RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER ADVANCE MATERIAL FOR THE MARCH 2 UAW-DODGE 400 NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES RACE AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY.

Transporter drivers Gale Wilson and Dale Lackey discuss the challenges of two consecutive west coast races on the heels of spending two weeks in Daytona preparing for the Daytona 500. Wilson is a 28-year veteran driver in the Sprint Cup Series and drives for Raybestos Rookie Regan Smith. Lackey is the driver for Raybestos Rookie Sam Hornish Jr.

GALE WILSON, TRUCK DRIVER, No. 01 DALE EARNHARDT INC. CHEVROLET: HOW DIFFICULT IS THIS STRETCH YOU GUYS? “It’s pretty tough because you’re gone to Daytona for almost two weeks to start with and then you get home from there and you’ve got one day to get kind of rested up a little bit to head across country for two more weeks. It’s a pretty tough time. It’s not an impossible deal but it kind of stresses everybody out before the season gets started, really.” HOW MUCH PLANNING AND PREPERATION IS DONE TO MAKE THIS WORK FOR EVERYBODY? “Well, they’ve been planning on it probably for the last month but then it changes daily. They decide to do different things with the cars or something didn’t work out as planned and it keeps changing daily. You can plan a lot but it don’t necessarily work out the way you planned it. It’ll all happen and it’ll all be fine. It just takes a little more than preparation, I guess, to make it all work.” WHAT CAN THE TEAMS DO TO EASE THE BURDEN DURING THIS BUSY STRETCH? “They make sure we have extra help to drive the truck because we can’t drive but so many hours and we have somebody help us with that so it’ll all work out like it’s supposed to and makes everybody happy.” ARE YOU PLANNING TO GO HOME AFTER THE LAS VEGAS RACE OR TO PHOENIX FOR THE TEST? “They’ll run another truck from home to Phoenix to do the test and we won’t be involved in that at all. We’ll just go from Las Vegas right on home and get ready for Atlanta. Now some of the teams may do that, they may go on down to Phoenix. It just cuts down on your home time even more [smiles]. When they get home it’s going to be time to go to Atlanta. It’s a tough stretch here the first month. Real tough.” IS YOUR JOB MORE DIFFICULT NOW THAN IT WAS YEARS AGO SIMPLY BECAUSE THERE’S MORE MILES TO COVER AND MORE PLACE TO GO? “It seems like it’s tougher now than it was back in the day because then we started out at Daytona and then we went to Richmond, Rockingham, Atlanta So after we got home from Daytona for two weeks we had three days off before we went to Richmond. Now we turn around and leave the next day and gone for two more weeks. That’s the tough part right there: more time away from home.”

DALE LACKEY, TRUCK DRIVER, No. 77 MOBIL 1 DODGE: THIS IS A DEMANDING STRETCH FOR YOU GUYS RIGHT OUT OF THE GATE. “It’s pretty strenuous. If it wasn’t for our co-drivers, it’d really be tough. I got home from Daytona on Monday morning and we left again Tuesday morning to head to California.” CAN YOU PREPARE FOR THIS STRETCH? “No. You know you’ve got to do it. It’s a mindset and you just go do it. It’s 2,400 miles from our shop in North Carolina to Fontana. It took us 40 hours to get here and that was more or less non-stop. We just swapped out drivers, got fuel and kept trucking. Our plan is to go from California to Las Vegas. We will be swapping out cars after the race is over in California and go to Vegas straight from Fontana.” THERE IS A TEST SESSION SCHEDULED AFTER THE LAS VEGAS RACE. “We’ve got a test in Phoenix but luckily our Nationwide team is going to be handling our test for us so when we get done at Vegas we can go straight on back to the shop and get prepared for Atlanta.” HOW MANY MILES WILL YOU COVER BETWEEN SINCE THE TIME YOU LEFT FOR DAYTONA UNTIL YOU RETURN FROM LAS VEGAS? “Well, it’s 2,400 out here and 2,400 back, so that’s 4,800 and then it was 500 to Daytona and back so that’s another 1,000 so you’re looking at roughly 6,000 miles since we left for Daytona.” WHEN DO YOU HAVE TIME TO GET THE TRACTOR SERVICED? “We done it right before we left for Daytona and by the time we get back from Vegas it’ll be real close to another service. We usually service ‘em every 10-12,000 miles.” THIS MUST PUT A PREMIUM ON THE TEAM TO BE ORGANIZED. “It’s takes a lot of teamwork back at the shop. They know that once the truck gets there, they know what they’ve got to do to get the truck turned around and get it ready to leave in a very short period of time. It’s teamwork, not just the road crew but the guys in the shop also.” HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO TURN THE TRUCK AROUND? “You can do it in a half a day. Just like when I got back from Daytona. We only had from Monday morning to Monday afternoon to turn the truck around so it can be done. The longer you’ve got the better it is. That way you make sure that everything is covered. All of your bases are covered. Nothing is left off.” WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU TURN THE TRUCK AROUND? “You swap out all the gears, different transmissions, check all of the chemicals, and then you swap out your cars and car parts each week. With this COT car there’s very little parts to swap out. A lot of them are interchangeable but you still have different parts that you have to swap out.” DOES A RAINOUT THROW YOUR SCHEDULE INTO CHAOS? “Since we were going straight to Vegas it’s not that bad but it we were having to go back across country and get ready to go to Atlanta, that throws you a day behind and you just have to really keep on your game plan and not get behind in traffic or anything like that. It cuts down on the amount of time that you have at the shop to get the truck ready for the next weekend.”