Ron Fellows of Mississauga and J.R. Fitzpatrick of Cambridge (who won last Sunday's NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race at Mosport) will both be driving this coming weekend for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s team in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Road America near Elkhart Lake, Wisc.
As happens before most NASCAR races, the teams email out press releases containing details of the upcoming event and extolling the virtues of their driver or drivers.
I received this one from the JR Motorsports this morning. As I imagine there will be significant interest in the performance of "Team Canada," I am including the entire text in this post.
Enjoy!
JR
MOTORSPORTS TEAM PREVIEW
No. 88 AER
Manufacturing Chevrolet/No. 7 Schick Hydro Chevrolet
EVENT – The Bucyrus
200 (50 laps / 200 miles)
TRACK – Road America
(4.048-mile road course)
DATE – Saturday, June
19, 2010
TV / RADIO –TSN2
(coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. EST) / MRN (broadcast begins at 3:00 p.m.
EST)
Ron
Fellows
No. 88 AER
Manufacturing Chevrolet
"It's great to be
back with JR Motorsports this year. We’ve had some fun races in the past and
we’ll continue that this weekend. I’m very optimistic on our chances for a solid
run at Road America. With the powerful Hendrick horsepower we have under the
hood and solid preparation the No. 88 AER team offers, we have as good a shot as
anyone in the field to go to victory lane.
“Road America is a
great facility to be hosting a Nationwide Series race. It’s one of the coolest
natural terrain courses around. I’ve run there a few times in the past and it’s
always an adventure. You can bet you’ll see some crazy things happening with
guys trying to beat one another into the corners to make passes. It will throw a
lot of challenges your way, especially with the elevation changes. You’ve just
got to be prepared with your footwork inside the cockpit and match your RPM’s
when you downshift into the corners. Turn 14 is an important corner. If you
don’t get through that corner exactly right and carry the proper amount of speed
up the frontstretch, you can lose a lot getting up to the top of that
hill.”
J.R.
Fitzpatrick
No. 7 Schick Hydro
Chevrolet
“This is a great
opportunity for me, and I’m excited to drive the No. 7 Schick Hydro
Chevrolet. As a driver, surrounding yourself with good people and good equipment
is all you can really ask for, and we’ve got that with JRM. Schick Hydro has
been a wonderful sponsor of mine for some time, and I’m thankful to them for
making this possible.
“It’s going to be an
interesting weekend to say the least. Racing at Road America is going to put a
lot of drivers on the same page as far as experience. I’m one of the many guys
in the field that hasn’t raced there yet. Thankfully NASCAR has given us
substantial practice time on Thursday to get accustomed to the track. I’ve
spent the week on a simulator trying to get as familiar as I can with this
place. It may be a four-mile track, but it’s a fast four miles. We’re going to
be carrying a ton of speed down into turn one and I’m sure you’ll see a lot of
guys trying to get make passes there. I just want to keep the fenders on our
Schick Hydro Chevrolet clean and hopefully we’ll be up front near the end when
it counts.”
JR MOTORSPORTS
NOTEBOOK --
TEAM CANADA –
JR
Motorsports will feature drivers hailing from north of the border this weekend
at Road America. Canadians Ron Fellows and J.R. Fitzpatrick will fill the seats
of the No. 88 and No. 7 Chevrolets at the 4-mile road course. Fellows hails from
Windsor, Ontario, while Fitzpatrick’s hometown is Cambridge, Ontario. The two
join Fort Frances, Ontario native Steve Arpin as Canadians to drive for JRM in
2010.
FITZPATRICK DEBUT –
Fitzpatrick will make
his first of three starts for JRM in the No. 7 Schick Chevrolet this
weekend. His next two starts come on Aug. 7at Watkins Glen and Aug. 29 at
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, all with Schick Hydro as the primary
sponsor. Fitzpatrick becomes the sixth driver to pilot the No. 7 Chevrolet this
season, joining Steve Arpin, Landon Cassill, Danica Patrick, Scott Wimmer and
Josh Wise. Wimmer secured the team’s best results with consecutive top-10
finishes at Bristol Motor Speedway and Nashville Superspeedway, leading 39 total
laps.
FITZ STATS -
Fitzpatrick has four
starts in the Nationwide Series – all at road courses – with a career-best
finish of 18th at Watkins Glen in 2009. He finished 27th
in his most recent NNS race at Montreal in 2009. In NASCAR’s Canadian Tire
Series, Fitzpatrick took the checkered flag in last weekend’s race at Mosport
International Raceway. It marked his fifth career win in the series and he now
leads the standings by 25 points.
GOOD FELLOWS –
Known for his
impeccable road-course talents, Fellows owns three career starts with JRM. He
earned one win and one-top five finish and has led seven laps in those
events. He has qualified in the top 10 in every race while driving for
JRM. Fellows’ next race in the No. 88 comes at Watkins Glen International on
Aug. 7.
LONG-TIME PARTNER –
AER
Manufacturing, the primary sponsor of the No. 88 Chevrolet this weekend, has
been a supporter of Fellows for 20 years in the Trans Am Series, NASCAR and the
American Le Mans Series.
FITZPATRICK HISTORY -
In
2008, Fitzpatrick leveraged his one win and five podium finishes to become the
youngest ever Canadian Association for Stock Car Auto Racing National Champion
at the age of 18. Two years prior, he became the youngest winner in CASCAR Super
Series history. He continues to storm through the Canadian Tire Series earning
five wins, 14 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes with five poles in 31 career
starts. Fitzpatrick retains the additional distinction of being the Canadian
Tire Series Most Popular Driver in 2007.
JACK-OF-ALL-TRADES -
A
longtime sports car and road-racing veteran, Fellows is credited with three
class championships in the American Le Mans Series, two class wins in the 24
Hours of Le Mans, and 19 overall victories in the Sports Car Club of America's
Trans-Am Series as a member of the Corvette Racing Team. His NASCAR credentials
include six overall wins (two in the Camping World Truck Series), and two
runner-up finishes in Sprint Cup competition.
NATIONWIDE SERIES
STATS – Fellows’ Nationwide
Series history goes back 13 years to 1997. In his 15 career races, he has scored
four wins, seven top-five, and eight top-10 finishes. Fellows earned two poles,
led 200 laps, and had an average finish of 17.1 with an average start of
7.1.
TEAM POINTS POSITION
– The No. 88 AER
Manufacturing team sits ninth in the 2010 owner points after last week’s race at
Kentucky Speedway. The No. 7 team gained two positions and now occupies the
24th spot in owner points.
SUAVE MEN RAISES THE
STAKES - Suave Men recently
announced its Head-to-Head Challenge, a challenge pitting the No. 88 team
against the No. 7 team in July at Chicagoland Speedway. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
issued the challenge to his teams, and will factor in average practice speeds,
qualifying, pit-stop times and race results. The team with the best times will
have a donation made on its behalf to The Dale Jr. Foundation.
NEW, IMPROVED AND
FREE JR NATION FAN CLUB – Now race fans can be
part of all the JR Motorsports action with a free subscription to The JR Nation
Crew Fan Club – the official fan club of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and JR Motorsports.
The club has just launched a new website complete with chat rooms, forums and
blogs from your favorite JRM drivers. Join today by logging on to
www.dalejr.com/jrnation.
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