Aaron's 312 - Raybestos® Rookie Notes

" Chad Blount took Raybestos® Rookie of the Race honors in fine style in the O'Reilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway. Blount finished fifth, his best career finish in the Busch Series in six career Busch Series starts. Blount's previous career best finish came in the season opening Koolerz 300 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15. Blount is the first Raybestos® Rookie in 2003 to post a top-five finish. The previous best finish by a rookie was 14th by Coy Gibbs at both Rockingham and Atlanta. The Texas event was the second race this season where Blount took top finishing rookie honors.

" Blount used his good run at Texas to grab the lead in the Raybestos® Rookie standings. He leads Gibbs by two points (65-63) entering Saturday's Aaron's 312 at Talladega Superspeedway.

" WOULD YOU BELIEVE? A Raybestos® Rookie has finished in the top-10 in the last three consecutive Busch races at Talladega, dating back to the 2000 Touch Tone Energy 300. Mike Borkowski finished 10th in 2000, Greg Biffle placed ninth in 2001, and Casey Mears came home fifth in 2002.

" Blount also owns the best qualifying run by a Raybestos® Rookie this season, a ninth place effort at Daytona.

" Gibbs placed 10th at Texas, his best first career top-10 and best ever finish in the NASCAR Busch Series. Gibbs was also the top qualifying rookie at Texas, earning the 24th starting position.

" Chase Montgomery finished 12th at Texas, his best finish since he placed 10th in the season opening race at Daytona.

" All six Raybestos® Rookies entered at Texas qualified for the race. Five were running at the finish of the race: Blount, Gibbs, Montgomery, Regan Smith (15th), and Chris Bingham (26th). The only driver that didn't finish was Damon Lusk who was involved in an accident on the first lap of the race and was credited with a 43rd place finish.

" No Raybestos® Rookie has led a lap in any of the six Busch Series races entering Saturday's race at Talladega.

" Casey Mears was the Raybestos® Rookie of the Race in the 2002 Aaron's 312 at Talladega Superspeedway. Mears finished fifth, his best career finish in the Busch Series. No other Raybestos® Rookie finished inside the top-15.

" Raybestos® Rookie Johnny Sauter won his first career pole position in last year's Aaron's 312. The pole came in his 13th career start. He was the only first year driver to lead a lap in the race, holding the top spot once for 11 laps. Sauter was involved in an accident early in the race and was credited with a 33rd place finish.

" Of the five Raybestos® Rookies that started the race, four were running at the finish: Mears, Kerry Earnhardt (18th), Scott Riggs (19th), and Shane Hmiel (21st). The lone exception was Sauter.

 
RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER POINT STANDINGS

DRIVER              POINTS
Chad Blount             65
Coy Gibbs               63 
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

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