The No. 43 Team Looks to Top Last Year’s Top-Three Finish
CONCORD, N.C. (September 24, 2013) – The NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) heads to the high-banked, concrete track at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. In addition to their strong short-track program in 2013, the Pilot Travel Centers team is coming off of a top-10 finish at the one-and-a-half mile track of Kentucky Speedway and look to carry that momentum into this weekend’s race.
Annett has nine starts at the one-mile track. His average finish is 13.4, and his best finish of third came in the fall of 2012. Earlier this year, Annett posted a 13th-place finish at Dover in his second time back in the car since his accident in Daytona. The team will return with last year’s set-ups and look to top his career-best finish at the track of third.
Annett will be participating in the NNS autograph session on Saturday, September 28th from 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. ET. The autograph session will be located adjacent to the Lucas Oil Display in the FanZone. Autographs will be received on a first come, first serve basis to the first 150-200 fans in line on Saturday.
Comments from the No. 43 Pilot Travel Centers Ford Mustang driver Michael Annett:
“We’ve been running really well on short tracks lately, so I’m really looking forward to Dover. We fought hard for a top-10 finish last week, and we have good momentum going into the weekend. We had two really good races here last year and earned a top-three finish in the fall. This year’s spring race was only my second race back after the injury in Daytona, and we came home 13th so we have some pretty high expectations going into the weekend.”
Comments from Crew Chief Philippe Lopez on Dover:
“Our strategy will be a lot like last weekend, to stick to the meat and potatoes, what has worked well in the past. We won’t really try too much this weekend and just try to get a good race out of it. We’ve run well there in the past, and we’ll unload just like we did last year and see what we can do. We finished third there in the fall last year, so we’ll try to capitalize on that and shoot for an even better finish.
“You have to have a perfectly balanced car at Dover. Aero is important, but at the same time, the chassis has to be able to turn the whole race. It usually turns into a fuel mileage race at the end, so it’ll be important to have good strategy. We’ve really had an advantage in the fuel mileage races with our Roush Yates engines. Doug and his team have done an excellent job in providing us with great fuel mileage.”
Chassis History:
Lopez and the No. 43 Pilot Travel Centers team prepared chassis 703 for this weekend. It was previously ran at both Bristol races, Loudon, and the spring Dover race earlier this year.
About Richard Petty Motorsports
A performance and marketing driven company, Richard Petty Motorsports, co-owned by NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty and successful business entrepreneurs Andrew Murstein and Douglas Bergeron, is one of the most recognized brands in all of motorsports. With a history of over 200 wins and business partnerships with national and global leaders, today the race operation fields two teams in competition in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Aric Almirola pilots the famous No. 43 Ford Fusion with primary partners Smithfield Foods, U.S. Air Force and STP and Marcos Ambrose drives the No. 9 machine with primary partners Stanley and DEWALT. In addition, Michael Annett wheels the No. 43 Pilot Flying J Ford Mustang full-time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The team is headquartered in Concord, N.C.
