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Darlington International Speedway
Friday - Sunday, May 9-10 |
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Discount Tire Team wants another top finish! |
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NNS Standings: |
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Rank |
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Driver |
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Points |
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Top 5 |
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Top 10 |
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1 |
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Clint Bowyer |
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1565 |
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4 |
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8 |
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2 |
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Carl Edwards |
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1556 |
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5 |
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7 |
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3 |
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Kyle Busch |
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1553 |
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6 |
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6 |
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4 |
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David Ragan |
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1434 |
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2 |
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6 |
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5 |
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Mike Bliss |
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1424 |
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1 |
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6 |
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Nationwide Race: Diamond Hill Plywood 200 at Darlington Speedway
Discount Tire Team #6 |
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"It is a tough race track that you must be prepared to deal with," said driver David Ragan. "But if
you have good equipment and a solid pit strategy it can be very rewarding. I have one start at
Darlington, so I have to rely on last yearıs experience and my crew chiefıs knowledge of the track.
The new pavement will be a handful but I am confident we can get around unscathed. If we do our job
we'll come away with a solid finish." |
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"The lady in black is a special place for all of us in the garage. It is a very fast track that has
gotten the best of many good drivers," said crew chief Mike Kelley. "I am anxious to see how the new
pavement will affect track conditions during the race. If we can qualify in the top 10 it will work
to our advantage because our Discount Tire Ford Fusion is pretty stout. I lost the closest race in
NASCAR history at Darlington in 2003. That place owes me one. We will try our best to tame the track
and come away with a great finish." |
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Fast Facts
• This will be David Ragan's second career Nationwide Series race at Darlington Raceway
• Ragan is currently fourth in the Nationwide Series point standings.
• Ragan has two top-five and six top-10 finishes this year.
• Ragan won Raybestos Rookie-of-the-Year in 2007 in the Nationwide Series.
• Ragan is one of four drivers racing full-time in both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series in 2008. |
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Sprint Cup Race: Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Speedway
Discount Tire is an associate sponsor of Cup car drivers David Ragan, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle:
David Ragan
"My teammate, Greg Biffle, got to test there a few weeks ago and said the track is really, really
smooth and has a lot of speed in it. Only time will tell how the asphalt and how the weather is and
how the tires are that Goodyear brings next week. Obviously, you guys are familiar with Charlotte
and Las Vegas being paved in the last few years and the situation that we have with Goodyear bringing
a real hard tire that's real tough for us to get a handle on and we kind of struggle through the weekend
sometimes. Hopefully, they've learned and we've got a pretty aggressive tire for this weekend coming up.
Hopefully, it's kind of like the old Darlington, where you can go really fast for a few laps and then
the speeds fall off and the times fall off and you see the good old racing, the slipping and sliding.
So, like I said, I haven't made a lap on the new track surface. My Nationwide car on Thursday will be
the first time that I'll make a lap around the new track, so I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully, they
kept some of the same characteristics that everyone knows Darlington to be."
Carl Edwards
"Darlington is hands down my favorite track on the circuit. The shape of the track is unique - one end is
different than the other, so you have to set the car up for almost two different types of corners. I really
can't say enough about racing at Darlington."
Greg Biffle
"I love racing at Darlington. Obviously I've had some success there so that helps but it's just a fun track.
The new surface will make for an entirely different race there than we've ever had before though, so we'll
see how it goes. We're going to be running so much faster there than we have in the past. Passing will be
difficult but I think there should still be some good racing. Tire wear won't be nearly as much of a factor
as it was before the repaving. We ran just as fast on lap 30 at the tire test as we did on the first lap out.
I hope what we learned at the tire test gets us off on the right foot this weekend. A good run at Darlington
would be exactly what we need." |
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Tune In
"Trackside Live" with Jeff Hammond co-sponsored by Discount Tire
Friday or Saturday* 7 or 8 p.m.* SPEED
*Check your local listings.
Nationwide Series Diamond Hill Plywood 200
05/09/08 3 p.m. Diamond Hill Plywood 200 qualifying SPEED
05/09/08 7:30 p.m. Diamond Hill Plywood 200 ESPN2
Sprint Series - Dodge Challenger 500
05/09/08 2 p.m. Dodge Challenger 500 final practice SPEED
05/09/08 5 p.m. Dodge Challenger 500 qualifying SPEED
05/10/08 7 p.m. Dodge Challenger 500 FOX
All times are EST. |
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Go to: |
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DTC Motorsports Home for the Latest Racing News |
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or |
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The Racing News Archive to read previously featured stories. |
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