ENTRY LIST
Pep Boys Auto 500 | Atlanta Motor Speedway
October 28, 2007 | Race 33 of 36


CAR DRIVER HOMETOWN MAKE SPONSOR OWNER
00 David Reutimann* Zephyrhills, FL Toyota Dominos.com Calvin Wells, III
1 Martin Truex Jr. Mayetta, NJ Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Teresa Earnhardt
01 Mark Martin Batesville, AR Chevrolet U.S. Army Bobby Ginn
2 Kurt Busch Las Vegas, NV Dodge Miller Lite Roger Penske
4 Ward Burton South Boston, VA Chevrolet State Water Heaters James Finch
5 Kyle Busch Las Vegas, NV Chevrolet CARQUEST / Kellogg's Rick Hendrick
6 David Ragan* Unadilla, GA Ford AAA Mike Dee
06 Sam Hornish Jr. Bryan, OH Dodge Mobil 1 Walter Czarnecki
7 Robby Gordon Orange, CA Ford Jim Beam Robby Gordon
07 Clint Bowyer Emporia, KS Chevrolet Jack Daniel's Richard Childress
8 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Kannapolis, NC Chevrolet Budweiser Teresa Earnhardt
9 Kasey Kahne Enumclaw, WA Dodge Dodge Dealers / UAW Ray Evernham
10 Scott Riggs Bahama, NC Dodge Valvoline / Stanley Tools James Rocco
11 Denny Hamlin Chesterfield, VA Chevrolet FedEx Express J D Gibbs
12 Ryan Newman South Bend, IN Dodge Mobil 1 Roger Penske
15 Paul Menard* Eau Claire, WI Chevrolet Johns Manville / Menards Bobby Ginn
16 Greg Biffle Vancouver, WA Ford Lumber Liquidators Jack Roush
17 Matt Kenseth Cambridge, WI Ford DEWALT NANO Technology John Henry
18 J.J. Yeley Phoenix, AZ Chevrolet Interstate Batteries Joe Gibbs
19 Elliott Sadler Emporia, VA Dodge Dodge Dealers / UAW Ray Evernham
20 Tony Stewart Rushville, IN Chevrolet The Home Depot Joe Gibbs
21 Bill Elliott Dawsonville, GA Ford Little Debbie Glen Wood
22 Dave Blaney Hartford, OH Toyota Caterpillar Bill Davis
24 Jeff Gordon Pittsboro, IN Chevrolet Nicorette Cinnamon Surge / DuPont Rick Hendrick
25 Casey Mears Bakersfield, CA Chevrolet National Guard / GMAC Mary Hendrick
26 Jamie McMurray Joplin, MO Ford Crown Royal Geoff Smith
29 Kevin Harvick Bakersfield, CA Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil Richard Childress
31 Jeff Burton South Boston, VA Chevrolet AT&T Mobility Richard Childress
36 Mike Skinner Susanville, CA Toyota 360 OTC Gail Davis
38 David Gilliland Riverside, CA Ford M&M's Robert Yates
40 David Stremme South Bend, IN Dodge Coors Light / St. Jude Hospital Felix Sabates
41 Reed Sorenson Peachtree City, GA Dodge Target / Breast Cancer Awareness Chip Ganassi
42 Juan Montoya* Bogota, Colombia Dodge Texaco / Havoline Floyd Ganassi
43 Bobby Labonte Corpus Christi, TX Dodge Cheerios / Betty Crocker Richard Petty
44 Dale Jarrett Hickory, NC Toyota UPS Michael Waltrip
45 Kyle Petty Randleman, NC Dodge Marathon American Spirit Motor Oil Kyle Petty
48 Jimmie Johnson El Cajon, CA Chevrolet Lowe's Jeff Gordon
49 John Andretti Indianapolis, IN Dodge Paralyzed Veterans of America Elizabeth Morgenthau
55 Michael Waltrip Owensboro, KY Toyota NAPA Auto Parts Buffy Waltrip
66 Jeremy Mayfield Owensboro, KY Chevrolet Best Buy Joe Custer
70 Johnny Sauter Necedah, WI Chevrolet Haas Automation Joe Custer
78 Joe Nemechek Lakeland, FL Chevrolet Furniture Row Racing Barney Visser
83 Brian Vickers Thomasville, NC Toyota Red Bull Dietrich Mateschitz
84 A.J. Allmendinger* Los Gatos, CA Toyota Red Bull Dietrich Mateschitz
88 Ricky Rudd Chesapeake, VA Ford Snickers Halloween Robert Yates
96 Tony Raines La Porte, IN Chevrolet DLP HDTV Bill Saunders
99 Carl Edwards Columbia, MO Ford Office Depot Georgetta Roush
208 Burney Lamar W. Sacramento, CA Dodge E&M Motorsports John Carter

