Credit: Bleacher Report

Now, Turner Motorsports is heading to the “big leagues,” making their debut in the Sprint Cup Series this weekend with Bill Elliott behind the wheel of the #50 Walmart Chevy!

This season has been the season of James Buescher in both the trucks and the Nationwide Series. So far this season he has one three races, two in the trucks and the season opening NNS race at Daytona in February!

Nelson Piquet Jr. earned his first NASCAR win driving the #30 Chevy at Road America just the other week. Turner Motorsports is on the rise in NASAR and very well could be the future of the sport.

Repost by: Brandt Racing

No. 31 Turner Motorsports Chevrolet
O’Reilly Auto Parts 300
Texas Motor Speedway
April 8, 2011

No. 31 Turner Motorsports Chevrolet News and Notes

· Justin Allgaier heads to Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) third in points… Allgaier held onto third in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) championship point standings after an 11th -place finish at Auto Club Speedway.  The Riverton, Ill-native sits 25-points out of first, just behind second-place Turner Motorsports teammate Jason Leffler.  All three championship contending Turner Motorsports drivers are currently in the top-five, with Leffler in second and Reed Sorenson in fifth-place.

· Texas Motor Speedway by the numbers… The 24-year-old Turner Motorsports Chevy driver has five starts at TMS.  He is credited with one top-ten finish, and an average starting spot of 15.8, with his best finish of 10th coming in April 2009.

· This week’s Impala… The No.31 Chevy team will hit the track with chassis TMS-121. This is a brand new chassis for the Turner Motorsports team.

· During the off weekend… Allgaier took in short-track action at Martinsville Speedway this past weekend, supporting the Turner Motorsports NCWTS teams as they wheeled around the half-mile track.  The Nationwide Series regular tweeted his thoughts on the weekend: “I think a new car Nationwide Series race there would be AWESOME #justsayin.”  He went on to tweet, “My thinking is a Friday night truck race, Saturday Nationwide race and Sunday cup race (have to put in lights though).”

·   Heading home for Turner Motorsports… The NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) is heading to Turner Motorsports’ home track this weekend. With the team’s original headquarters in Hallettsville, Texas, this is a special track for the organization. Turner’s youngest daughter, Kris, and current Turner Motorsports driver, James Buescher, have both won championships for the organization racing Bandolero cars at the 1.5-mile tri-oval. Buescher captured the organization’s first NASCAR pole award in the November NNS event.

Justin Allgaier on Texas Motor Speedway

“Texas is a race track that has been both good and bad to me, with Turner Motorsports being based out of nearby Houston we all want to step up and run well at Mr. Turner’s home-track.  We’ve had a strong start to the 2011 season and hope to continue our success.”

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Follow Turner Motorsports on Facebook! Facebook.com/TurnerMotorsports

GOODLETTSVILLE, TN – October 11, 2010 – (Motor Sports Newswire) – The Rexall® brand is gracing the No. 11 Braun Racing entry in three races this fall. David Reutimann will return to the NASCAR Nationwide Series to drive the orange and blue Rexall Toyota in the Dollar General 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 15, Texas Motor Speedway on November 6 and Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 20.

“We are excited to enter the Rexall Toyota in the NASCAR Nationwide Series,” said Rick Dreiling, chairman and CEO of Dollar General, which licenses the brand. “We recently introduced Rexall products in our stores, bringing our customers the dependable quality and value that Rexall is known for. We look forward to cheering on the Rexall car in celebration of the brand’s debut at Dollar General.”

The Rexall car makes its entrance into NASCAR in conjunction with Rexall health care products arriving on the shelves at Dollar General. Now available at Dollar General stores, Rexall products have been trusted by generations of customers for more than 100 years. The brand’s time-tested quality and commitment to caring continues at Dollar General. Customers will now find a broad assortment of Rexall brand products at Dollar General, including over-the-counter medications, first aid, foot care and dental care.

