live from Richmond International Speedway at 7 p.m. As the final race before the Chase for the Championship it’s sure to be an exciting race.

Perseverance Leads to a 16th-Place Finish for Bayne, Aaron's Racing Team at Atlanta

Event/Date: Degree V12 300/Sept. 5, 2009
Venue: Atlanta Motor Speedway – Hampton, Ga.
Starting Position: Seventh
Finishing Position: 16th

Hampton, Ga. (Sept. 6, 2009) – Despite experiencing a pair of setbacks during Saturday night’s Degree V12 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Trevor Bayne and the Aaron’s Racing team were able to hang on for a 16th-place finish.

In qualifying Saturday afternoon, Bayne wheeled the No. 99 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota around the 1.5-mile oval to its best lap of 32.059 seconds (172.931 mph) which was good enough to line up seventh for the 300-mile event.

Under clear skies Saturday evening, the 43-car field took the green flag to begin the scheduled 195-lap contest around the Hampton, Ga. racetrack. The 18-year-old driver was quick to inform his crew that their Toyota Camry was a little loose.

The race was barely underway, on lap 25, when debris in turn one brought things under caution for the first time of the evening. Crew chief Jerry Baxter summoned his driver into the pits for service which included fuel, four fresh Goodyear tires with an air pressure adjustment and a chassis adjustment. A solid pit stop by the over-the-wall crew allowed Bayne to remain 14th in the running order for the lap 30 restart.

After the round of adjustments the No. 99 Dream Machine came to life and Bayne began a forward march. He was 13th by lap 46, 12th on lap 55 and worked his way to the 11th spot by lap 64. Unfortunately, on lap 66, Bayne slightly brushed the wall which caused his No. 99 machine to become tight.

He began to free fall through the field and lost a lap to the leaders 15 laps later. However, his bad luck didn’t end there. On lap 84, he had a right-front tire losing air pressure and was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop on lap 87. Bayne was now listed 30th two laps down.

Despite running times as fast as the leaders, the Knoxville, Tenn., native was never able be get his laps back. However, he was able to pick up 14 spots and cross the finish line 16th, the first car two laps down.

Kevin Harvick grabbed his second NASCAR Nationwide Series victory followed by Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Brad Keselowski and Jeff Burton.

Next weekend, Scott Speed climbs behind the wheel of the No. 99 Red Bull Toyota for the Virginia 529 College Saving 250 at Richmond International Raceway. Live coverage will begin Friday, Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time and will be telecast live on ESPN2. The event will also be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 27th stop on the 35-race schedule will be televised live the same day live on ESPN2 beginning at 4 p.m. EDT.

TREVOR BAYNE QUOTE:
“The Aaron’s Dream Machine was coming to life, and I just brushed the wall. I think we had a car capable of finishing in the top eight. Jerry (Baxter) and all the guys did and awesome job and I had a great car for the race. I learned so much this weekend and can’t wait to come back here next year.”

Greetings from the 2009 Michael Waltrip Racing Partner Summit

Waltrip Previews Atlanta Motor Speedway

Last week, MWR named Gene Nead as the interim crew chief for the No. 55 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota for the final 12 races of the season. Robert “Bootie” Barker remains with the organization and is working with driver Max Papis. Talk about the change.

“We have a lot left to race for this year and we had the opportunity to add depth to the organization. Gene will do a good job working with my NAPA team and Bootie can help in other areas that should help me, David Reutimann, Marcos Ambrose, and our alliances with Prism Motorsports and Germain Racing. I want us to finish the season strong and anytime your organization can add quality people it should.”

What are your goals for this weekend especially working with a new crew chief?

“I think it is going to be easy for me. It’s just a matter of reporting back to Gene and letting him know what the car is doing. It is not a whole lot unlike what I was doing with Bootie. We just tell the crew chief what the car is doing. Then they go about trying to fix it and make it right. We ran so well at Bristol that it was rejuvenating for the team. It made me feel and know that we can do this job and we can run up front. We’ll just put our head down and make sure we focus on the car and report to Gene what it is doing. He can take it and add his two cents worth. He’ll tell me his thoughts and opinions. We’ll then sit down with all the crew chiefs and engineers and put that information together. I am really looking forward to it, but I don’t look at it as being the difference between daylight and darkness. I look at it as being a variation of what we have done so far this year with me trying to do the same thing and that’s report what the car is doing.”

What will it take to have a good run at Atlanta especially seeing what happened during the March race?

“I’ve run really well there in the past and I just think you have to focus. The track is big and fast, but it is mostly turns. It’s got real long turns so you just have to focus on the handling of your car. You need to get the most out of your car in the corners because that’s how you make up time on the track in Atlanta. I think what Kurt Busch did down there in the spring and winning the race by driving an inch off the wall – that’s how you have to do it.”

Michael Waltrip Fast Facts

NAPA AUTO PARTS driver Michael Waltrip will start in his 748^th NASCAR Sprint Cup race when he competes in the Atlanta 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway (AMS) in Hampton, Ga.

He will start in his 48^th Sprint Cup race at the 1.54-mile track. His best Atlanta start is fifth (NAPA 500/Nov. 18, 2001) and best finish is fifth (March 18, 1991).

During his Cup career at AMS, Waltrip has earned one top-five and eight top-10 finishes. His average start is 24^th and average finish is 22^nd. He has completed 12,834 of 15,175 laps (84.6%) at the track and has led a total of 49 laps in competition.