* Denotes Rookie

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Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!!
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What: Race 33 of 36 on Nextel Cup circuit
Where: Atlanta Motor Speedway, Hampton, GA
When: October 28, 2007
Laps: 325
Track Length: 1.54 miles
Race Length: 501.00 miles
Purse: $6,156,331

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Gold scheme for #2 at Atlanta: Kurt Busch and his Pat Tryson-led #2 Penske Racing Team will be returning to their gold "World Beer Cup" color scheme for the final time this year in Sunday's Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. "The fans have really let it be known how much they love the gold colors that we had on our car in the two races earlier this year, so we decided to bring out the gold for one final time this season," Kurt said of the special paint job that reflects sponsor Miller Lite's fourth gold award in the American-Style Light Lager category at the most recent World Beer Cup contest held last year. "We are so proud of what the color scheme represents that we actually hoped to run the gold car more than what we have so far this year."(TRPR), see images of the scheme on my #2 Team Schemes page.(10-24-2007)

Halloween scheme for Rudd at Atlanta: Ricky Rudd and the #88 team will be running a special Snickers Halloween paint scheme this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway in celebration of the upcoming Halloween holiday. The team has also prepared a brand new chassis for this weekend’s Pep Boys Auto 500. The new chassis is based off of information the team has gathered throughout the 2007 season at various 1.5-mile tracks and the #88 team hopes this new car will yield a strong performance. Rudd has 57 starts at Atlanta, which ties him with #21-Bill Elliott for the most starts of any active Nextel Cup Series driver.(Elevation Group/Snickers Racing PR)(10-24-2007)


NANO scheme for Kenseth at Atlanta: For the second time this season Matt Kenseth’s #17 Ford will carry the DeWalt NANO Technology paint scheme. The predominantly black car will run twice more, at Phoenix and Homestead.(Roush Racing PR) The scheme first ran at Dover in Sept, see images of the car on the #17 Team Schemes page.(10-23-2007)


Special schemes for Sorenson and Stremme: Target and Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (CGRFS) announced today that the #41 Target Dodge will feature a pink paint scheme for the next two Nextel Cup Series events to raise awareness for Breast Cancer. Reed Sorenson will be running a pink #41 Dodge in this weekend's 500-mile race at Martinsville Speedway and at his hometown track - Atlanta Motor Speedway on Oct. 28. Additionally, Target and CGRFS also announced Sorenson's teammate #40-David Stremme will be driving a Target House Dodge at Martinsville, highlighting Team Target's commitment to cause-related programs. Sorenson has created a donation pledge for the Atlanta race, which Target will match, that consists of a number of levels, with the top amount (including the match) being $36,400. Sorenson will donate $10,000 for a win, $5,000 for a top-five finish, $1,000 for a top-10 finish, $4,100 for a pole and $12.62 for each lap completed, totaling $4,100 if he completes all of the scheduled 325 laps that will make up the Pep Boys Auto 500. He will also auction his autographed custom race helmet and firesuit with proceeds from the pledge and auction benefiting The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) and Project Pink House.(Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates PR), more info on the auction on the Racing Charities page, see an image of the scheme on the #41 Team Schemes and #40 Team Schemes pages.(10-17-2007)

