RYAN NEWMAN QUOTES ON:
QUALIFYING AT ATLANTA: “Atlanta has always been a place where I like to qualify, and it would be an honor to get the all-time pole record there. Buddy Baker has really helped me throughout my racing career and that’s why we named the car we won the Daytona 500 with after him. Buddy would never tell me what I was doing right when he worked with me , but he would always tell me what I was doing wrong, so I could learn from my mistakes. We always drove the tracks backwards because it gives you a different perspective of entry and exit points. It lets you know how to approach those points when you are going the right way on the track. That’s something we did at Atlanta when he was teaching me about the track and I have always qualified well there.”

RACING AT ATLANTA: “My qualifying record hasn’t transferred to my racing record, and I’m not sure why. We have some top 10s, but we’ve also had some not so great runs there. I hope we learned a lot from our test there last fall that will help us out this weekend. Our Alltel team wants top fives and top 10s each weekend, so that’s our goal.”

ROY MCCAULEY QUOTES ON:
QUALIFYING AT ATLANTA: “Our first goal is that we would like to continue Ryan’s history of qualifying success at Atlanta. Just because Ryan has a solid history at the track in qualifying, it doesn’t put more pressure on us. We want to qualify well so that we can pick a good pit, which benefits the entire team and therefore benefits Ryan during the race. Our goal is to do as good as we can as a team. We know Ryan’s qualifying history at the track and we know that we have the capability of giving him a car that can qualify on the pole. ”

STRATEGY AT ATLANTA: “At Atlanta, the key is how you are on long runs. The tires there have a history of wearing out quickly, so it’s not about how fast you are during the first 10 laps, but it’s about how consistent you are over the last 30 laps of a run. So you want to focus on long runs in practice. This weekend, weather looks to be an issue, so we’re just going to have to see how much race practice we get. We’re going to have to do as much work as we can during that time to get the Alltel Dodge ready for our race runs.”

CHASSIS NOTES
PRS-519: Atlanta will be the first race for this car. The Charger was tested at Lowe’s Motor Speedway last season by the No. 12 team, and it served as a backup car at various tracks during the year.
PRS-513: The backup car is the same No. 12 Alltel Dodge that served as the backup at California and Las Vegas.

ALLTEL “MY CIRCLE 500”
Alltel will once again sponsor the “My Circle 500” sweepstakes, a national text-to-win promotion that puts race fans in the driver’s seat for a chance to win a grand prize of up to $500,000. From now until May 3, fans can enter the Alltel “My Circle 500” by texting RACE to 38229 or by logging onto www.alltelracing.com.

The 10 sweepstakes finalists and their ‘Circle of Friends’ will win an all-expense-paid trip to Charlotte, N.C., May 23-26 to compete in the second annual Alltel “My Circle 500.” The finalists will get in the driver’s seat and take one lap around the go-kart track. Then, it’s up to their ‘Circle of Friends’ to change four tires on the No. 12 Alltel Dodge. The fastest team will be declared the winner and take home at least $200,000. The champions will receive an additional $300,000 if they beat the time of 2008 Daytona 500 champion Ryan Newman and the Alltel pit crew – increasing the grand prize purse to $500,000.

UPCOMING EVENTS
3/4: This week’s podcast on alltelracing.com features Trent Cherry, the rear tire carrier and pit crew coach for the No. 12 team. Cherry will talk to fans about winning the Daytona 500 and what it’s like to be on a pit crew.