Team owner, Steve Turner, echoed Dreiling’s sentiments. “We are looking forward to joining our friends at Dollar General as they celebrate the Rexall brand’s debut in their stores and it will be a pleasure to have David Reutimann return to the team to drive the No. 11 car in these races. It is with the tremendous support of great sponsors like Dollar General that we take to the track each week, and we are very proud to carry their names.”

Reutimann has been a familiar face in the Nationwide Series since 2002. In 118 cumulative series starts, the Zephyrhills, Fla. native has collected one win (Memphis Motorsports Park, 2007), 17 top-five and 43 top-10 finishes. Reutimann has also claimed three pole awards, including the 2007 pole position at Texas Motor Speedway. Currently, Reutimann drives full-time for Michael Waltrip Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, piloting the No. 00 Toyota.

The Rexall No. 11 Toyota debuts at the Dollar General 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 15. LIVE coverage of the race starts at 7:30 p.m. EST on ESPN 2 with the green flag dropping at 8:00 p.m.

About Dollar General Corporation

Dollar General Corporation has been delivering value to shoppers for more than 70 years. Dollar General helps shoppers Save time. Save money. Every day!(R) by offering products that are frequently used and replenished, such as food, snacks, health and beauty aids, cleaning supplies, basic apparel, house wares and seasonal items at low everyday prices in convenient neighborhood locations. With more than 9,000 stores in 35 states, Dollar General has more retail locations than any retailer in America. In addition to high quality private brands, Dollar General sells products from America’s most-trusted manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark, Unilever, Kellogg’s, General Mills, Nabisco, Hanes, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola. Learn more about Dollar General at www.dollargeneral.com.

About Rexall

Founded in 1903, Rexall values have stood the test of time, and after more than one hundred years, its commitment to providing families affordable, high-quality wellness products still serves as the foundation for Rexall’s success. Today, Rexall products span a wide range of over-the-counter medications, vitamins and sunscreens to home health care products. Rexall products are now available at Dollar General stores.

About Turner Motorsports:

Turner Motorsports, LLC, established in 1999, is in the midst of its inaugural full season in NASCAR competition. Co-owned by Texas natives Steve and Sandra Turner, the racing organization is operated out of a 30,000 square-foot facility in Mooresville, N.C., which houses two NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chevrolet entries piloted by James Buescher and Ricky Carmichael. In addition, the team fields part-time entries in the ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX and Menards, with Carmichael behind the wheel and a full-time USARacing Pro Cup Series team with driver Logan Ruffin. Turner Motorsports recently acquired select assets of NASCAR Nationwide Series powerhouse team, Braun Racing, and is expanding to field three cars in the Nationwide Series in 2011. For more information on Turner Motorsports, visit www.teamturnermotorsports.com.

About Braun Racing:

Braun Racing is a leading team in the NASCAR Nationwide Series that was handpicked four years ago by Toyota to help lead their entrance into the series. The team is proud to have claimed Toyota’s first Nationwide Series pole on February 24, 2007 at California Speedway and their first win at O’Reilly Raceway Park on July 28, 2007. Founded by team owner Todd Braun in 2002, the team is in its eighth season of competition in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and is expanding into a four-car operation in 2010 with an all-star driver line-up that includes Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers, Jason Leffler, Reed Sorenson, David Reutimann, Jacques Villeneuve and Tayler Malsam. Braun Racing’s marketing partners includes Dollar General, Great Clips, Beringer Vineyards, AccuDoc Solutions, Fraternal Order of Eagles, ABF, Iron Horse Jeans, Bigspot.com, Northeastern Supply, SEM and Safety-Kleen. For more information on Braun Racing, visit www.braunracing.com.