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Bobby Hamilton Racing, The Georgia Yul Brynner Foundation and Atlanta Motor Speedway Hosts Free Head and Neck Cancer Screenings for NASCAR teams and fans
Bobby Hamilton Racing, Press Release

MOUNT JULIET, TN Oct. 24, 2007 – Bobby Hamilton Racing, The Georgia Yul Brynner Foundation and Atlanta Motor Speedway are coming together this weekend to help the fight against head and neck cancer. Bobby Hamilton Sr., former driver and owner of Bobby Hamilton Racing, passed away in January from complications of the disease. After the NASCAR Champion was diagnosed he launched a campaign to use his own celebrity status to create awareness for cancer.

Beginning on Friday, October 26th, free head and neck cancer screenings will be conducted for drivers, crew members and media members by physicians, nurses and speech pathologists from Emory University Hospital. These screenings will occur near the media center from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. The entire screening process takes approximately 10 minutes and is non-intrusive.

On Saturday the screenings will relocate from inside the race track to the outside vendor area. Fans may take part in the free screenings from 9 a.m. to until the start of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at 1 p.m. The screening tent will be located near Gate 15 across from the General Motors and Motor Racing Outreach exhibits.

Head and neck cancers account for approximately three to five percent of all cancers in the United States. These cancers are more common in men and in people over age 50. It is estimated that about 39,000 men and women in this country will develop head and neck cancer in 2007.

Tobacco, including smokeless tobacco, and alcohol use are the most important risk factors for head and neck cancers, particularly those of the oral cavity and larynx.


Eighty-five percent of head and neck cancers are linked to tobacco use. People who use both tobacco and alcohol are at greater risk for developing these cancers than people who use either tobacco or alcohol alone.

“The purpose of this event is to educate people about the risks associated with smoking and chewing tobacco,” says Iman Naseri, MD, in the Department of Otolaryngology at the Emory University School of Medicine and president of the Georgia Chapter of the Yul Brynner Foundation. “We had a very successful event last year and are excited about this year’s event. Our thanks go out to Atlanta Motor Speedway for their commitment to educating people of all ages about oral and head and neck cancers.”

“When Bobby (Hamilton Sr.) was diagnosed with cancer last year, it blew us all away,” said Lori Hamilton (Hamilton’s wife). It just came out of left field since he was not a smoker or a drinker. Bobby became a huge advocate for cancer survivors and pushed people to get screened. He would sit in the waiting room at the hospital and talk to people about what treatments he was taking and how it was affecting him. Bobby wanted to use anything in his power to help fight cancer and we still want to do that for him. These screenings are crucial, and we are encouraging race teams and fans to do this for themselves. Hopefully it will save some lives.”

About the Yul Brynner Foundation

The Yul Brynner Head & Neck Cancer Foundation (YBF) was established in the 1980’s after Yul Brynner, a well-known Hollywood and Broadway actor, died from complications from head and neck cancer. Prior to his death, he launched one of the most successful anti-smoking campaigns in history. The foundation was created to promote public awareness about cancers of the head and neck and the dangers of smoking. Since then there have been several state chapters established in Georgia, Illinois, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
The mission of the Georgia chapter is the same as the national, mainly to raise public awareness about head and neck cancers and the dangers of tobacco use. The Yul Brynner Foundation unifies cancer survivors and healthcare practitioners as one team. The Georgia committee is comprised of doctors, nurses, cancer survivors, students and volunteers, reaching out to local communities to educate thousands of children and adults by providing talks in middle schools & churches about the dangers of smoking and smokeless tobacco.


This Press Release and any images that are used,
are used with permission. Do not duplicate or
redistribute in any form without permission or credit.

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Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!!
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"I won't forget to put roses on your grave"

Hey Wall check out this thread
http://www.nascarspace.com/nascar/na...-day-2420.html

And talk to mrsmopar she went last year!!!!! Woo Hoo

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Gordon to give command
October 26
Jeff Gordon will have the unique opportunity to give the starting command for a race he will be competing in, when he says the famous "gentlemen, start your engines" line at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday.

