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[/media-credit]MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY RACE PREVIEW
Michael Annett• No. 43 Pilot Flying J Ford Mustang
Annett has three career starts in the Nationwide Series at Michigan
Annett enters this weekend’s event in seventh-place in the Nationwide point standings
Annett’s best finish (13th) at Michigan International Speedway came in 2009
Michael Annett on Going to Michigan: “I’m ready to get back in my Pilot Flying J Ford after having a week off. I’m excited to go to Michigan and test out the new racing surface. The Cup guys are going up a day early to test, so hopefully I can gain some knowledge from my teammates Aric and Marcos about how the track handles. We know that track is going to be really smooth and fast and Friday we have an extra two hours of practice to get familiar with the new surface. The extra time will also allow us to make changes to the car we wouldn’t normally be able to make during a typical race weekend. We’ve run decent at Michigan in the past and I enjoy racing there. With the track being in Ford’s back yard it is going to be a big weekend and a win would really mean a lot.”
Crew Chief Philippe Lopez’s Thoughts on Michigan International Speedway: “We don’t really know what to expect when we get to Michigan because of the new asphalt that they have put down. We’ve seen some information from the tire test, but we haven’t been able to test out the surface for ourselves, so there is still a lot of the unknown factor out there. Our Cup teammates will be on the track all day Thursday and I’m going to get with Todd Parrott and Mike Ford to see what kind of information they were able to gather throughout the day. We know it is going to be very fast and have a lot of grip, we also know it is going to be very smooth unlike Pocono was last weekend. With it being so fast we are just going to have to figure out how we need to run the car, we will either run it like we normally do, or we will need to run it like a superspeedway. There are just a lot of unknowns. We are going prepared and we have several different setups we can try during our practice session on Friday to try and make sure the Pilot Flying J Ford ends up in Victory Lane on Saturday.”
Chassis History: The No. 43 RPM NASCAR Nationwide Series team has prepared chassis No. 648 for the 125-lap race at Michigan. This Pilot Flying J Ford Mustang was run previously this season at Texas.
Notes: Annett has three NASCAR Nationwide Series starts at Michigan International Speedway. His best finish (13th) came in 2009 and his best start (17th) came in 2010 at the two-mile track. Annett heads to Michigan in the seventh position in the NASCAR Nationwide Series driver point standings. The Iowa native has completed 374 of 375 laps attempted at the track. His average start is 18.7 and his average finish is 16.0.
Looking for a Pilot or Flying J store near Michigan? There are 19 Pilot or Flying J stores within 100 miles of Michigan International Speedway. The nearest store is 35 miles away from the race track. (Pilot Travel Center (I-94 Exit 167) 195 Baker Road, Dexter, MI 48130.) There are 85 stores within 250 miles of the track. Go tohttp://www.pilotflyingj.com/locationsfind the nearest locations.
Can’t get enough of Annett? Michael will participate in the NASCAR Nationwide Series autograph session on Friday from 4-5 p.m. ET. The session is located in the Budweiser Acceleration Club Tent, next to Hospitality Village outside of Turn 4.
Race Information
Track: Michigan International Speedway
Laps: 125 Laps/250 Miles
Track Size: Two-Mile
TV Information: 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC
Radio Information: 3:30 p.m. ET on MRN
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