CONTACT:

For Dollar General:
Emily Weiss, 615-855-5210
emweiss@dollargeneral.com
or
For Braun Racing:
Jody Jennings, 205-910-4429
jody@braunracing.com

####

“Elliott [Sadler] and Kasey [Kahne] will be behind the wheel of a Braun Racing Toyota in the Nationwide Series. Dodge does not provide manufacturer support for the Nationwide Series, so RPM was free to use any manufacturer they saw fit and as a result made a deal with Braun – which is a standalone Nationwide team,” RPM representative Ryan Barry said in an e-mail. “This is simply a case where Dodge did not provide support for a series and we were looking to find a competitive car and setup for our drivers to compete at the top level for the sponsors that are on those cars.”

I’ve speculated on the implications of this arrangement. Despite RPM’s explanation, this five-race deal gives the team a unique opportunity to see the inside workings of another manufacturer’s dealings with one of its teams, an opportunity not often seen in the highly competitive world of NASCAR.

Richard Petty Motorsports teammates Kasey Kahne and Elliot Sadler will drive Toyota Camrys in five Nationwide Series events later this year, a public relations official from Braun Racing confirmed Friday.

“Sadler and Kahne will be driving Toyotas out of the Braun Racing stable, using the No. 9 in four races and the No. 43 in one,” Braun Racing’s Stacey Thompson said in an e-mail.

As I’ve noted before, this partnership may be an indication that Richard Petty Motorsports is manufacturer shopping in the event that Chrysler pulls its Dodge brand out of NASCAR.

Kahne drove Fords for two years in the Nationwide Series before switching to Dodge when he moved to Cup in 2004, but this is the first time he’s not competed in a Dodge since joining the manufacturer’s flagship team, previously known as Evernham Motorsports and then Gillett Evernham Motorsports before the merger with Petty Enterprises’ racing operations to create the Richard Petty Motorsports moniker.

Sadler also drove Fords for much of his career before switching to Dodge when he joined the No. 19 team two-thirds of the way though the 2006 season.

Braun Racing has put a number of Sprint Cup regulars in its cars, and the team has one win in both 2008 and 2007.

Kasey Kahne will drive a No. 9 Fritos car at the Atlanta Nationwide race in September. This picture shows the car as a Dodge Charger, but with Toyota's Braun Racing fielding the car, will Kahne be in a Camry?

After laying off nine employees and reducing salaries Monday, Richard Petty Motorsports announced Tuesday its drivers will race in five Nationwide events for Braun Racing later this season.

Why are these two items related? To begin with, RPM made the lay offs and salary reductions because its manufacturer Dodge and parent company Chrysler are being reorganized in bankruptcy court. As a result, Chrysler has not maintained its financial obligations to the team.

Braun Racing fields Toyotas from Toyota Racing Development with a slew of drivers including Brian Scott, Jason Leffler and Burney Lamar, as well as Toyota Cup Series drivers Brian Vickers and David Reutimann. The team has previously fielded cars for Joe Gibbs Toyota drivers Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.

Now, Elliot Sadler will run one race and Kasey Kahne will run four under the Braun banner. It hasn’t been announced what make of racecars the drivers will run, but given that TRD supplies Braun’s equipment, and Chrylser isn’t keeping up its end of its deal with RPM, it seems likely that Kahne and Sadler will race Camrys. Previously, the drivers were to drive Dodges in those events.

Before Gillett Evernham Motorsports and Petty Enterprises merged their racing operations together to create RPM, it was widely reported that majority owner George Gillett was in discussions to purchase Bill Davis Racing and possibly switch to Toyota.

Also, RPM has been slow to roll out the new Dodge engine this year, as opposed to the only other fulltime Dodge team, Penske Championship Racing, which has aggressively introduced the new engine with good results in its three teams.

Could this five-race project be a try-out for Toyota? Do RPM officials want an inside look into how the TRD/Braun Racing relationship works for a potential switch to the Japanese manufacturer?

Getting the four-car team with racing’s biggest name would be quite the coup for Toyota, and RPM needs to do something to improve the performance of its four teams, none of which have been in victory lane this year nor are in the top 12 in points.

