LET HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF: Red Horse Racing driver, Germán Quiroga wants a little more from Iowa Speedway this Sunday as the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returns to the 0.875-mile tri-oval. The three-time Mexico Series champion made history in July by becoming the first Mexican to win a pole in a National division of NASCAR. And he did it in style, setting a new track record.

After leading 56 laps, the No. 77 OtterBox Toyota Tundra driver suffered damage after contact with another competitor and was relegated to a 14th-place finish. The Rookie of the Year contender will most definitely be a threat during the American Ethanol 200. Look for Quiroga in Pizza Ranch victory lane.

OTTERBOX®: OtterBox couldn't be more excited to return to Iowa Speedway with Germán Quiroga as primary sponsor. It appeared the Fort Collins, CO based organization seemed to be good luck earlier this season when Quiroga set a new track record and captured the pole. The company known for their protective solutions for the leading global handheld manufacturers, wireless carriers and distributors will sport the OtterBox yellow and black paint scheme. For more information on OtterBox visit www.OtterBox.com.  

CHASSIS HISTORY: Quiroga and his No. 77 OtterBox Toyota Tundra team will again utilize Chassis No. 002 this weekend at Iowa Speedway. At the July race, Quiroga set a new track record on the way to becoming the first Mexican-born driver to collect a pole in a National division of NASCAR. The Chassis also earned a 13th-place at Dover International Speedway and was raced at Martinsville Speedway in April where Quiroga qualified fifth.

MEET & GREET: Quiroga, along with teammates John Wes Townley and Timothy Peters will join the NASCAR Camping world Truck Series drivers for an autograph session on Saturday, September 7th from 4:15 - 5:00 pm at Iowa Speedway at the Infield Fan Walk.

REARVIEW MIRROR - CANADIAN TIRE MOTORSPORT PARK: Germán Quiroga and the No. 77 OtterBox Toyota Tundra team continue to grow and learn in his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Rookie year. Quiroga qualified 12th and by lap 15 he was running inside the top 10 where he stayed for majority of the race. Crew chief Dan Stillman played fuel strategy well, keeping Quiroga out during a caution period because it was not within the fuel window to make it to the end. This was a good move as it put Quiroga in position to take the lead with 29 laps to go and picking up bonus points for leading the race. After the team pitted, Quiroga dropped back into the 19th position and made a charge for the front. Unfortunately, with four laps to go, a competitor slammed into Quiroga resulting in a spin which relegated him to a 15th-place finish.

Germán Quiroga on Iowa Speedway:

What are your thoughts on returning to Iowa?

"We were very fast in Iowa. Hopefully, now that we're going to go back we can make it (the win) happen. We struggled a little bit during the race, but we were fast. We had a very fast truck, so hopefully our Toyota Tundra is ready again and we can do fast laps and hopefully we can go to victory lane."

How do you evaluate your season to date?  "It has been back and forth. I have learned a lot, for sure, and that's why I'm here. I still need to learn more, so it's a learning process. Hopefully it gets better and better and my goal is to be Rookie of the Year, but if that can't happen we're going to try to fight for top-10 in the championship and prepare for next year."

RHR PR

Rusty Wallace's Iowa Speedway may be 948 miles from Max Gresham's home in Milner, Ga. But for the driver of the No. 8 Made in USA Brand (MIUSA) Chevrolet, it's just like being at home.

Gresham has enjoyed plenty of success at the 7/8-mile short track, including a 2010 victory in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East.

He also has a third-place finish at Iowa Speedway in the 2009 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West, a second-place finish as part of his NASCAR K&N Pro Series East championship season in 2011, and a 10th-place finish in the 2010 ARCA Racing Series race.

The 20-year-old driver will return to Iowa with Sharp-Gallaher Racing for Sunday's Fan Appreciation 200 presented by New Holland. Race time is 2 p.m. Eastern Time on FOX Sports 1. The race will also be broadcast on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

"You can tell a racer designed Iowa Speedway," Gresham said. "Rusty (Wallace) did a fantastic job with it. It has the competitiveness of a short track and the speed of a speedway. It's one of my favorite places."

Sunday's main event will be the second NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race at the track for Gresham and his Made in USA Brand team. He finished 15th there in July after starting 18th.

