O'Reilly Auto Parts 300 Advance

SPEEDREADS

T E X A S M O T O R S P E E D WAY

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SPEEDREADS APRIL 5, 2016

NATIVE TEXAN AGAIN? Brennan Poole is gunning to be the second consecutive XFINITY Series champion to hail from Texas PAGE 2

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR CHASE OFF TO STRONG START

Close race has taken shape in the first five races of 2016 PAGE 3

JGR Team to beat in early going

Kyle Busch has won three of the five races this year PAGE 5

NEWS AND NOTES

Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch, Logano, among Sprint Cup drivers in field PAGE 6

O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 defending champion Erik Jones

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SPEEDREADS

LEAD LAP

TOP NEWS FROM TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

NATIVE TEXAN BRENNAN POOLE LOOKING TO BE NEXT NASCAR XFINITY SERIES CHAMP FROM THE LONE STAR STATE his home-state track 10th in the XFINITY Series standings through five races. He has finished among the top 15 in every start, including a best of 10th at Phoenix, and has qualified 13th or better in four of those starts.

Brennan Poole, who hails from The Woodlands, Texas and is driving his first full season in the XFINITY Series, is looking to become the second native Texan in a row to win the series title in 2016 after Chris Buescher won the trophy a year ago.

Last year, the only full-time native Texan in the XFINITY Series – Prosper’s Chris Buescher – went on to capture the series championship in just his second full season in that NASCAR national series.

Now Brennan Poole will carry the Texas flag moving forward in the series as a rookie and is aiming for the same success as Buescher soon.

Poole, a 24-year-old from The Woodlands on the outskirts of Houston, is in the midst of his first full XFINITY Series season with Chip Ganassi Racing as he prepares for Friday night’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m., FOX Sports 1/95.9 The Ranch Locally/PRN/SiriusXM Channel 90).

Driving the No. 48 DC Solar Chevrolet, Poole arrives at

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“There was a time when I thought I wasn’t going to get the call that I was hoping to get,” Poole said. “I had some success on the ARCA Series and was still in the sport doing some spotting and trying to get in a car whenever I could, but I knew I could drive on this level.”

Poole actually has enjoyed success on every level he has competed on, beginning with quarter midgets as a youth where he earned 90 wins and a national championship in 2002. He dominated Legends Cars next with 96 wins in two years and then moved to dirt racing, where he won seven times, including the Texas World Dirt Track Championship right here at TMS. He transitioned to the late-model series and won a championship in the United Auto Racing Association Series, along with 10 wins, from 2009-11. He made

SPEEDREADS the move to ARCA and stock cars in 2011 and won his debut race at Salem (Ind.) Speedway.

Over three seasons in the series, he won six races and four poles.

The call he was waiting for came before the 2015 season with an offer to drive a half season in the XFINITY Series for the partnership between HScott Motorsports and Chip Ganassi Racing. It didn’t take him long to jump at the chance.

“I had wanted to get that call my entire career,” Poole said. “You always hope others recognize what you have done coming up through the ranks and hope they think enough of you to give you a chance and that’s what happened.”

Poole ran a limited XFINITY schedule last season, splitting seat time with Sprint Cup regular Kyle Larson in the No. 42 entry. In 17 starts, he finished among the top 15 on 10 occasions with a best result of ninth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Las Vegas start was his first in the series.

While an opportunity to be behind the wheel is what he was looking for, Poole also spent the weeks he wasn’t driving helping Chip Ganassi Racing by working as a spotter for Sprint Cup driver Jamie McMurray.

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field Poole in the No. 48 Chevrolet with sponsorship from DC Solar for the entire season.

“It’s emotional, you really can’t put it into words,” he said when he thinks back to getting that news. “To run for a championship at the NASCAR level is something I’ve wanted to do for as long as I can remember.

“I can’t put into words what it means to be part of such a great team. There are only so many owners in the garage, and I’m with one of the best. To have someone like that believe in you, it’s crazy.”

Poole will be making his second XFINITY Series start at Texas Motor Speedway, finishing 13th in last April’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300. He returns in the No. 48 entry and is hoping to borrow a little thunder from the No. 48 in the Sprint Cup Series.

“Now that I’m in the 48 car, maybe I can get some wins at Texas Motor Speedway like another 48 has been doing,” Poole said of Jimmie Johnson, who drives the No. 48 on the Sprint Cup series and has won a TMS-record six times in the series. “After racing on the big track at Texas last year, I have raced on every track they have there, and it would be unbelievable to win a NASCAR series race in my home state.”