Switching manufacturers may be a decision somebody else makes for RPM. If Chrysler, whose sale to Italian automaker Fiat was approved by the Supreme Court late Tuesday, pulls out of NASCAR, the organization would have to find a new banner to run under.

This Toyota-RPM courtship may be a sign of the future for the team.

BRAUN Racing

Originally uploaded by pbraun

Finally, the name is getting the recognition it deserves. If only Ross would spell it correctly.

According to SceneDaily, NASCAR checked Roush Fenway Racing’s Fords of Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle; Joe Gibbs Racing’s Toyotas of Tony Stewart and Joey Logano; Braun Racing’s Toyota of Brian Vickers; JR Motorsports’ Chevys of Brad Keselowski and Mark Martin; Richard Childress Racing’s Chevy of Clint Bowyer, Phoenix Racing’s Chevy of Mike Bliss; and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Dodge of Dario Franchitti.

This test came following a Nationwide series rule change in which NASCAR changed the size of the spacer used to restrict airflow in the engines to limit horsepower.

SceneDaily is reporting that Joe Gibbs Racing will be penalized for attempting to manipulate the throttle so that the dyno testing results would not be accurate.

NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said:

What they did was not in effect during the race. They didn’t have an illegal part or engine during the race. They tried to do something involving a magnet so that we wouldn’t get a true reading on the dyno.

There will definitely be penalties coming.

For JGR’s part, spokesman Mike Arning said:

The parts and pieces that were on our cars [in the race] adhered to the rulebook. There was nothing out of the ordinary.

Yesterday afternoon Braun Racing lost one of its most beloved members of its team. Linda Braun, lovingly known as Mama B, mother of NASCAR Nationwide Series owner, Todd Braun, passed away suddenly of natural causes in her hometown of Winamac, Indiana. more

During the NNWS race at Loudon, Denny Hamlin and Jason Leffler will drive entirely black cars, without any sponsor decals, in a tribute to Mama B.

Our prayers and thoughts go out to the Braun Family and loved ones.

Image via Wikipedia

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Combos Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

How has the Joe Gibbs team enabled you to reach your potential?
“Well, I think they just gave me the leeway to go out and sort of be myself, I guess — be who I am. That’s kind of been the biggest thing. And just talking with Joe (Gibbs) and having conversations with him off the race track. He’s a pretty cool, laid back guy. He just keeps telling me to do what I’m doing and we’ll take care of the bad stuff when it happens later. So, the thing that’s just made this year a little bit easier is that, and transitioning to Joe Gibbs Racing and being able to get along with all the people and everybody. Especially, my teammates with Denny (Hamlin) and Tony (Stewart) — being able to work well with those guys, too.”

What do you think of Joey Logano?
“There’s been a lot of hype around him, so hopefully we’re not all too disappointed. I don’t think we will be. I think Joey’s got a great future in this sport and he’s young and he’s upcoming and he’s ready for it right now. He wants nothing but to bite at a chance at it. I feel like he’s going to do a fine job. Hopefully, this weekend is just a telling story of how good he’ll really be.”

What advice would you have for Joey Logano?
“To me, I didn’t have all this hype around my debut as Joey (Logano) does and I finished second in mine. I hope Joey can do just as good if not better in his debut here. I feel like he has a good car. The biggest thing about Joey is that if he keeps a good head on his shoulders because he knows he’s in great equipment — (he) doesn’t go out there and try to make up for what it is not, and take a second or third instead of trying to get a win.”

What did it mean for Braun Racing to get a Nationwide Series win at Charlotte?
“It definitely meant a lot to myself to win for Braun Racing — to have those guys. They work just as hard as anybody else out there. To have the ability to go out there and have the care capable of being able to win was pretty fun. I wish Trent (Owens, Braun crew chief) and those guys were with me, but it was with Todd (Lohse, crew chief) and the third bunch of guys. But, still we made the most of the opportunity there. I felt like — we tested pretty well, we weren’t as good as we wanted to be. Then we started the race and we were just really, really tight. I did not expect that. We made some lofty changes during the race and got it better and better and got track position at the end. So, it was pretty cool.”

