JR Motorsports Helps 2010 Whelen Modified Tour Champ Earn Best Nationwide Finish
Daniel Eubanks from TaxSlayer, Bobby Santos, Jimmy Means, Dale Earnhardt Jr.
DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. (February 20, 2011) – A scary incident at the start of the weekend at Daytona International Speedway led to a dream weekend for Heinke-Baldwin Racing (HBR) development driver Bobby Santos. The 2010 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour (NWMT) Champion raced a JR Motorsports back-up car in the DRIVE4COPD 300 for Jimmy Means Racing (JMR). Santos qualified the No. 52 TaxSlayer.com/My Three Sons Vending Chevrolet in the 23rd-spot and finished the 300-mile event 17th, his career-best NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) finish in five starts.
Santos practiced the No. 52 car early Thursday morning, and as he drove into turn four, the car hooked right and careened into the outside wall when a part broke in the car. The damage was enough to halt practice while NASCAR safety officials fixed the safer barrier. The Franklin, Mass., native was taken to the infield care center and released. Without a backup car, Santos was prepared to sit on the sidelines and watch Saturday’s race.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. offered long-time friend Jimmy Means the No. 88 backup car to use to qualify the car. Excited to sit in the seat for just three laps, Santos took his first laps in the JR Motorsports Chevrolet during his qualifying run on Friday. Santos laid down a quick lap of 50.501 seconds and earned the 23rd-place starting position for Saturday’s 120-lap race. Shortly after locking in the show, he received news from JMR and JR Motorsports that he would drive the entirety of the race with the support of TaxSlayer.com.
Before Santos took the green flag in the No. 52 Chevrolet, he dropped to the back in order to stay out of trouble and get some more seat-time before racing hard. By the first caution on lap 17, the No. 52 TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet sat in 36th place. The JMR team with the help of Front Row Motorsports filled the Chevrolet with fuel. The second yellow flag flew on lap 25 with Santos in the 28th spot, and he drove back down pit road to top-off the fuel tank.
By lap 33, Santos raced the No. 52 TaxSlayer.com/My Three Sons Vending Chevrolet to the 10th position, their highest of the day. The 2010 NWMT Champion continued to race in the top-20 until the third caution period at lap 57. He drove the JRM Chevrolet down pit road for four tires and fuel. Santos continued to race in the top-25 until green flag pit stops on lap 98. The 25-year-old racer hit his marks and kept pit road speed as he drove down to the pit stall. Unfortunately, he drove past the stall and had to reverse back into it to get fuel. More bad luck hit when he was penalized for speeding while exiting pit road. Luck changed when a caution was called for debris on the track on lap 102. Santos, however, was still caught a lap down in the 19th position. With nothing to lose as he was starting at the tail-end of the field, the JMR team called the No. 52 Chevrolet down pit road to top-off with fuel.
When the green flag dropped on lap 104, the TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet was in the 19th position, one lap down. The “Big-One” came one lap later, leading to a red flag. This set up a six-lap shootout to the finish. When the green flag waved on lap 114, Santos was in the 15th position. As the laps ticked down, cars began jockeying for position. The HBR development driver finished a hard-fought 17th in the JR Motorsports-prepared No. 52 TaxSlayer.com/My Three Sons Vending Chevrolet for Jimmy Means Racing.
“We had a really good car,” explained Santos. “I was trying my hardest to help all of the JR Motorsports cars. I was trying to get behind the 88 and 7 cars, even trying to run with Dale as much as I could but he was really fast. It was a lot of fun to be involved with those guys. They gave me a great racecar. At times, we ran toward the front. We were in position and brought the car home in one piece, which was our objective for the day to have a whole racecar at the end of the day. It just means the world to run at Daytona and be affiliated with the Earnhardt family for one time. I am really grateful that Jimmy Means and his team believed in me to qualify their car here at Daytona. They worked hard all weekend to get the best possible finish we could. Thanks to TaxSlayer who supported us, so we could run the whole race. This was such a great experience for me.”
“With Bobby going through what he went through with crashing our car when something broke on it, never really getting on the race track, I think he had three laps around the track, and never drafted in his life here at Daytona, he did an awesome job,” said Means. “We messed around and got with the wrong pack at one time, and they were slowing like two to three seconds to the leaders. We had an opportunity to be in the top-10. He did an outstanding job. I am tickled to death for him that this ended this way from how it started out. It’s awesome.”
Santos will defend his NWMT Championship this season in the No. 4 Mystic Missile Racing modified. He will defend his victory in the season-opener at Thompson International Speedway on April 10th.
About Bobby Santos III:
Bobby Santos III is a third generation driver, who has been racing since he was four years old. After running part-time in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour since 2004, this season Santos took home the 2010 Championship with four wins, four poles, 9 top-five and 11 top-10 finishes in the 14-race schedule.
The 25-year-old from Franklin, Mass. has driven 23 different styles of race cars, including USAC, ARCA, NASCAR Nationwide and Trucks, and the Modified car he currently races. Santos, a driver in the Heinke-Baldwin Racing driver development program, had one win, at Thompson International Speedway, in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour prior to this season.
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Media Contact:
Heather Lumpp
heather@heinkebaldwinracing.com
847.302.5509
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