Bristol Motor Speedway Advance Notes

Race: Irwin Tools Night Race on Saturday, Aug. 21

Track: Bristol Motor Speedway (0.533-mile oval)

Location: Bristol, Tenn.

Earnhardt Ganassi Media Contact at Bristol Motor Speedway

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)

Look Back at Bristol:  Montoya will be making his eighth NSCS start at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday.  He earned the outside pole-position for the fall 2007event in just his second attempt at the “World’s fastest half-mile.”  The 2009 March race marked his best NSCS finish at BMS, driving his No. 42 to a ninth-place finish.  Montoya has finished in all previous seven starts and has completed 3499 of the 3513 laps raced (99.6%).

About Michigan:  Juan Pablo Montoya and Team Target had another solid finish in the Irish Hills of Michigan over the weekend. The No. 42 qualified in the fifth position and ran in the top-15 the majority of the 200-lap event. In the closing laps pit strategy came into play and Montoya found himself in position for a top-10 finish. The Target Chevrolet crossed the finish line in the seventh position and gave the team their 10th top-10 finish of the season.

Did You Know?: Montoya has one win, two pole awards, five top-five, and 10 top-10 finishes (43.5%) in 23 starts this season.  He has a driver rating of 94.0 which ranks him seventh among drivers making him the only driver not in the top-12 in points in the top-10 in the driver rating category.  Along with the on-track success Montoya is currently ranked in the top-10 in the following categories:

·         Leads all active drivers this season for the least amount of times passed under green flag conditions with 1629

·         Fourth fastest driver early in a run

·         Fifth fastest laps run with 307

·         Fifth fastest driver on restarts

·         Fifth fastest green flag speed

·         Sixth highest laps led with 385 (three laps shy of the total laps he led last season)

·         Sixth highest mile leaders with 673.95

·         Seventh fastest driver late in a run

·         Eighth among laps in top-15 with 4186 laps of 6451 total this season

·         Ninth in quality passes with 1268

·         10th fastest speed in traffic

Bristol Natives:  Tony Glover hails from Kingsport, Tenn.  He is a team manager at the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Concord, N.C. race shop.  He has been in racing for 36 years and throughout his career Glover has built the reputation as one of the top mechanical minds in motorsports.  In addition, Glover has a knack for developing drivers and winning big races. Under his guidance, Ernie Irvan, Sterling Marlin and Joe Nemechek captured their first NASCAR Sprint Cup wins.

Cousins Heath Silver and Andy Silver are natives of Asheville, N.C. and both call Bristol their home track.  Heath is the Car Chief of the Target Chevrolet and Andy is a mechanic on the team during the race weekend.

Target School Spree:  As part of Target’s commitment to education, Target supports the back-to-school efforts of The Salvation Army by hosting Target School Spree events. In 2009, Target provided Gift-Cards for 2,000 children selected by The Salvation Army.  With the success of the program Target will expand to reach 12,000 children nationwide this school year. Each child will receive an $80 Gift-Card and one-on-one shopping assistance to meet all of their back-to-school needs.

CHASSIS INFO

No. 42 Target Chevrolet (NSCS):  Chassis #903.  Pattie and the No. 42 team are bringing chassis #903 to Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend.  This chassis was last used in May at Dover where Montoya had mechanical problems forcing a 35th-place finish.  Earlier in the season at Bristol Motor Speedway Montoya qualified sixth and finished 26th after being involved in a 13-car incident.  This chassis also ran twice last year by the No. 42 team (Michigan- June, Chicago- July) where it finished sixth and 10th.

TEAM ROSTER

Tony Glover – Team Manager

Steve Hmiel – Director of Competition

Crew Chief:  Brian Pattie

Rear Tire Changer:  Chris McMullen

Chief Mechanic:  Heath Silver

Rear Tire Carrier:  Chip Goode

Front Tire Changer:  Trevor Lysne

Gas Man:  Mike Bodick

Front Tire Carrier:  Eric Bilyeu

Catch Can:  Heath Silver

Jack Man:  TJ Ford

Spotter:  Tab Boyd

For more information log onto:

www.earnhardtganassi.com