The NAPA AUTO PARTS team is guaranteed a starting spot in the Atlanta 500. The team is currently 32^nd in the owner points standings – just 190 points out of the top 25 in points

EVENT FACTS

Race: 25 of 36

Atlanta 500

Atlanta Motor Speedway

Length: 1.54 Mile, Quad- Oval

Distance: 325 laps/500 miles

Date: Sunday, Sept. 6

Time: 7 p.m.

ESPN, PRN, Sirius XM Satellite Radio

2008 Winner: Carl Edwards

2008 Pole: Inclement Weather

Ambrose Looks Forward to Atlanta

GRIFFIN, Ga. (September 1, 2009) – After a heartbreaking NASCAR Nationwide Series finish at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Sunday, Marcos Ambrose collects his thoughts and returns to Atlanta Motor Speedway for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 500-mile event in his No. 47 Clorox® Toyota Camry.

“I’m looking forward to the Atlanta Cup race and putting the Nationwide race behind me,” said Ambrose, who finished second in the NAPA AUTO PARTS 200 with the No. 47 Armor All® Toyota Camry. “It was a real shame that I lost the race. Caution after caution, restart after restart we managed to survive. Carl (Edwards) threw everything at me on the last lap. I half defended my position in the last corner and got two tires on the wet line and couldn’t slow it up in time. I made a blunder. If it was any other corner or any other lap, I would have got it back, but it was the last lap and I had no time to fix my error. The most devastating part was the one mistake I made happened to be on the last corner.”

The weekend prior to a dominating performance starting from the pole at Montreal, Ambrose raised eyebrows at Bristol Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sharpie 500 where he ran up front all night and finished third to victor Mark Martin. It was a race that Ambrose joked he just hoped he would finished, but this weekend he has a different feel for Atlanta.

“Bristol was a breakout race for us,” Ambrose said. “I was just hoping we could finish the thing and then we actually ended up being in contention for a win. We have a different mindset for this weekend. The stats don’t show it, but I favor Atlanta Motor Speedway. We had a motor blow up there in the spring when we were running in the top-10 and I ran well there last year in my only previous Cup start. We have a good handle on our 1.5-mile program and expect big results.”

Surprise performances by Ambrose are becoming frequent as he is becoming one of the regulars talked about in the garage this season. A fourth-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway, sixth at Pocono Raceway, third at Infineon Raceway, sixth at Daytona International Speedway, second at Watkins Glen International and a tenth and a third-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway has given Ambrose a sense of belonging and establishment in the premiere division.

“It’s about hard work and dedication and it’s a great time for me because I’m establishing myself in the Cup Series and getting good results like Bristol a couple weeks ago,” Ambrose said. “It’s good to be me and good to be JTG-Daugherty Racing.”

As Ambrose is honing in on his skills he’s also learning to take the good with the bad.

“I’ve been down the path of making bad decisions when the race hasn’t gone my way like Montreal, but I have to remember it is just one race and when you are in contention to win you have to feel good about putting on a good effort,” Ambrose said. “At the time on Sunday after the race, I was frustrated, but you try to be professional and represent your sponsors well. Also, our fans would rather not hear us moaning and complaining about how we were dealt a bad hand especially when it was a fair fight to the end. I try to remember to be cool when I’m winning, but I also try to be cool when it’s not my turn. It’s a fine line between showing true emotion and being like a cardboard cutout and not having any personality.”

Live coverage of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday begins at 7 p.m. Eastern on ESPN and 6:30 p.m. on PRN Radio. The broadcast can also be heard on Sirius XM Satellite Radio.

Reutimann Previews Atlanta Motor Speedway

Twitter Question of the Week: @x_miichelle asks, ‘How big of a difference will it be racing at night at Atlanta?’

"To me, it doesn't really factor in that much. We've grown accustom to running at a variety of tracks at night. Now, the team will have to adjust to running at night because the setup will be different from what they usually set up for during the day. It’s also fun for the fans. Everyone enjoys seeing the cars race under the lights, so I’m always happy to be a part of something special for the fans."

Off-week activities:

"I had to work on a different Aaron's Dream Machine during my off week (smiling). I had to finish my team owner duties and get my dad's (Buzzie) dirt modified finished, so he can get back on the track and win me some money. After that, I relaxed with my wife and daughter."

Atlanta is a track that hasn't been kind to you in the past. Is there anything particular about this track considering you've had success on many similar tracks?

"That's a good question. I'm not sure why the Aaron's Dream Machine hasn't had the finishes at Atlanta that I have at similar tracks - like Texas Motor Speedway. I think it's a combination of things. We've definitely had some bad luck there, but we've also had some mechanical problems, like the last race where we ran into engine trouble."

Past problems aside, is Atlanta a track you enjoy racing at? What do you like or dislike about racing at AMS?

"Yes, I enjoy racing at Atlanta (just like I do at Texas). It's fast and produces some great side-by-side racing. So, with the race being at night and factoring in double file restarts - it should be an exciting night for race fans."

What do you think of the special paint scheme this weekend?

"I'm looking forward to running the Aaron's Outdoors/Mossy Oak Brand 'Tree Stand' Camo paint scheme on the No. 00 Aaron's Dream Machine at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday. The car looks great and can’t wait to see it on the track."

Goals for this weekend at Atlanta:

"We're not giving up on making the chase but we understand that we'd need to be perfect and for others to have miserable luck. Basically, we'd like to go play spoiler by putting our Aaron's Toyota in victory lane this weekend."

2009 NSCS Points Standings:

Reutimann is currently in 16th, 160 points behind 12th place.

Chassis Information:

The No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine for Atlanta is chassis No. 638, which finished 12th at Chicagoland in July.

Race Information:

Watch the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in action at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, Sept. 6. Race coverage for the Pep Boys Auto 500 begins at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.