His dedication paid off in February of this year when Chip Ganassi Racing announced it would Te x a s M o t o r S p e e d w a y | O ’ R e i l l y A u t o P a r t s 3 0 0 A d v a n c e

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Rookie of the Year Chase Starting Strong Erik Jones leads the Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings through the first five XFINITY Series races, sitting 13 points ahead of Brandon Jones and 27 ahead of Brennan Poole. It should be an interesting battle throughout the season as this young trio all find themselves among the top 10 in the overall driver standings.

Erik Jones, the 19-year-old Michigan native who drives the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota, is seventh in the Erik Jones leads the Sunoco Rookie of the Year standXFINITY Series championship standings, 30 points ings in the XFINITY Series. behind leader Daniel Suárez. He has a pole, three topfive finishes and an average finish of 10.8 in the first five races. He arrives at Texas Motor Speedway as the defending pole sitter and race winner of the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300.

Jones, the 2015 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion, is looking to become the fourth driver to win a truck series title and a NASCAR XFINITY Series crown, joining Greg Biffle, Johnny Benson and Austin Dillon.

Brandon Jones, the 19-year-old from Atlanta, Georgia that drives the Richard Childress Racing No. 33 Chevrolet, is fourth in the XFINITY Series championship standings, 21 behind Suarez. He has posted three top-10 finishes and has an average finish of 10.6 in five starts.

Poole, the 24-year-old Texan for Chip Ganassi Racing, is 10th in the overall standings on the strength of finish among the top 15 in every start with a best finish of 10th.

Series Juggernauts of the 1.5-Mile Tracks The XFINITY Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway is one of eight 1.5-mile tracks that the series will compete on throughout the season. In the past three seasons, Joey Logano has had the best average finish on 1.5-mile tracks in the NASCAR XFINITY Series (3.4).

Among this season’s series championship contenders, the three drivers with the best average finishes on this size track over the past three seasons are Erik Jones (7.0), Ty Dillon (8.6) and Daniel Suárez (9.1). Kyle Busch has the most wins on 1.5-mile tracks in the XFINITY Series over the last three seasons with 10, followed

by Brad Keselowski with seven, Kevin Harvick with five Ty Dillon has the second-best average finish on 1.5-mile tracks, like Texas Motor Speedway, over the and Austin Dillon with three. last three years in the XFINITY Series.

Erik Jones (two) and Brendan Gaughan (one) are the two active series title contenders who have won on 1.5mile tracks in the past three seasons.

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TEXAS TECH GRAD GUIDING POINTS-LEADING TEAM

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JOE GIBBS RACING TEAM TO BEAT IN EARLY GOING Joe Gibbs Racing has dominated the XFINITY Series in the early stages of this season, in large part to defending Sprint Cup Series champion Kyle Busch who has won three of the first five races and led 85% of all laps run. With Busch ineligible for the series championship as a Sprint Cup regular, JGR teammate Daniel Suarez leads the standings while rookie Erik Jones is seventh.

Scott Graves, the crew chief of XFINITY Series points leader Daniel Suárez and the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, may hail from upstate New York, but he has Texas connections.

Graves, a native of Clifton Springs, New York, is a 1994 graduate of Texas Tech, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He also teamed last season with native Texan Chris Buescher, who grew up in Prosper, and won the XFINITY Series title with Roush Fenway Racing. He has not missed a beat transitioning to JGR and Suarez as the sit atop the series standings and they have not finished worse than eighth through the first five races.

“We have a lot of good people putting in a lot of hard work to get to the point we are at,” Jones said. “To be as fast as we are is a great feeling, but at the same time a little frustrating as we are racing our teammates. We all have pretty much the same stuff, and when you get outrun by a teammate, it’s never fun knowing it was probably you holding the car back. We are going to do the best we can. We have been close to Kyle and right there with Daniel and hopefully we can break through at Texas this week.”

The duo will have to contend with Busch once again this weekend as he is entered in Friday night’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300. He is the all-time XFINITY Series victory leader at Texas Motor Speedway with seven while Jones is the defending pole sitter and race winner of the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300.

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Starts defending O’Reilly Auto Parts

300 champion Erik Jones needed in the XFINITY Series to win his first career race last year at Texas Motor Speedway.

DID YOU KNOW? ...the last time a driver successfully defended his O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 title was in 2010 when Kyle Busch won the last of his three consecutive spring XFINITY Series races at Texas Motor Speedway. Those were part of five consecutive XFINITY Series wins by Kyle Busch from 2008-2010 at TMS.

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SPLASH ’N GO

NOTES FROM TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

TEXAS RANGERS TO SPONSOR THE NO. 33 IN O’REILLY AUTO PARTS 300 The Texas Rangers have definitely added some major speed to their line-up for the opening week of the season.

