R3 Motorsports donates entire car to cause championed by Emerson and Olivia-Newton John
CHINA GROVE, N.C. (October 12, 2010) – Robert Richardson, Jr. and R3 Motorsports are teaming up with a worthwhile cause for the NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway. This will be the fourth, and final, race with the new-style Nationwide Series cars this season.
Richardson will drive the No. 23 Pink and Blue for Two (PB42) Chevrolet to help raise awareness for breast and prostate cancer testing. Pink and Blue for Two is an initiative started by Emerson Newton-John and is fully supported by his aunt, world renowned entertainer Olivia Newton-John, to raise cancer-testing awareness for men and women. Later this month, the group’s second PB42 fundraising event takes place on Wednesday, October 27 at Busch Gardens Theme Park in Tampa, Fla.
The main goal of PB42 links the strikingly similar statistics between breast and prostate cancers and encourages couples to help remind one another to go to their Dr.’s for screenings. Also on the car will be a decal highlighting Olivia’s self-breast examination kit for women called Liv Aid.
“This is great that R3 Motorsports has been kind enough to donate their entire Chevrolet to our cause for the Charlotte races this weekend,” said Emerson Newton-John. “We have been working hard to launch this campaign into a high-visibility market, and this opportunity with R3 to showcase our campaign in NASCAR is a great step in that direction. I thank them for this.
“The No. 23 car is going to look awesome under the lights and I know this will greatly help raise awareness for PB42, Olivia’s self-screening kit and our fundraiser later this month. When I called to tell her what was going on for the Charlotte race and what R3 Motorsports did for us with www.PinkandBlueforTwo.com on the car she was very, very pleased.”
Fast Facts: Richardson, 28, will be making his 67th NASCAR Nationwide Series start, 21st of the season and fourth at the high-banked oval of CMS. In his three previous Charlotte starts, his best qualifying effort was 28th in 2008 and best finish was 23rd, which occurred in the spring race this year. For the season, the native of McKinney, Texas has completed 3,596 of 3,726 laps contested (95.8%) in those 20 races this year.
Crew Chief Fill-In: For this weekend, veteran crew chief and engineer Walter Giles will be helping out R3 Motorsports and the No. 23 NNS team. Giles spent time with the team last year for a few races.This will free up regular crew chief Steve Plattenberger to oversee both the Cup and NNS cars this weekend for the team.
Car Facts: Giles and regular engineer Jeff Kirkendall will have chassis No. 54 at their disposal this weekend. This will be the first time the car has seen any on-track action and was newly built for this race.
Robert Richardson, Jr. quotes
This is the final race with the new-style NNS cars this year: “Yeah, we’ve tried to get used to it and better with it every time. We had that new car at Michigan and it got destroyed right at the end of the race. So, we did what we know how to do best and built this one from the chassis up. I just hope we get a good reading about everything and get the car dialed in during the test day on Wednesday. Then, come Thursday and Friday, we can work on getting it faster and faster for qualifying and the race.”
You’ll have Walter Giles on the pit box again this weekend: “Walter has a ton of experience and we only got to work together for a few races last year. I’m looking forward to him being up there, working with me and the team and seeing what he can do to help us. Steve (Plattenberger) needs to be freed up to work between the Cup and Nationwide garages this weekend, so this works out great for everyone.”
Pretty cool paint scheme you have for this weekend: “This is a pretty special deal for R3 Motorsports and the folks with Pink and Blue for Two. When this came up, we quickly realized we could help more people by raising the awareness for breast and prostate cancer testing by having them on our car. The colors look great on our Chevrolet, and helping Emerson and Olivia-Newton John with their cause and their fundraiser later this month is pretty special, too.”
For more information about PB42, see www.PinkandBlueforTwo.com online.
