CHINA GROVE, N.C. (July 5, 2011) – Friday night will be alright for fast cars and fighting for position while racing around the 1.5-mile oval of Kentucky Speedway when the NASCAR Nationwide Series rolls into town.
Robert Richardson, Jr. and the No. 23 North Texas Pipe Chevrolet team will be doing their best to join into the Friday night fray as it unfolds over the 200-lap race. For the first time, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will be joining in the weekend’s schedule, thus moving the Truck race to Thursday night and the NNS to Friday.
Richardson has two previous NNS starts to his credit at the Sparta, Kentucky facility with the first being in 2007, and the second was this event last year.
Fast Facts: Richardson, 29, will be making his 84th-career NNS start and 15th of the 2011 season. His best career finish of 15th was at Lucas Oil Raceway Park in Indy last year. Last weekend at Daytona, he matched his best start of the season by qualifying 26th; which he also did at Talladega in April. His best finish this year is a 20th-place effort at Richmond.
Track Facts: The native of McKinney, Texas finished 30th in this race last year and has completed 364 of 400 laps contested (91 percent) through his two previous Kentucky starts.
Car Facts: Walter Giles and team are bringing a Chevrolet from last year’s stable to this race as it was one of their better cars on the 1.5-mile ovals like Kentucky.
Tune in for the Win: This weekend will have a bit of a different schedule with all three NASCAR series in town. Richardson will take to the track for his first practice on Thursday from 6:10 p.m. to 7:25 p.m. (ET) before having his final practice from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Friday. Qualifying is later in the day at 3:45 p.m. on SPEED TV and race time is 7:30 p.m. on ESPN TV. You can listen to coverage on MRN Radio and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Ch. 90.
Robert Richardson, Jr. Quotes: “If we keep racing on Friday nights like we’ve been lately, I could get used to this very quickly. There is just something about sporting events on a Friday night, under the lights and the excitement level drivers and teams bring to the track is more intense than a Saturday afternoon deal.
“For the fans, it’s a great reason to get out of work all day, or even at lunchtime, and head to the track for a great day of fun NASCAR style. From the two times I’ve raced at Kentucky before, I know they are into their racing and we appreciate their enthusiasm, very much.
“Kentucky is another 1.5-mile track, but it’s not what I would call a ‘cookie cutter’ like some of the others. Turns 1 and 2 are pretty good with two and three lanes of racing. If you get up in a third one, you better have a car that can stick – that’s all I’m going to say. Turns 3 and 4 are where you need to be really good to shoot through the frontstretch trioval and into Turn 1 again. I’m looking forward to our R3 Motorsports team racing this Friday night at Kentucky for their great fans.”
