The Headlines:
St. Jude Joins Michael Annett in Kansas City: On Friday, Michael Annett will make a special announcement with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®. Annett, J.D. Peeples (Director of Sports Marketing for ALSAC, the fundraising organization for St. Jude) and nine-year-old St. Jude patient, Ryan Christian, will address the media in the Kansas Speedway media center at 4:05 p.m. CT on Friday afternoon.
Annett at Kansas Speedway: Saturday will be Annett’s third career attempt at Kansas Speedway. The Des Moines, Iowa native’s best finish on the Midwest oval was in last season’s 300 mile Nationwide Series event where he finished 16th. Annett’s best qualifying effort at Kansas Speedway was ninth in his first-ever race on the 1.5 mile track in his rookie season in the Nationwide Series. In the two races he’s competed in at Kansas Speedway, Annett has completed 381 of 400 laps contested (95.2 percent) and led five laps.
Rusty Wallace Racing at Kansas Speedway: Rusty Wallace Racing has nine combined Nationwide Series starts on Kansas Speedway’s 1.5-mile track. The organization’s single top-10 finish at the Kansas City oval was earned by the No. 62 team in October 2010 when they scored a ninth place finish in the Kansas Lottery 300. Rusty Wallace Racing entries have completed 1,577 of the 1,800 (87.6 percent) laps contested in those events.
Heading Home to the Heartland: Three members of Rusty Wallace Racing’s No. 62 team are Midwest natives. Driver Annett (Des Moines, Iowa), mechanic and jackman Brian Gainey (Moline, Illinois), and car chief and rear tire changer Ryan McKinney (Anderson, Indiana) all hail from states in the Midwest. Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 will be the Nationwide Series’ eighth race this season on a track in America’s Heartland.
Nationwide Series Points Race: Heading into the 30th of 34 races in the 2011 Nationwide Series season, Annett is seated 10th in the Nationwide Series championship point standings. He is positioned just seven markers behind ninth place Brian Scott and 11 points back from his teammate Steve Wallace in eighth with five races remaining in the 2011 season.
Cast Your Vote: Nationwide Series Most Popular Driver voting continues on NASCAR.com. Fans can cast their vote for Michael Annett once per day by visiting www.NASCAR.com/nnsmpd. Voting runs from now until November 17. The winner of the Nationwide Series Most Popular Driver award will be announced at the year-end banquet on November 21.
For the latest updates on Michael Annett, please visit www.michaelannett.com.
Talking Shop:
Crew chief Rick Viers on this weekend’s race:
“Kansas Speedway is another mile and a half track where we need to run better. We feel we have learned several things in the past two weeks, especially in the off-week, on the seven post and pull-down rig that will help our cars perform better. We hope that this helps us improve on our mile and a half program and leads us to a strong finish this weekend in Kansas City.”
From the Cockpit:
Michael Annett on the race weekend:
“I like racing at Kansas, and although we’ve really struggled as an organization on mile and a half tracks, we’re looking to turn that around this weekend. I think the developments that both of our teams have made over the last few weeks will allow us to show improvement.”
“We’re excited to have a special guest from St. Jude with us this weekend, Ryan Christian. I made a visit to their hospital in Memphis on Monday, and we’ve got some exciting news to share together on Friday. St. Jude’s cause is very close to my heart, so I’m really looking forward to teaming with them through our race program.”
The Machines:
Team 62 Primary: RWR-059 – RWR’s No. 62 team most recently earned a 12th place finish at Iowa Speedway and a seventh place finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with this chassis. The team has also competed with chassis 059 at Texas Motor Speedway, Nashville Superspeedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway and Michigan International Speedway in 2011.
Team 62 Back-Up: RWR-051 – The No. 62 Pilot Flying J team’s last race competing with this chassis was at Bristol Motor Speedway in March.
Pilot Flying J Locations on your way:
Pilot Flying J provides five convenient Pilot Travel Center and Flying J locations within a 100 mile radius of Kansas Speedway. For more information on Pilot Flying J and to map their nearest locations along your route, please visit www.pilotflyingj.com.
Flying J
I-435 Front Street
1300 N. Corrington Ave.
Kansas City, MO 64120
Pilot Travel Center
I-35 Exit 26
600 West SR 92
Kearney, MO 64060
Flying J
US Hwy 71 Exit J
700 J Hwy
Peculiar, MO 64078
Pilot Travel Center
I-70 Exit 49
6676 Highway 13
Higginsville, MO 64037
Flying J
I-35 and US 50 Exit 127
4215 West Hwy 50
Emporia, KS 66801
About Pilot Flying J:
Pilot Flying J is headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, and has more than 550 locations in North America. The company employs more than 20,000 people and is the largest retail operator of travel centers in North America. Follow Pilot Flying J on Twitter at @pilottravel.
Broadcast Info:
Practice
Friday, October 7, 2 p.m. ET
ESPN2
Final Practice
Friday, October 7, 3:45 p.m. ET
ESPN2
Qualifying
Saturday, October 8, 10 a.m. ET
ESPN2
Kansas Lottery 300
Saturday, October 8, 3:30 p.m. ET
ESPN2