"We rely heavily on Max when we go to Iowa," crew chief Chris Showalter said. "He has a great feel for that race track. He knows what he wants there. If we give him a truck he likes, we know he's going to give us a great finish."

The Sharp-Gallaher Racing team will be using chassis No. 59. It's a Chevrolet that used to be part of Kevin Harvick Inc.'s inventory and it has a winning pedigree, with Clint Bowyer driving it to a victory at the Kansas Speedway in 2011.

With eight races remaining on the truck series schedule, Gresham is eager to finish the season strong, and he knows there is no better track than Iowa Speedway to kick-start the stretch in the final three months.

"Racing is all about momentum," Gresham said. "We've had a solid season so far, but everyone at Sharp-Gallaher Racing is committed to taking it to the next level. For me, it's just like going home, so there's no better place to start the next level than at Iowa."

Max Gresham PR

Before Kyle Busch heads to Richmond (Va.) International Raceway for Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Federated Auto Parts 400 behind the wheel of his No. 18 M&M’s/American Heritage Chocolate Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), he’ll make a stopover Thursday in historic Colonial Williamsburg to take a turn at a different kind of horsepower.

Busch’s visit to Williamsburg is part of the “History Meets Horsepower” program – a unique partnership between Colonial Williamsburg, Richmond International Raceway and Mars Chocolate North America with its American Heritage Chocolate brand. The three parties have come together to celebrate our country’s storied transportation past and rich culinary history, showcasing the evolution of both through modern times.

As a part of his visit, Busch is scheduled to meet with fans in Merchants Square, take part in a colonial chocolate history demonstration by American Heritage Chocolate, and explore the “Revolutionary City” with his wife Samantha. And, at the racetrack this weekend, Busch’s No. 18 M&M’s/American Heritage Toyota will be adorned with the American Heritage logo in addition to the usual colorful M&M’s paint scheme to celebrate the unique and exciting partnership.

While Thursday’s visit to Colonial Williamsburg will involve riding in horse-drawn carriages, Busch will quickly transition back to horsepower of a different variety for Saturday night’s 26^th and final race of the Sprint Cup’s regular season.

Busch sits in an entirely different position than a year ago when he arrived at the 2012 fall race at Richmond on the bubble for making the 12-driver, 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship. Last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, not only did Busch lock himself into this year’s Chase, he did so by winning his fourth race of the season. Busch’s Atlanta win also marked two other significant milestones – it was his 100^th overall NASCAR victory in a Toyota in NASCAR’s top three series (Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck), and it was the manufacturer’s 250^th overall NASCAR win in those three divisions combined.

Heading into the weekend, let’s not forget that Busch’s record at Richmond is not too shabby. The Las Vegas native has won four of the last five spring events from 2009 through 2012 at the .75-mile oval. And his Richmond resume also includes four runner-up finishes and an amazing 12 top-fives in just 17 career Sprint Cup starts in Virginia’s capital city.

That gives Busch an average finishing position of 6.5 at Richmond, tops among all active drivers, including JGR teammate and Virginia native Denny Hamlin, whose average finish is 8.1. Busch has completed all but one of the 6,815 laps available to him in his 17 Richmond starts. Of those laps completed, Busch has run in the top-15 for 5,934 (87.1 percent) of them – second-most among active drivers at the track.

So while the focus will shift from horse-drawn carriages at the start of the weekend to 750-horsepower racecars at track, Busch will hope that when history meets horsepower this weekend, the combination will result in his fifth Sprint Cup win at Richmond with NASCAR’s postseason next on the docket.

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Bobby Labonte will miss Richmond International Raceway race:

When it comes to the history of Richmond International (Va.) Raceway, drivers at Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) have played a role at one time or another.

SHR co-owner Tony Stewart, who is sidelined with a leg injury, scored his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory at the .75-mile oval in September 1999.

Mark Martin, who is subbing for Stewart, started on the pole and finished seventh – his first career top-10 – in September 1981 at Richmond. That was back when Richmond was a half-mile oval, before the current configuration was completed in 1988.

Ryan Newman scored a victory at Richmond in September 2003 and also won the pole for the September 2004 event.

While Stewart, Martin and Newman made their mark in the Sprint Cup Series, Danica Patrick’s familiarity to Richmond fans might be more so in open-wheel competition.

The IZOD IndyCar Series competed at Richmond from 2001 to 2009 and Patrick competed in five of those events. She finished sixth in 2007 and 2008 and then scored a fifth-place result in 2009.

