Goulds Pumps ITT Industries 200 - Mark Green Notes

‘Backyard’ Run For Advil Ford
Mark Green driving car for race in sponsoring Wyeth’s backyard

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Sunday’s Goulds Pumps 200 NASCAR Busch Series race at the one-mile, triangular-shaped Nazareth (Pa.) Speedway is pretty important to Jay Robinson Racing and the #49 Advil Ford team.

While it is the final race at the legendary speedway, Nazareth is the closest to Wyeth headquarters in Madison, N.J. Wyeth markets Advil, which sponsors Robinson’s #49 car.

Mark Green of Owensboro, Ky., will drive the Advil Ford this weekend. Derrike Cope, who had been driving, will be at the NASCAR all-star race in Concord, N.C.

“These next few races are pretty important to us for a number of reasons. Nazareth and Dover (which hosts its Busch Series race Saturday, June 5) are about as close as we get to Wyeth’s headquarters,” Robinson said. “You always want to do well in your sponsor’s backyard.

“Add in the fact that this is the final Busch race at Nazareth, which is a sentimental thing, and the importance of the race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway (Saturday, May 29), and it’s a pretty big three weeks for us. Two backyard races for Advil, and a backyard race for Jay Robinson Racing too,” he added. “Every race is important but these are three we point towards.”

“Of course, you throw in the fact that Nazareth is close to the fourth-largest market in the country with Philadelphia, and about 80 miles from downtown New York City, the country’s largest market, and those things alone means we want that Advil Ford running well,” Robinson added. “From a number of standpoints this is a big weekend for us.”

Robinson noted Nazareth’s rich history.

“Nazareth has a tremendous reputation, a great heritage and is famous among racers,” he said. “From the time I got involved in racing, I knew what was going on with Nazareth. The home of Mario Andretti, how could you not know about the area?

“They closed it down once before and it came roaring back to life,” he said, referring to the speedway’s 10-year dormancy in the 1970s. “The motorsports heritage and tradition is too strong in that area to think Nazareth is dead. The race fans from that area are notorious for being some of the best in the entire sport.

“Maybe it just needs to rest for a year or two, take a speedway-sized Advil to start feeling better, and get back on its feet. I am not convinced this is the end for Nazareth . . . just a break,” he added.

The Advil Ford, one of two cars fielded by Robinson on the NASCAR Busch Series, is not among the “high-buck” operations but you would never know by watching the team, on and off the track. Its cars and haulers are as high-quality as anything in the series, and both teams carry themselves as well as any on the circuit.

“You make do with what you have, sure, but we’ve based our team on giving the sponsors as much as we possibly can,” said Robinson, who is in his fourth year as a Busch Series owner after four years as owner-driver of a Late Model car.

“If I have one dollar, we make it look like we are getting two dollars. If I have a million dollars (in sponsorship), we make it look like we’re getting two million,” he said. “We’re in this to compete, to do the best we can week in and week out. We want to run well and we want to win.

“But we know our sponsors like Advil and Yahoo! (which sponsors Robinson’s #39 Ford on the Busch Series) are looking for a solid return too, so we do everything we can to make it a great experience for them. We’ve been able to develop a giant sampling program for Advil at some race tracks, and they are getting some good positive exposure here too,” he added.

Jay Robinson Racing, in its fourth season of operation, is one of the fastest-growing teams in NASCAR. Robinson, a Charlotte, N.C., native who is a successful businessman, founded the team as a high-value endeavor that offers high-end equipment and efforts, while proving to be one of the most cost-efficient teams in the sport. Robinson fields two sponsored cars fulltime on the Busch Series: the #49 Advil Ford and the #39 Yahoo! Ford.