24 Hours at Daytona Roush Yates Engines Notes & Quotes – JANUARY 30, 2011 (FINAL/3:30 p.m. ET)

ROLEX 24 HOURS AT DAYTONA, DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.

JANUARY 30, 2011 (FINAL/3:30 p.m. ET)

Roush Yates-powered engines were in a record eight entries at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona.  Overall drivers were happy with the performance of the Ford motors and there appeared to be no issues during the 24 hour race.  With four hours to go, the No. 8 Ford came down pit road with a small oil leak that is believed to be caused by debris in the bypass on the oil pump.  Four of the eight entries finished inside the top 10 with the No. 23 finishing on the lead lap, one of only four cars on the lead lap.

Following is the finishing positions of all eight Fords:

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*Quotes in the 20^th hour:

JOHN MADDOX, ROAD RACING PROGRAM MANAGER FOR ROUSH YATES ENGINES: GIVE US AN UPDATE ON HOW THE FORDS ARE DOING OVERALL AND WHAT HAPPENED TO THE NO. 8?  “Looks like we’ve got two dogs in the hunt.  We’ve had a flawless weekend except it looks like we just had an oil pump failure, maybe some debris in the bypass on the oil pump.  But everything runs really good and everybody’s running really strong with what they’re running.  We’ve got two cars still on the lead lap so hopefully we can get up there and challenge Ganassi for the win.”

RYAN DALZIEL, NO 8 GROUT SHIELD/BURLUSA STARWORKS MOTORSPORT FORD/RILEY:  WHAT HAPPENED TO THE NO. 8 FORD?  “We ended up having an oil leak and rather than destroy our good Ford power we opted to just retire the car at this point.  There wasn’t much more we could do position wise.  It was the smart thing to do but it’s disappointing especially with as competitive as we have been throughout January so you know that’s racing.  The 24 Hours is a difficult race and I’m proud of the team that we got this far.” 

AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 6 CONTINENTAL TIRES/CURB RECORDS/PVA/ROCKY FORK COMPANY MICHAEL SHANK RACING WITH CURB/AGAJANIAN FORD/DALLARA:  CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT HOW THE CAR WAS HANDLING OUT THERE?  “We’re struggling a little bit.  We’re fighting just trying to make something happen right now.  Everybody here at Michael Shank Racing, they’re fighting hard.  We’ve definitely made the car a lot better from when we started yesterday to now but still it’s a fight.  I’m worn out, it’s the toughest I’ve had to deal with here and it’s definitely not a car that can win but we’re on the lead lap.  We need a little help from those Ganassi cars, maybe those BMW’s will break down.  We got a strong Ford in a race car.  Doug Yates has been doing a great job with everybody at the engine shop.  We’ll see what we’ve got here with four hours to go.”

*Post-race quotes:

JOHN MADDOX, ROAD RACING PROGRAM MANAGER FOR ROUSH YATES ENGINES:  WRAPPING UP, OVER 24 HOURS HOW DO YOU FEEL THE ROUSH YATES ENGINES PERFORMED?  “We had one car still on the lead lap contending for a possible podium and everything went well.  We had one small little issue on one car but I think overall everything was good.”

ZAK BROWN, NO. 23 JOHNNIE WALKER/FXI/UBS UNITED AUTOSPORTS WITH MICHAEL SHANK RACING FORD/RILEY:  YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE RACE?  “Fourth-place and to be on the lead lap there fighting for the podium.  We had a chance to win it, a fantastic result.  United Autosport’s first event in the states, Blundell, Brundle, Patterson, everyone did a great job, couldn’t be happier.  MUST HAVE BEEN A BIT DISAPPOINTING NOT GETTING ON THE PODIUM BUT FANTASTIC ACHIEVEMEN FIRST TME OUT.  “It is a little disappointing to not get on the podium when we were a couple feet away but you know you look back and say, if we can finish top five we’ll take that, absolutely, fantastic.  HOW DID THE ROUSH YATES ENGINES HOLD UP FOR YOU?  “The engines were great, they made it all 24 hours without a glich, couldn’t’ be happier.”

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MARK PATTERSON, NO. 23 JOHNNIE WALKER/FXI/UBS UNITED AUTOSPORTS WITH MICHAEL SHANK RACING FORD/RILEY:  HOW WAS THE RACE FOR YOU OVERALL?  “Beautiful, beautiful.  The engine was great, Roush Yates makes a beautiful engine and the car was fabulous and you know what, the drivers didn’t make any mistakes.  We never went to the garage and that’s why we came fourth.”

MARK BLUNDELL, NO. 23 JOHNNIE WALKER/FXI/UBS UNITED AUTOSPORTS WITH MICHAEL SHANK RACING FORD/RILEY:  HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE THE TOP FORD?  “It feels tremendous.  Everyone’s done a tremendous job and we’re all excited.  At one point we thought we might be on the podium but it didn’t happen for us.  I think if you looked at where we came from, we didn’t even know we were doing this until a few weeks ago, we turned up where we got this result.  Pretty good.  There’s some big names and some big teams out there so we didn’t do anything to disrespect ourselves.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 6 CONTINENTAL TIRES/CURB RECORDS/PVA/ROCKY FORK COMPANY MICHAEL SHANK RACING WITH CURB/AGAJANIAN FORD/DALLARA:  HOW WAS THE LAST STINT?  “It was long, kind of pointless, not racing anybody.  It wasn’t bad, I think we made the car better from when we started but it wasn’t fast enough but we finished and that’s the first goal.  I hadn’t finished in about four years here.  Everybody at Shank and all the team guys here, Wilson and McDowell, I’ll even thank them.  Continental Tires, Curb Records, PVA, everybody that gave us a chance.  Ford, Doug Yates especially.  I want to thank everybody for a motor that lasted.  We finished and that was the first goal, so come back and try to win it again next year.”