Patrick, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS for SHR, will make her second trip to Richmond in the Sprint Cup Series for Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400. In her first Sprint Cup race at the .75-mile oval in April, she started 30^th and finished 29^th.

While she knows her IndyCar experience at Richmond won’t assist her this weekend, she’s hoping a productive Sprint Cup test two weeks ago will. She and Martin split time in the GoDaddy Chevrolet and hope their combined efforts lead to a good finish Saturday night. 

TSC PR

Over the course of a 36-race NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, certain tracks are bound to cause teams and drivers many headaches and sleepless nights. Atlanta Motor Speedway happened to be that track for Casey Mears and the GEICO Racing team over the Labor Day weekend. While the team got off to a slow start when the green flag got the race underway on Sunday evening, the Germain Racing team remained intent on recording a strong finish.  After 325-laps of hard racing, Mears and his No. 13 GEICO Ford Fusion did just that when they crossed the finish line in the 22^nd position, marking their 16^th top-25 finish of the 2013 season.  

After struggling to find speed during the opening practice session on Friday afternoon, Mears laid down a solid lap in qualifying to claim the 19th starting position for Sunday's Advocare 500. A brief rain shower passed through the Hampton, Georgia, area prior to driver introductions, but the southern humidity quickly soaked up any precipitation and the green flag waved on time under clear skies. By lap five, Mears radioed the GEICO Ford Fusion was loose on entry and plowed through the corner. The competition caution on lap 26 could not have come any sooner as the California native was pushed back to the 40th position in the opening segment. Crew chief Bootie Barker brought his driver to pit road for four tires, fuel, wedge adjustment, and left front damage repair sustained from brief contact with a fellow competitor on the opening lap.  

Within 10 laps, Mears broke into the top-30 as the adjustments "definitely helped" but the GEICO Ford still needed additional rear grip. Over the next 100 laps, Barker and the Germain Racing team took every opportunity to work on the handling as numerous cautions were displayed. Despite the valiant effort, the handling still escaped Mears and as a long caution-free run continued, teams were forced to make green flag pit stops. On lap 168, Barker called Mears to pit road for fresh rubber, fuel, and an air pressure adjustment. However, Mears was unable to slow down the GEICO Ford fast enough prior to entering pit road, resulting in a pass-thru penalty for speeding. 

The yellow flag was displayed on lap 193 and Barker instructed Mears to stay out and take the wave around, regaining one lap to the leaders. With the restart on lap 199, the veteran driver took off from the 31st position. A quick caution was displayed seven laps later, allowing Mears to come to pit road for four tires, fuel, air pressure and track bar adjustments to help the loose handling condition. While in 29th-place on the restart, the No. 13 GEICO Ford rapidly moved up three positions to 26^th, the highest of all cars on his lap. Mears successfully ran in this spot through another cycle of green flag pit stops and when a caution was displayed on lap 288, the team decided to take the wave around once again. 

On the lap 294 restart, Mears moved into the 24th position and never looked back. Over the final 30 laps, the GEICO Ford passed two additional cars, allowing Mears to cross the finish line in 22nd-place. 

"Man, I'm not sure what we need to do with this place," said Mears, after the 500-mile event. "We kept working on the GEICO Ford throughout the entire race, but we could never find the handling we needed. The car was the best at the end right there but we still have some work to do before we come back next year. The guys never gave up and kept making adjustments to try and make it better. It's on to the next one though. I'm looking forward to Richmond next week and seeing a lot of GEICO people. It should be a good weekend." 

The next event on the Sprint Cup Series schedule is the Federated Auto Parts 400 on Saturday, September 7th at Richmond International Raceway. The race starts at 7 PM ET, with live coverage provided by ABC beginning with its pre-race show at 6:30PM ET. Motor Racing Network (MRN) will also have the live radio broadcast.

PMI PR

NASA education specialists and teachers from across Virginia will engage the public about the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission and science, technology, engineering and math – or STEM – activities at this weekend's NASCAR races at Richmond International Raceway (RIR) in Richmond, Va.

The event will be held Sept. 6 - 7 at RIR and is the result of a partnership between Rockets 2 Racecars (R2R), a NASA Digital Learning Network program, the Virginia529 College Savings Plan and the Science Museum of Virginia.

