Meijer 300 presented by Oreo - Travis Geisler Notes

Travis Geisler Notes, Quotes: Meijer 300
“Close as I’ll get to a home game.”

This weekend Travis Geisler and the #36 National City Chevrolet team head to the 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway for Saturday’s Meijer 300 NASCAR Busch Series race.

This will be Geisler’s fifth start for DCT Motorsports. Championship crew chief Ricky Pearson leads the DCT Motorsports team and the National City Chevrolet.

DCT Motorsports’ owners McGill and Natale – the first full-time owners from the Cleveland, Ohio, area NASCAR’s top three divisions have ever seen – have developed the sport’s most cost-efficient, sponsor-friendly marketing setup. It is based on giving full value to sponsors, and utilizing the many business-to-business contacts McGill, a developer, and Natale, a major earthwork contractor, have in place.

DCT Motorsports, seeking sponsorship for next year and the remainder of this season, is in the midst of a 25-race schedule for 2004, hitting all of the major NASCAR Busch Series events and markets. One of the most comprehensive sponsorship packages in any form of motorsports, DCT offers a complete package of top racing equipment, hospitality, public relations, publicity, appearances and show cars.

National City Corporation (NYSE: NCC), headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, is one of the nation's largest financial holding companies. The company operates through an extensive banking network primarily in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri and Pennsylvania, and also serves customers in selected markets nationally. Its core businesses include commercial and retail banking, consumer finance, asset management, mortgage financing and servicing, and payment processing. For more information about National City, visit the company's Web site at NationalCity.com.

The thoughts of National City Chevrolet driver Travis Geisler heading into Kentucky:

“Luckily I’ve had a chance to race Kentucky. We raced the All-Pro NASCAR Touring Series here last year and brought home a top-10 finish. Now does that translate into Busch Series success? Who’s to say? But, I do know that it definitely gives me confidence going in.

“The All-Pro cars actually had to run restrictor plates at Kentucky, so all we had to do was floor it and hang on. Things will definitely be much different in the Busch car. For an All-Pro car Kentucky is just like Daytona… because, you do have to hold it wide open all the time. It’ll be more like racing this time since I have to use the brakes and play with the throttle more.

“We tested at Chicago last year in an ARCA car, but those are so close to Busch cars that I think it should help me. I’m hoping that they really are ‘cookie-cutters’ and that testing at Chicagoland will help me at Kentucky. They both have similar wide sweeping left-hand turns from turn four to turn one. Sometimes it feels like all you’re doing is turning left.

“I’m excited about racing Kentucky for two reasons. Reason one: it’s a home game for me… well, as close as I’ll get to a home game. Nashville was kind of like home since I went to Vanderbilt, but Kentucky is only about four hours away from where I grew up. That’s as close as I’ll get to Cranberry Township, Pa. I used to drive from Nashville to Pittsburgh almost every weekend in college in order to race in Pennsylvania. I drove past the Kentucky Speedway many of times… I might have even picked up a speeding ticket or two in Kentucky.

“Second reason I’m excited: we have National City back on the car. They’ll be with us this week and it picks everyone’s spirits up to be racing a sponsored race car. We’re looking forward to them being on the car this week. Kentucky could be a great place to have a really strong finish and we’re eager to get there.”