The Rangers will be sponsoring the No. 33 Chevrolet Camaro of Brandon Jones for Friday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. The car will be wrapped in Texas Rangers blue and red with baseballs on the doors and the team’s logo on the hood. In addition, Jones’ driver suit will feature Rangers marks and be modeled after the team’s blue jersey top with gray pants and blue and red piping.

Jones is scheduled to throw out the ceremonial first pitch prior to the Rangers game with the Seattle Mariners at Globe Life Park in Arlington Wednesday for a 1:05 p.m. start.

Jones, a 19-year-old driver for Richard Childress Racing, currently is fourth in the XFINITY Series championship standings through the first five races. The series makes its next stop Friday at Texas Motor Speedway for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300, with qualifying beginning at 3:45 p.m. CT and the race at 7:30 p.m.

Cup Feel in XFINITY Race There will be a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series flavor in Friday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway with Dale Earnhardt Jr., defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and Aric Almirola all scheduled to be in the field.

STRONG START FOR SUAREZ

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Daniel Suarez is off to a strong start this season, leading the NASCAR XFINITY Series championship standings by 10 points over Elliott Sadler after the first five races. He sits atop the standings on the strength of top-10 finishes in every start thus far, including three among the top five.

How strong is that start? Consider Suarez’s start in the first five races is better than those of the last five series title winners. The chart below compares Suarez to the previous five champions in their respective championship-winning seasons through the first five races of the season.

Driver Daniel Suarez Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Chris Buescher Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Chase Elliott Austin Dillon

Avg. Finish 4.8 6.2 7.8 8.2 8.8 9.8

Driver Rating 112.8 114.7 100.5 108.0 99.5 95.2

Season 2016 2012 2015 2011 2014 2013

CHASE FORMAT NASCAR announced earlier this year that the XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series will have a similar Chase format that has become popular in the Sprint Cup Series.

The final seven races of the season, including the series second stop at Texas Motor Speedway in November, will decide the champion from the 12 drivers that will qualify over the season.

“The Chase format is going to add a little bit of stress in my life,” XFINITY Series driver Ryan Reed said. “We have seen what it has done on the Cup side with all the drama and excitement and I think it will do the same thing on the XFINITY Series. It should provide a tight championship battle and go to those last three races, including Texas.”

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ENTRY LIST

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O’REILLY AUTO PARTS 300

20th Annual O'Reilly Auto Parts "300" - NASCAR XFINITY Series - Texas Motor Speedway - 4/8/2016 Last Update: Entry Veh #

4/4/2016 5:03:00 PM Driver

Owner

Crew Chief

Veh Mfg

Sponsor

1

0

Garrett Smithley

Gary Cogswell

Danny Gill

16 Chevrolet Enlyten

2

01

Ryan Preece

Johnny Davis

Zach McGowan

16 Chevrolet GK Services

3

1

Elliott Sadler

Dale Earnhardt Jr

Kevin Meendering

16 Chevrolet OneMain

4

2

Austin Dillon(i)

Richard Childress

Danny Stockman Jr

16 Chevrolet Ruud / Smurfit Kappa

5

3

Ty Dillon

Richard Childress

Nick Harrison

16 Chevrolet Bulwark

6

4

Ross Chastain

Gary Keller

Bryan Berry

16 Chevrolet Flex Seal

7

5

Chase Elliott(i)

Dale Earnhardt Jr

Ryan Pemberton

15 Chevrolet TaxSlayer.com

8

6

Darrell Wallace Jr

Jack Roush

Seth Barbour

16 Ford

9

7

Justin Allgaier

Kelley Earnhardt-Miller

Jason Burdett

16 Chevrolet Breyers

10

07

Ray Black Jr

Bobby Dotter

Jason Miller

16 Chevrolet Scuba Life

11

10

Jeff Green

Mark Smith

Doug Miller

16 Toyota

12

11

Blake Koch

Matt Kaulig

Chris Rice

16 Chevrolet LeafFilter Gutter Protection

13

13

Carl Long

Danielle Long

Michael Rathje

15 Dodge

Braille Battery / Grafoid

14

14

TBA

Mark Smith

Edd Pardue

16 Toyota

Tri-Star Motorsports

15

15

Cody Ware

Rick Ware

TBA

16 Ford

Lilly Trucking / CarportEmpire.com

16

16

Ryan Reed

Jack Roush

Phil Gould

16 Ford

Lilly Diabetes / American Diabetes Association Ford Mustang

17

18

Kyle Busch(i)

J D Gibbs

Chris Gayle

16 Toyota

NOS Energy Drink

18

19

Daniel Suarez

Joe Gibbs

Scott Graves

16 Toyota

Juniper Networks

19

20

Erik Jones

Joe Gibbs

Chris Gabehart

16 Toyota

GameStop / Turtle Beach

20

22

Brad Keselowski(i)

