Raybestos Rookie Kevin Conway will drive the #7 SpeedFactory.TV Toyota for car owner Robby Gordon in the IRWIN Tools Night Race at Bristol. Conway spoke about his new opportunity between NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice sessions this afternoon.
KEVIN CONWAY, #7 SPEEDFACTORY.TV TOYOTA:
‘Were real excited. I think we had an a little bit of an unexpected transition and real excited to know that we have a sponsor like ExtenZe and Altril that stood behind us. It means a lot, especially as a rookie and when youre getting your rookie season out of the way and youre having all these firsts and you have a huge learning curve and were able to hopefully finish what we started and thats to win the Raybestos Rookie of the Year title. Its a great opportunity. Im ver y thankful for Robby Gordon and the whole team for giving us this opportunity here this weekend at Bristol and hopefully in the very near future well have some exciting news to announce about what our longer-term plans are.’Â
HOW DIFFICULT HAS IT BEEN TODAY WITH A NEW TEAM, CREW CHIEF AND CAR?
‘Everything is new and this deal came together at about 10:15 last night. Got up about five this morning, actually four this morning to come here. Yeah, a lot of firsts. Were still trying to get the seat fitted, get seat belts adjusted and all that stuff this morning. Pretty wild all things considered. We ve been focusing on race runs. I havent made any qualifying runs or anything like that since were locked in on points. Just focusing on getting to know these guys and driving an entirely different race car and working with a whole new group. Its definitely jumping into the fire here at Bristol, a place where you have three or four tenths separating the field. Im really excited to be back at Bristol for the second time. It means a lot to be able to hop in the car and have a little bit of an idea of whats going on. I was confused because I thought I had these racetrack s figured out and I walked in the infield and I was lost. I forgot they had a whole new infield here [smile]. I was like ‘ÂWow, maybe I didnt remember as much as I thought I did. Im just really excited to have the opportunity with ExtenZe and with Robby Gordon for this weekend.’Â
HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO LEAN ON ROBBY GORDON FOR INFORMATION?
‘Definitely. Robby has been a huge help even through practice and after practice debriefing. Hes able to go up and watch some of the stuff thats going on. Obviously his car is running really well [second-best overall after the first practice]. Theyve worked strictly on qualifying trim and we worked strictly on race runs so were kind of at opposite ends of the board and now when we get ready to switch over to qualifying trim hopefully some of the things from his car will carry over and we can get both Robby Gordon Motorsports cars into the show here at Bristol.’Â
ANY IDEA WHAT YOUR PLANS ARE FOR ATLANTA?
‘Yeah, well definitely be at Atlanta and were going to finish out the rest of the year. Well have some exciting announcements coming next week that will kind of outline that and detail what those plans are.’Â(Camp & Associates/Rabestos)
ALSO been told that Gordon got the OK to put the Extenze decals on the #7 car Saturday for the race.(8-20-2010)