Gordon is marking the 15th anniversary of his Nextel Cup debut, which happened to be the only time he raced against seven-time champion Richard Petty, who was making his final career start in the same event.

"It's an honor to give the command to start engines prior to the race at a track where my Cup Series career began 15 years ago," said Gordon. "For the first time, the entire crowd may actually cheer for something I did.

"Or, then again, this may be the first time that the command is booed," he added.

The four-time Nextel Cup champion is intimately familiar with reactions from the anti-Gordon army, who usually boo him whenever he wins a race, or even worse, start throwing cans at his car as was the case this year at Talladega.

Petty will serve as Grand Marshall, waving the green flag for the 500-mile race.

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Engines will run full throttle for most of race on Sunday
By David Caraviello
NASCAR.COM
October 25, 2007


It's the ultimate test of a Nextel Cup engine, a fall race at Atlanta Motor Speedway that combines cool temperatures and high speeds with RPMs that are always in the red zone. For more than three hours, pistons hammer and parts are stressed to a level rarely seen during the rest of the year. Most survive to a teardown and a rebuild and to race another day. But some expire in a spectacular fashion, overcome by heat and pressure, and leave a trail of billowing white smoke in their wake.

For an engine builder, Atlanta is a 1.5-mile, 200-mph crucible. For an engine builder with the top two cars in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, that's only magnified. Such is life for Jeff Andrews, the director of engine development for Hendrick Motorsports, and the man tasked with making sure Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson get through Atlanta without going up in smoke.

"In terms of the Chase, there's pressure on an engine guy when you're warming them up in the garage anymore," Andrews said. "It's that time of year and emotions are high. You've worked all season long to get to that point, and the last thing we want to do is let anyone on the team down -- driver, crew chief, or whoever it might be. There's a lot of pressure in general this time of year being in the position we're in with those two cars, and having three cars in the Chase."

Gordon leads Johnson by 53 points entering Sunday's Pep Boys Auto 500, the seventh of 10 events comprising NASCAR's playoff. Atlanta has had its say in the Chase before -- Kurt Busch was pulling away from the pack before he blew an engine there in 2004, a failure that tightened the field and forced the then-Roush Racing driver to eke out a championship by just eight points. Gordon and Johnson lead their next closest competitor, third-place Clint Bowyer, by a relatively wide margin. One of the few things that could change that is an engine failure by one, or both, of the Hendrick drivers Sunday.

But judging from the results of this season, that's unlikely to happen. Combined, the four Hendrick drivers have experienced just one engine failure this season, that by Casey Mears at Darlington, since attributed to the change to unleaded fuel. A Hendrick engine department shaken by the loss of founder Randy Dorton in the team's 2004 plane crash has been restructured, rebuilt, and is humming along at a level that would make its former boss proud.

"I just feel like the shop as a whole has just risen to another level," said Andrews, who oversees the Hendrick engine program along with Jim Wall, the organization's director of engine engineering.

"You can spend millions and millions and millions of dollars a year and have all this great equipment in the shop, but you have to have the people in the shop operating that equipment with care and an attention to the details. These engines have to be prepped and assembled by people. People use their hands and minds and are paying attention to what they're doing. I give our entire group credit for that this year. I'm so very, very proud of the level they're at right now."

Of course, the machines help. Before they're put to use on an event weekend, the engines produced at Hendrick have to survive two 800-mile simulated races on the dynamometer in the team's metro Charlotte shop. When Johnson and Gordon flip the ignition to start their engines prior to Sunday's 500-mile race, they'll do so with the knowledge that their power plants have passed a test more than three times longer. Hendrick has the capacity to run multiple 800-mile dynamometer races at the same time; Andrews said the team completed its 24th such test of the season on Monday.

It's part of an approach that leaves little to chance, and is built on parts and pieces proving themselves before they're ever placed under the hood. Much like a new car, Andrews said engine parts are apt to showing signs of trouble right after they're built. So the pieces are tested over and over before they're used in a racecar. Many of the engine parts Johnson and Gordon will use Sunday have been utilized in other races this season, giving the Hendrick team a degree of comfort that they're up to the job.

