FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 18, 2011

RCR Fields Car for NASCAR Sprint Cup Star Kurt Busch in Shootout

(Dorchester, ON) – The RCR Racing Team fielded a pair of cars for the 2nd Annual APC Summer Shootout at Delaware Speedway last Wednesday night.  Jamie Cox, of Dorchester, and NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Kurt Busch, of Las Vegas, NV, were both behind the controls of Total Lubricants / Stubbs Communications / London City Chrysler / APC Dodge Chargers.  The event played to a packed house estimated at over 6,000 fans, the largest crowd that has gathered to watch a stock car event in Canada in almost 10 years.

Kurt Busch, his brother Kyle, and Cox practiced during a session front of an estimated crowd of 1,000 spectators before the actual practice later in the afternoon for all the teams as the fans clicked the turnstiles.

Both Busch and Cox were quick in the first session, but Busch would experience problems in the second session as a bad fuel filter necessitated a change of the part and a lack of laps during the session.

In qualifying, Steven Mathews was the fastest car, turning a lap of 18.954 seconds, while Kurt Busch was seventh quickest with a time of 19.063 seconds.  Cox ripped off the 10th-fastest lap stopping the clock with a time of 19.120 second.  In all, the top 14 cars were separated by less than 3/10ths of a second.  Jamie spoke about his qualifying effort, “I don’t know what happened in time trails.  As I came off turn two it snapped loose, but our lap was all right – just not as fast as we had been earlier in the day.”

Cox would hit the track first, started third in his 10-lap qualifying event, and while he put pressure on second-place D.J. Kennington, settled for a third-place result, locking himself into the field the A-Main.  Cox said, “We might have had enough to get D.J.  We caught him, but it was only a heat race, and we were in the top-three and in the feature.”

Busch’s heat race rolled off next, and after starting on the outside of the front row, settled into line in second.  He would run there for a number of laps before Jay Doerr passed him to take the position and relegate Kurt to a third-place result.  Like his teammate for the night, he was now locked into the feature with a top-three finish.

Both drivers would avoid running the B-Main and transferred straight into the final night of evening, a 60-lap affair in honour of Delaware’s 60th season.

Cox started 10th, with Kurt Busch 11th, but Jamie had an early problem, and would come to pit road for attention from his crew on the first lap following a yellow on the start.  The crew went to work quickly and changed out the left rear axle, sending Cox back into battle without losing a lap.  The repair job would slowly unravel, as the true source of the problem came to light just a few moments later as Cox parked his car for the day.  He spoke about the evening, “It was a disappointment to only run one lap.  It ended up that it wasn’t the axle, but the spool in the rear end that knocked us out.  It was also great to be around Kurt Busch for the day.  He was a really nice guy and the team enjoyed it.  I also can’t say enough about my guys changing that axle and not losing a single lap.”

Busch would pass a few cars at the start, climbing three spots to seventh in the opening laps, and was caught high on a restart dropping back to eighth.  He would become mixed up in a few altercations before starting his climb on lap 43 when he passed Pritiko, before picking up one more spot a lap later, moving into sixth.  On the next trip around the track he pulled down pit lane, and climbed from his car.  Kurt was the victim of broken equipment.  Busch said, “I got in the one deal and I dumped the clutch to get out of there.  That broke it and put us out.  We had a good car, but we weren’t able to get the restarts that we wanted.”

Kyle also spoke about his evening at Delaware, “This place is a great Saturday night short track.  The track is old and tough, and has a lot of character in it.  This is old time fun for Kyle and I, and it was a blast today - these cars are what we started racing.  It’s also nice to see the guy that won the B-Main win the feature too.”

Jesse Kennedy picked up a pair of wins during the event, winning the B-Main, and then carving his way from 13th to the lead in the A-Main.  Andrew Gresel had the lead and was holding off Jon Urlin, when Urlin pitted from second with just four laps remaining.  Kennedy moved to the inside of Gresel shortly after the restart, and held on for the win.  Pritiko came through for second, while Kirk Hooker made his way to third.

1. Kennedy, 2. Pritiko, 3. Hooker, 4. Gresel, 5. Dion Verhoeven, 21. Kurt Busch, 28. Jamie Cox.

The RCR Racing Team will be back in action Sunday July 31st at Sauble Speedway for a 150-lap Late Model invitational.

For more information on Total Lubricants, London City Chrysler, Stubbs Communications, CANUSA, Delaware Speedway, or Sauble Speedway, please visit www.total-us.com, www.stubbsco.com, www.londoncitychrysler.com, www.canusa.on.ca, www.delwarespeedway.com, www.saublespeedway.ca, or contact Luke Ramsay at (519) 268-7070.
Release and photos by www.maudsleymotorsports.com.