Coy Gibbs took Raybestos® Rookie of the Race honors at the Aaron's 312 at
Talladega Superspeedway. Gibbs finished ninth, his best career Busch Series
finish in 12 career Busch Series starts. The finish was his second
consecutive top-10 (he placed 10th at the March 29 O'Reilly 300 at Texas
Motor Speedway). Gibbs' two top-10 finishes are more than any other
Raybestos® Rookie.
With his good finish at Talladega, Gibbs has retook the lead in the
Raybestos® Rookie point standings. He leads Chad Blount by two points
(76-74) entering Saturday's Pepsi 300 at Nashville Superspeedway.
Gibbs was also the highest qualifying Raybestos® Rookie at Talladega,
earning the 14th starting position.
Entering the Pepsi 300, Chad Blount is the only Raybestos® Rookie to
score a top-five in the Busch Series this season. He finished fifth O'Reilly
300 at Texas.
WOULD YOU BELIEVE? A Raybestos® Rookie has won BOTH spring races at the
1.333-mile speedway. Greg Biffle won the 2001 event and Scott Riggs claimed
the 2002 race. Both drivers scored their first career win in the race and
both went on to win the Raybestos® Rookie of the Year.
Blount also owns the best qualifying run by a Raybestos® Rookie this
season, a ninth place effort at Daytona.
No Raybestos® Rookie has led a lap in any of the seven Busch Series races
entering Saturday's race at Nashville.
2002 Raybestos® Rookie of the Year Scott Riggs scored his first career
Busch Series win in last year's Pepsi 300 at Nashville Superspeedway. Riggs
led the race only once, covering the final 47 laps of the race. He
officially took the checkered flag by 2.942 seconds over second place
finisher Jack Sprague. The win came in Riggs' seventh career start.
Kerry Earnhardt scored his first top-10 of the 2002 season at Nashville.
Earnhardt placed eighth and joined Riggs as the only Raybestos® Rookies to
finish in the top-10.
Raybestos® Rookie Johnny Sauter finished 12th at Nashville, joining
Earnhardt and Riggs as the only rookies to finish the race on the lead lap.
Raybestos® Rookie Shane Hmiel won his first career Bud Pole at Nashville.
Hmiel claimed his first pole in his seventh career start and led the race
once for one lap on his way to a 19th place finish.
Dan Pardus was the only Raybestos® Rookie that failed to finish the Pepsi
300. Pardus was involved in an accident and was credited with a 32nd place
finish, completing 169 of the 225 laps.
RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER POINT STANDINGS
DRIVER POINTS
Coy Gibbs 76
Chad Blount 74
Regan Smith 40
Chris Bingham 38
Chase Montgomery 28
Damon Lusk 26
HIGHEST FINISHING RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE BY RACE
EVENT HIGHEST FINISHING ROOKIE
Koolerz 300 Chad Blount, 11th
Rockingham 200 Coy Gibbs, 14th
Sam's Town 300 Coy Gibbs, 14th
darlingtonraceway.com 200 Coy Gibbs, 14th
Channellock 250 Chase Montgomery, 22nd
O'Reilly 300 Chad Blount, fifth
Aaron's 312 Coy Gibbs, ninth
