Pre-Race Notes and Quotes
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Las Vegas 350
September 26, 2009
MALSAM AT LAS VEGAS: Tayler Malsam will be making his 22nd start in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) when the green flag drops for the Las Vegas 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Saturday evening. Malsam has never before raced at the 1.5-mile venue.
MALSAM’S RIDE: Crew Chief Doug Wolcott and the No. 81 team are utilizing chassis RMM-104 for this weekend’s event. Malsam drove this machine to a 13th-place finish after qualifying in the eighth spot at Kentucky Speedway in July. This truck was also scheduled to race at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway, but an incident on the first lap of practice altered those plans.
MALSAM’S MUSINGS: “I can’t wait to get to Las Vegas. I’ve never raced at that track before, but I’ve heard a lot about it and my teammate Mike Skinner can’t say enough good things about it. I think the trucks will put on a great race for the fans and I know our One Eighty Racing team is looking forward to the chance to rebound from last week and get back to running more consistently. We’ve given up quite a few points to Johnny Sauter in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year battle, but we’re not out of it by any means. We just need to concentrate on putting together solid runs to finish out the season. It’s really a close championship battle from about fourth to 13th place, so if we can run where we know we are capable, then everything will come together for us and we’ll get ourselves that rookie title and a top-10 finish in the points. This should be a fun weekend. I’m going out there a couple of days early to see some of the sights and then we’ll get down to business and work on getting our Randy Moss Motorsports team a good finish.”
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES: Malsam, a big fan of the world of pyrotechnics, will have the opportunity to take a backstage tour of the set of Phantom at the Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino Friday afternoon. Following the tour, the Seattle-area native will spend the evening watching the award-winning production.
WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK: Malsam and the One Eighty crew had a tough weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. After qualifying in the 13th position, Malsam struggled with an ill-handling truck all day. Though the crew made major changes to the handling of the Toyota Tundra, nothing seemed to work and Malsam took the checkered flag in 20th place. Once back at the shop, Wolcott and his crew found that the truck had a broken left front shock.
THE SEASON’S STATS: The No. 81 team has posted one top –five and nine top-10 finishes in 19 events this season. Malsam posted his best career finish two weeks ago at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill., when he took the checkered flag in the fifth spot. He currently holds down the 12th position in the driver points battle, sitting 31 markers outside of 10th and just 123 points out of the top five.
WATCH AND LISTEN: Race coverage will be televised on SPEED and heard live on select affiliates of MRN Radio and Sirius-XM NASCAR Radio Channel 128, beginning at 9 p.m. (ET).
POINT AND CLICK: Fans can continue to vote for their favorite driver for the Most Popular Driver Award through the end of October. The results of the online balloting will be announced at the NCWTS awards banquet at the end of the season. Visit www.nascar.com for more details and to cast your vote for Tayler.
ABOUT ONE EIGHTY: One Eighty, founded in 1976, encompasses hospitality, senior housing and international brands, all of which require their customers to “Twist Your Thinking.” One Eighty’s hospitality brand has three divisions – Edibility, PrimeFit and Twist Travel, which offer a bold take on their individual specialties. Edibility includes retirement community signature food items. Also, PrimeFit and Twist Travel take a similar cover-all-the-bases approach. For more information about One Eighty, please visit www.oneeightytwist.com.
ABOUT RANDY MOSS MOTORSPORTS: Randy Moss Motorsports ownership consists of Randy Moss, New England Patriots All-Pro Wide Receiver, and David Dollar, a long-time participant in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The team fields the No. 81 Toyota Tundra and the No. 5 Toyota Tundra full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. For more information about Randy Moss Motorsports, please visit www.randymossmotorsports.com.