"Our approach here in the Chase is more to pay attention to the components that we're using in the engine in terms of the amount of time they have on them in terms of engine cycles," Andrews said. "Does it have one race on it? Does it have two races on it? Ideally, something new is not necessarily better. Ideally we would like to have run it at one race, taken it apart and looked at it, and for the entire engine and its components that don't get replaced during a normal rebuild to have one or two races on them. If there's anything within a brand new component that's going to give you problems, hopefully it would have cropped its head up the first or second race. Newer isn't always better."

Neither is conservative. Atlanta may be among the toughest tracks on engines -- like Texas and Kansas, it combines high banks and high speeds, and the throttle is open around virtually three-fourths of the racetrack -- and the Chase may be in its waning stages, but Andrews' team won't try to play it safe. Trifling with a proven engine package at this point in the season would actually be a risky move.

"To go in and change something now would almost be detrimental to your routine and your program," he said. "It's not something you would be comfortable with."

So they test, they inspect, they watch and hope. Atlanta in the fall is a perfect storm for extreme engine wear, beginning with something as seemingly innocuous as the weather. Cool, dry conditions like those found in north Georgia in late October are perfect for making horsepower. And then there's the layout of the track itself, with those big, banked sweeping corners that allow drivers to reach speeds of around 200 mph. At Atlanta, drivers race with the throttle fully open around almost 70 percent of the racetrack. Full throttle means the engine is operating at maximum capacity, which places the most heat and stress on the parts within.

"The engine is making its peak power," Andrews said. "It runs at that sustained rate for a longer amount of time than at many other tracks that we go to. Couple that with the fact that your atmospheric conditions get to be very favorable, and you've got a lot of things that start to add up there."

The driver never rests at Atlanta, and neither does the engine. It's always operating at a stratospheric RPM rate, from a high of 9,500 to a low of 7,500. Compare that to last week's event on the short track at Martinsville, where the low RPMs were about 4,800. At Atlanta, pieces never get the chance to cool down. That's why the Hendrick team tries to limit the total number of miles run during the weekend to 700 -- including practice and qualifying -- which is 100 fewer than the engine has proven itself capable of in an in-house test.

"It's a little on the conservative side," Andrews admits. "But it's just where we want to see the mileage on the engine kept in regard to the components and what we've proven out here and feel comfortable with."

But there are always worries, especially at this time of year and on this kind of track. At Atlanta, no one ever takes an engine for granted.

"At this point, we've had Fontana, we've had Lowe's where it was cool out at night running quick speeds around, and it lasted for 500 miles," Johnson said. "We're feeling good about it, but you're always keeping your guard up and keeping some kind of concern for the engine to try and take care of it."

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Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!!
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MIKE HARRIS
The Associated Press

With all the bad luck Dale Earnhardt Jr. has had this season, including six engine failures in his No. 8 DEI Chevrolet, the sport’s most popular driver is a little wary heading to Atlanta.

“I don’t think there is a place on the tour where we’ve been as consistently fast and at the front only to have strange things happen in the final laps,” said Earnhardt Jr., who has one win at Atlanta.

“It’s a lot like what has happened for the Bud team all year: we’re fast, we lead laps, we set ourselves up for victory and then ‘BAM!’ – something odd happens.

“We should have a lot more wins there, but we’ve missed out because of agonizing things like flat tires in the final five laps or a piece of metal getting lodged in my eye (in Nov. 2001),” he added. “We had that race won easily, and then suddenly I’m driving the last 30 laps with one eye open.”

But Junior was still looking forward to racing on the 1.5-mile D-shaped Atlanta oval.

“It’s one of my favorite places to go because it’s so damn fast,” he said.

“It really takes a lot of courage to keep that right foot planted when you go into Turn One at more than 200 miles an hour. But it’s a place where you can pick and choose your line, and that means two things: a fun race for the drivers and a very entertaining show for the fans.”

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Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!!
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