#77-Sam Hornish Jr. was the Raybestos Rookie of the Race in the November 2 Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, scoring a 23rd-place finish. Hornish Jr. grabbed top rookie honors for the fourth consecutive race and for the 11th time in 2008. Sam Hornish Jr. leads #01-Regan Smith by four points (198-194) in the Raybestos Rookie standings entering the November 8 Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart are the only Raybestos Rookies to win in 24 Sprint Cup races at Phoenix. Both wins came in the fall event: Stewart won from the pole in 1999, beating Mark Martin to the checkered flag by 2.081 seconds while Busch captured the 2005 event by .609 seconds over Greg Biffle. Stewart is the only Raybestos Rookie to lead the most laps in a race at Phoenix, leading the 1999 fall race three times for 150 laps. Three Raybestos Rookies have won pole positions at Phoenix, all coming in the fall race: Tony Stewart (1999), Casey Atwood (2001) and Ryan Newman (2002).(Camp & Assoc/Raybestos) and see rookie history, notes, standings, rules on my 2008 Rookie Notes Page.(11-6-2008)
