Double Duty in Atlanta...

10/26/2008

Speed Stays in Top 35 at Atlanta

+ ‘THE ROOK’ DRIVES TO FIVE

Scott Speed earned his fifth Raybestos Rookie of the Race award by finishing fifth in Saturday’s E-Z-GO 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He never ran outside the top 10 after starting 11th for his fourth top five and seventh top 10 in 13 starts. Driver No. 22 has been the highest-finishing rookie in five Craftsman Truck Series races — at a diverse group of tracks that also includes Bristol, Dover, Martinsville and Michigan.

“The truck ran pretty decent all day,” Speed said. “We definitely had the high side of (turns) one and two down. We got held up a little bit in traffic and everyone got away from us. It took us a while to catch them all, but at the end we were definitely really quick.”

Speed will run the balance of the Sprint Cup season with Red Bull Racing Team and Craftsman Truck schedule with Bill Davis Racing.

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+ATLANTA SPEEDWAY “PEP BOYS AUTO 500

Like his teammate, No. 84 driver Scott Speed battled a loose condition and a few problems on pit road to finish 34th. In addition to sliding through his pit box, Speed also earned one of the 11 speeding-on-pit-road penalties handed down Sunday. (Just two of the lessons rookies learn.) Still, he led his first lap (lap 37) in Sprint Cup competition and has completed 99 percent of the circuits run in his two starts. The No. 84 sits 35th in the car owner standings — 25 points behind 34th and 80 points ahead of the red.

Scott Speed, driver, No. 84:

“We started out the race so extremely loose. We kept working on it as the race went on and we got it from extremely loose to regular loose. From there, we were able to keep up with the pace better and not fall so far behind. We still didn’t finish where we would have liked, but we did finish the race and getting these laps is really important for myself and the team as I learn to drive these Cup cars.”