Race-credentialed members of the media are invited to interview NASA's Associate Administrator for Education, former astronaut and Virginia native, Leland Melvin, at 6 p.m. EDT, Friday, Sept. 6, in the Infield Media Center. Melvin, who will wave the green flag for the start of the Virginia529 College Savings 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race that night, will talk about NASA's STEM education initiatives and the LADEE launch scheduled to occur late Friday.

LADEE is a robotic mission that will orbit the moon to gather detailed information about the lunar atmosphere, conditions near the surface, and environmental influences on lunar dust. The spacecraft is set to launch from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore on Friday, Sept. 6, at 11:27 p.m. RIR is a designated viewing area for the LADEE lift-off.

A visualization of what the LADEE launch will look like from RIR can be found at:

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/docs/Richmond_International_Raceway.jpg

Race fans will have the opportunity to see a model of the LADEE spacecraft in the Virginia529 Kids Zone, Friday, Sept. 6 from 12 to 7 p.m., and Saturday, Sept. 7 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Families also will get to see the R2R exhibit, where they will learn how space exploration has helped the auto and racing industries and how NASA plays a key role in improving brakes, engine cooling systems and more.

In addition, they will have the chance to participate in two NASA engineering design challenges and meet Robonaut 2, a highly dexterous and human-like robot. Children also will be able to make a slide containing moon regolith simulant and will learn how it differs from soil on Earth.

Prior to the races on Friday and Saturday, teachers participating in R2R professional development training will learn how aerospace science, technology engineering and mathematics relates to the racing industry and also about NASA's LADEE mission. Teacherswill then show off their newly acquired skills in the Virginia529 Kids Zone at RIR, as they work alongside NASA education specialists in the engineering design challenge booths.

The R2R STEM Education Program trains teachers in concepts related to aerospace and racing through real world examples. The training helps them teach students about air pressure, Newton's Laws, and mathematical calculations that are used at NASA and in the racing industry. 

For more information about the LADEE mission and launch, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ladee

Ryan Reed is set to return to Richmond International Raceway in the No. 16 Drive to Stop Diabetes℠ Roush Fenway Ford Mustang Friday, September 6, 2013.  Reed made his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut with Roush Fenway Racing in April posting a solid 16th-place finish on the ¾-mile Richmond, Virginia racetrack.  The young driver advanced the No. 16 Drive to Stop Diabetes℠ Ford Mustang to the sixth position and was battling for fifth with just 10-laps remaining when he was involved in an on-track exchange– relegating the team to a 16th-place finish.

“I’m looking forward to going back to Richmond,” Reed said.  “We had a great run there in the spring and this time I’d really like to get that top-10 finish for this Roush Fenway team.  It is much easier as a driver to come back to a place you have driven prior, as the experience factor does pay off.  Richmond is an awesome track and looking forward to putting on a good show for the American Diabetes Association guests and all the fans Friday night.”

Reed will continue to support the American Diabetes Association’s “A Day in the Life of Diabetes” campaign at Richmond International Raceway. Encouraging supporters to submit a personal image to the Association’s Facebook mosaic representing what A Day in the Life of Diabetes means to them. Reed will showcase the mosaic on the No. 16 Drive to Stop Diabetes℠ Roush Fenway Racing Ford Mustang at Phoenix International Raceway November 9th, 2013 during American Diabetes Month.  The Drive to Stop Diabetes℠ cars will feature 18,000 photos including a race simulator that will be onsite at PIR. 

The Drive to Stop Diabetes℠ campaign features awareness and educational efforts at NASCAR Nationwide race events, as well as off-track health and wellness initiatives across the country throughout the year.

As part of the effort, Reed will compete at Richmond International Raceway, Charlotte Motor Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway NASCAR Nationwide Series race events for Roush Fenway Racing, driving the No. 16 Ford Mustang which features a Drive to Stop Diabetes℠ paint scheme.

The Virginia College Savings 250 is slated to begin Friday, September 6, 2013 at 7:30pm and will be broadcast live on ESPN beginning at 7:00pm ET. 

For details on the American Diabetes Association’s A Day in the Life of Diabetes, visit http://diabetesstopshere.org/2013/06/12/catching-up-with-mosaic/

To view the mosaic itself, visit www.DiabetesMosaic.org.

Ryan Reed PR