Can you win again with Braun Racing this weekend?
“I don’t know. We’ll see. We were battling the car all through practice. We were so tight and then a little bit loose. So, kind of battled back and forth a little bit with it. Hopefully, we can have a strong showing tomorrow. We just need to keep racing here. If we can get a win great, if not we’ll have a good points day.”

What do your post-race celebrations mean?
“It’s just fun for me to be able to win races in general. You never know when your last win is going to be and you always want to make them as memorable as you can. Yet, you go out there and celebrate with the fullest extent that that is your last win. To me, it’s not about getting out of the car and going; ‘Yeah, we won.’ It’s about getting out of the car and really celebrating and doing it as a team.”

What happened with you and Jeff Gordon last week after the race?
“I felt like when I was coming back through traffic there after we changed our battery we got to the 24 (Jeff Gordon) and everybody else wasn’t really racing and Jeff (Gordon) just raced me a little bit harder than anybody had all day. I wasn’t sure if he meant something by that or if it was just the way his car was acting or what. I tried to get a reasoning there after the race and it was just the wrong time to do it. All is cool now. We talked in Pocono and he just told me that his car wasn’t balanced the way it needed to be and he was just fighting for position. I recognize that and feel for him there that he didn’t have quite the car he wanted to pass people so he just had to fight a little harder to hold onto it.”

Was Jeff (Gordon) upset because you approached him while he was being interviewed?
“No. He wasn’t getting interviewed or anything like that. There was just media around. I think he was just — the adrenaline was still going after the race and whatnot. My mistake, but I learned from that. He gave me a bit of advice if there was a next time for that.”

What allows you to use less brake than most people?
“I don’t know — maybe that I roll out of the throttle a little bit sooner getting into the corner. I start the slowing down process a little bit sooner. Brakes with these things you tend to heat up the front tires too much so the cars don’t like that. For me to go out there and just run my laps and stuff like that, I can learn a little bit from whose at the top of the board like Jimmie (Johnson) says. It’s really not much. You just have to try to figure it out for yourself.”

Is the braking something you’ve learned from over the years?
“The bullring where I grew up, when I raced there I would always try to use brake and it really wouldn’t work. Anytime that I would get out of the gas early and not use any brake whatsoever I always turned faster lap times. There was times when my dad was my spotter and I was maybe a quarter or half straightaway ahead he told me to slow down a little bit and I’d pick up time not using any brakes. So it’s kind of weird. People talk about saving fuel and fuel mileage and stuff and people will pick up lap time by saving fuel. It’s just a way of racing sometimes.”

How satisfying is it for you to have the kind of season that you are having?
“It’s definitely satisfying and also I’m pretty grateful to be having a season like this. It doesn’t come all the time and it doesn’t come for everybody so certainly you’ve got to hold onto it when you do have it. Hopefully we can keep going the way we are. I looked at it the other day and if it wasn’t for mechanical issues the worst finish we’ve had all year was a fourth-place finish. It’s pretty phenomenal. We just got to keep going the way we’re going and hopefully we can just keep getting our points and keep leading this thing.”

Are you surprised that people call you a villain?
“I guess there have been villains over the years so if that’s their word that they are going to call it, then that is what it is. To me it doesn’t bother me. I don’t feel like that’s who I am but that’s, I guess, the role that I’m portraying.”

Do you prefer to win in the Craftsman Truck Series more than the Nationwide Series?
“What tweaks the veteran guys is that they’ve been there so long and they’ve been doing it for so long and they feel like they are on their way out and they want to get as many wins as they can. To me, you just never know when your last win is going to be. It doesn’t matter if it’s in a Cup car or a Nationwide car or a truck or a late model or a damn mini-stock. That’s the part of this sport, to go out there and win and be known as one of the best. That’s how I partake it and that’s how I go out every week — just trying to win races.”