ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY PREVIEW

AJ ALLMENDINGER • No. 43 Insignia/Best Buy Ford Fusion

• The No. 43 Ford Fusion will debut a new look as Insignia joins the Best Buy racing program
• Allmendinger will make his fifth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start at Atlanta Motor Speedway
• The California native finished 14th in the 2008 fall race at Atlanta, his best ca-reer finish at the 1.54-mile track

Allmendinger On Atlanta: “Its been fun racing out on the West Coast the last two weeks, but it will be nice to get back on the East Coast and on to Atlanta. I know I’d like to leave both the Fontana and Las Vegas races be-hind, that’s for sure, although we learned some valuable information about what isn’t ideal for our car as far as setups go. We certainly haven’t seen the results we want or that we know we’re capable of, but I know what this No. 43 Insignia/Best Buy Ford Fusion team can do, so it’s not yet time to panic. I know we can be much more competitive and I’ve got the utmost confidence in Mike Shiplett. Its still early in the season and I’m ready to get to Atlanta and get back to work.”

Crew Chief Mike Shiplett’s Take: “Like Las Vegas, Atlanta is a very fast track. The tires are your main concern. They can get worn out quick and leave you losing grip. Finding the right balance for the car will be important—how do you get the car handling right, push through the field, yet not wear out your tires fast? With the tire test that was done there a couple months ago, I know the Ford teams have some notes from what came out of that. The track can be rough in Turns 1 and 2 as well. So we’ll keep our eye on that as well.

“Performance-wise we know we can get better results than what we’ve seen out of the last two races. AJ is de-termined and this whole No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports team is determined. I’ve got no doubt we’ll get things turned around and get ourselves back in the top 10 where we belong.”

Chassis History: Crew Chief Mike Shiplett and the No. 43 Insignia/Best Buy crew have prepared chassis No. 265 for this weekend’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. This Ford Fusion was run as the No. 44 for Richard Petty Motorsports last October at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

Don’t Miss AJ In The Media Center: Keep your eye on the No. 43 Ford Fusion this weekend as its traditional blue goes green. Allmendinger will be in Atlanta Motor Speedway’s infield media center Friday, March 5 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss what’s new with the Best Buy racing team. In addition, four members of the media in atten-dance will win something big!

PAUL MENARD • No. 98 CertainTeed/Menards Ford Fusion

• CertainTeed, a leading North American manufacturer of building products, will be on board the No. 98 Ford for the event at Atlanta Motor Speedway
• Menard has made seven NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at the track and has posted two top-15 finishes
• Menard has finished inside the top 20 in every NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event this season

Menard on Atlanta: “I like Atlanta. It’s wide and fast and it’s a great track to race on, but right now I’d look forward to going just about anywhere. Slugger Labbe and all the guys on this Menards Racing team have done a good job preparing these Ford Fu-sions for these first three races of the year and I’m having fun driving them. When you get to Atlanta, one of the biggest issues is the tires. The track is so hard on the tires that 40 laps into the run they’re worn out, and as a driver you have to figure out how to get the most out of the car when the tires are new, but save enough so you can get through the whole run without losing a lot on your competitors in the latter part of the run. It’s a difficult balance, but I’m sure Slugger’s got a good plan and some good data to use to help to figure things out and get the most out of our car.”

Crew Chief Slugger Labbe’s Thoughts on Atlanta: “Qualifying is later in the day on Friday than it is normally, so getting our-selves ready for that is probably the first order of business in Atlanta. The speeds are really fast at that track, but the tires fall off pretty quickly. You have to be able to find the balance to be able to go well at the start of the run, but keep the tires underneath you at the end of the run as well. That’s the challenge. The No. 99 team tire tested at Atlanta and we were able to get some pretty good data and information from that. Plus, Paul’s done pretty well there in the past, so we’re looking forward to what we think should be another good weekend for this Menards team.”

Labbe’s Thoughts on the 2010 Season: “We’ve been pretty close with what we need as far as setup goes right off the hauler each week and that’s huge because that means that we really only need to fine tune the setups during practice instead of going in and having to make wholesale changes to the car. Practice on Saturdays are far less chaotic when you get things close to where they need to be right off the bat. Our goal for these first couple of races of the season was to build a catalog of what Paul likes and what we need to change tin order for us to make the car perform better, and we’ve been able to do that. The cars are driving the same each week and that makes life easier.”

Chassis History: Crew chief Slugger Labbe and the No. 98 Menards crew have prepared chassis No. 594 for this weekend’s Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. This chassis was used on several occasions last year, but has been completely rebuilt for 2010.

Notes: Menard holds down 17th place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings and has finished inside the top 18 in each of the three races run thus far. This is the first time in his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career he has scored three consecutive top-20 finishes.

ELLIOTT SADLER • No. 19 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Fusion

• Hunt Brothers Pizza will make its season debut as the primary sponsor of the No. 19 Ford Fusion team
• Elliott Sadler will make his 23rd career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend
• Sadler is three races from making his 400th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start; Next month’s event in Phoenix will mark the milestone start for the driver

Sadler’s Take On Atlanta: “I like Atlanta Motor Speedway. It’s a very fast track. You know, we came out of the box with a pretty strong run at Daytona but didn’t have the finish to show for it. Then we flat out struggled at both Fontana and Las Vegas. I know this No. 19 Hunt Brothers Pizza team is working so hard to get things right. While we’ve only had three races and it is easy to say it’s still early in the season, now’s the time to get better and turn things around.”

Thoughts From Crew Chief Wally Rogers: “I like Atlanta. Like Vegas, it’s a very fast track. You have to watch the tires at this track. They can wear out pretty quick. It’s a balancing act between getting all you can get out of the car with fresh tires yet save it and your position on track as the tires start to wear down. Goodyear did a tire test at Atlanta in January, which the No. 99 team participated in, so there are some good notes there.

“This race last year was one of the first 1.5-mile tracks that I was with Elliott and this No. 19 team. I learned some things at that race in particular that I will apply to this weekend. We’ve struggled the last two races and have had to fight all through the races to get the car right. Our goal this weekend is to turn things around and get what we know we can get out of this Richard Petty Motorsports Ford.”

Chassis History: Chassis No. 280 is a brand new Ford Fusion specifically prepared by crew chief Wally Rogers and the No. 19 Hunt Brothers Pizza crew for Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

For The Fans: Elliott Sadler announced a FREE online community for Elliott Sadler fans this week. Efans (http://efans.elliottsadler.com/) offers race fans unique experiences and sweepstakes. Efans members can enter to win a chance to attend NASCAR races as Elliott's personal guest or a chance to hunt with Elliott. Efans members can also enjoy exclu-sive content, photos and access to a "Members Only" message board. There's something for everyone and lots of prizes to be won! Visit Efans or ElliottSadler.com for more information.

Race Information
Date: March 7, 2010
Race: Kobalt Tools 500
Laps: 325 Laps/500.5 Miles
TV Information: 1 p.m. ET on FOX
Radio Information: 1 p.m. ET on PRN and Sirius/XM Satellite Radio
Follow Us On Twitter: Be sure to follow Richard Petty Motorsports on Twitter @RPMotorsports for behind the scenes updates, driver appearance information, and qualifying and race updates.