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, NO. 6 CONTINENTAL TIRES/CURB RECORDS/PVA/ROCKY FORK COMPANY MICHAEL SHANK RACING WITH CURB/AGAJANIAN FORD/DALLARA:  HOW DO YOU THINK THE RACE WENT OVERALL FOR THE TEAM AND YOURSELF?  “We had a good car most of the race.  It wasn’t quite as fast as we would have hoped, just car handling wise.  We had good strategy and we were able to stay on the lead lap and run up front most of the time then there with just a couple hours to go we had to fix a broken part that put us a couple laps down so that cost us a couple spots.  HOW DO YOU FEEL THE ROUSH YATES ENGINES HELD UP FOR 24 HOURS?  “The engine was great.  We didn’t have any issues in the engine department, the power was great on it.”

OSWALDO NEGRI JR, NO. 60 CROWN ROYAL XR MICHASEL SHANK RACING FORD/RILEY:  HOW WAS YOUR RACE OVERALL?  “Looking back now it’s pretty frustrating.  We were running top four in the beginning of the race and by early morning it just a couple of unfortunate events, other drivers hitting us and being very aggressive earlier on just took us out of contention.  We had a good car and I’m pretty sure we had a top three car but it’s just frustrating.  It’s a long season and besides everything that happened, I’m optimistic.  HOW DID THE ROUSH YATES ENGINE PERFORM FOR YOU?  “Flawlessly, perfect.  Very, very competitive.”

MICHAEL VALIANTE, NO. 60 CROWN ROYAL XR MICHASEL SHANK RACING FORD/RILEY:  AFTER THE 24 HOURS IS DONE, HOW DO YOU FEEL?  “Tired.  We just look at all the things we could have done differently.  Some of the things you can plan for and some of the things you can’t, they just creep up.  You just look at past experiences and apply those to future events.  HOW DID THE MOTOR RUN?  “It ran brilliant, no issues and we made it a whole 24 hours so great.”

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JOHN PEW, NO. 60 CROWN ROYAL XR MICHASEL SHANK RACING FORD/RILEY:  HOW WAS THE 24 HOUR RACE FOR YOU OVERALL?  “Well we made it to the end.  We finished top 10.  We were hoping for a little better but we had some bad luck but the Ford Roush Yates engine was flawless and no problems there.  I know we’ll do a lot better next time.”

NICHOLAS MINASSIAN, NO. 76 KROHN RACING FORD/LOLA:  TALK ABOUT THE RACE OVERALL FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE FOR THE KROHN TEAM.  “It’s been very good.  I think the team did the biggest job of all because they prepared a car that is very reliable which is the prime thing you need to have in the race.  We’re missing a little bit of pace with the car, it’s not the fastest car out there.  Probably one of the most reliable cars and it’s one of the top teams in my eyes because strategy wise we are right up there with everybody, even if we didn’t have the pace we managed to stick at the front with strategy.  Pit stops was as best as you can get so the car has been very good, it’s been a bit of a handful to drive so that’s the only thing difficulty I would say is driving the car every lap is trying to keep the car on track.  It’s very “oversteery”, very low grip but apart from that the team has been the star.”  HOW WAS THE ROUSH YATES ENGINE FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE?  “The engine’s been good.  When I start forgetting about something in the car I think it’s very good because everything is smooth as you can get.  You even forget about it because your running so well.  One top quality about us at the moment is that we got top speed.  Even if we are slow in the corners we can keep people behind us for quite awhile with the speed we’ve got.  The engine is no fault, perfect, nothing to say.”

About Roush Yates Engines

Roush Yates Engines designs, engineers and crafts high performance racing engines with the power to perform and the horsepower and durability you’d expect from legendary NASCAR pioneers Jack Roush and Robert Yates.  The partnership of power and precision has come from merging the knowledge and experience of two legendary engine builders, both with a passion for winning today and powering up for tomorrow.  In 2009 Doug Yates purchased his father’s  half of Roush Yates Engines to become a co-owner in the company.

As CEO, Doug Yates leads a staff of 180 engineers and technicians who design, assemble, test, and service racing engines at two separate state-of-the-art facilities in Mooresville, North Carolina.  Here, the best minds and latest technology are hard at work producing nearly 1,500 racing engines each year for teams in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, ARCA, Grand-Am, FIA GT3, Dirt Late Model, Sprint cars, and NHRA Pro Stock.  At Roush Yates Engines, the mission is Power Performance, which is achieved through innovation, design, precision engineering, and skillful craftsmanship.  Building the best engines in racing today, providing service that’s second to none, and honoring a commitment to research and development are the heart of Roush Yates Engines.

For more information contact Sheri Herrmann, Roush Yates Engines at (704) 905-6433 or slh3503@netscape.net.