Roger Penske

Brian Wilson

15 Ford

Discount Tire

21

24

Matt Tifft(i)

Gregg Mixon

Ken Evans

16 Toyota

Youtheory

22

25

TBA

Rick Ware

TBA

16 Chevrolet TBD

23

28

Dakoda Armstrong

James Whitener

Steve Lane

16 Toyota

24

33

Brandon Jones

Richard Childress

Mike Hillman Jr

16 Chevrolet Texas Rangers

25

39

Ryan Sieg

Rod Sieg

Kevin Starland

16 Chevrolet RSS Racing

26

40

Matt DiBenedetto(i)

Danielle Long

Sebastian Laforge

15 Toyota

27

42

Kyle Larson(i)

Chip Ganassi

Mike Shiplett

16 Chevrolet ENEOS

28

43

Jeb Burton

Richard Petty

Drew Blickensderfer

16 Ford

J. Streicher

29

44

David Starr

Mark Smith

Frank Kerr

16 Toyota

Zachry

30

48

Brennan Poole

Chip Ganassi

Chad Norris

16 Chevrolet DC Solar

31

51

Jeremy Clements

Tony Clements

Tony Clements

15 Chevrolet RepairableVehicles.com

32

52

Joey Gase

Jimmy Means

Tim Brown

16 Chevrolet TBD

33

62

Brendan Gaughan

Richard Childress

Shane Wilson

16 Chevrolet WIX Filters

34

70

Derrike Cope

Mary Louise Miller

Danny Ketterman Jr

16 Chevrolet E-Hydrate / Ice-Aid

35

74

Mike Harmon

Mike Harmon

Rb Bracken

15 Dodge

TBD

36

78

B J McLeod

B J Mcleod

David Ingram Jr

16 Ford

TBD

37

88

Dale Earnhardt Jr(i)

Rick Hendrick

David Elenz

16 Chevrolet Goody's Mixed Fruit Blast

38

89

Morgan Shepherd

Cindy Shepherd

Tony Furr

15 Chevrolet Courtney Construction

39

90

Martin Roy

Michelle Gosselin

Mario Gosselin

15 Chevrolet BuckedUp Apparel

40

93

Dylan Lupton

Pamela Sieg

Harry McMullen

16 Chevrolet RSS Racing

41

97

TBA

Victor Obaika

Todd Myers

15 Chevrolet VroomBrands

42

98

Aric Almirola(i)

Fred Biagi

Jon Hanson

16 Ford

Fastenal Ford Mustang

TBD

JGL Racing

TLC Vacation Club

Carroll Shelby Foundation

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PUBLIC SCHEDULE

DUCK COMMANDER 500 WEEKEND EVENTS

SATURDAY, APRIL 2 8a

VIP & Outside Campgrounds open

TUESDAY, APRIL 5 9a-5p

Texas Motor Speedway Credential Office Hours

WednesDAY, APRIL 6 9a-5p 10a

10a

Texas Motor Speedway Credential Office Hours Reserved Infield Camping Opens (South Tunnel) Burnout Alley Load In (closes midnight Friday)

ThursDAY, APRIL 7

9a-6p Texas Motor Speedway Credentials Office Hours 9:30a NXS Haulers Enter 11a NSCS Haulers Enter 11:30a-6p NXS Registration Open 12p-8p NXS Garage Open 2p-6p NSCS Registration Open 2:30p-7p NSCS Garage Open 2:30 pm Gate 4 Open 2:30 pm Gate 2 Open for Victory Lane

Club Access Only 3p-4:25p NXS Practice 4:30p-5:55p NSCS Practice 6p-6:55p NXS Final Practice

FRIDAY, APRIL 8

9a-7:30p Texas Motor Speedway Credentials Office Hours 9a-7p NSCS Registration Open 9a-8:30p NSCS Garage Open 10a-7p NXS Registration Open 10a NXS Garage Open 1p Gates 3, 4 & 5 Open 1p Gates 2 & 6 Open for Luxury Suites and Victory Lane Club Only 1:15p3:30p NSCS “HOT PASS” IN EFFECT 1:45p-2:45p NSCS Qualifying 3:45p-4:45p NXS Qualifying 5p-7:30p NSCS “HOT PASS” IN EFFECT 5:30p-6:50p NSCS Final Practice 7:30p NXS O’Reilly Auto Parts 300

(200 Laps, 300 Miles) 12 am Burnout Alley Closes

SATURDAY, APRIL 9

12p-6:30p Texas Motor Speedway Credential Office Hours 12:30p-7p NSCS Registration Open 12:30p NSCS Garage Open 2 p Gates 2-8 Luxury Suites and Victory Lane Club Open 4:40p Loud & Proud Pre-Race Show powered by the Texas Lottery Concert featuring Lynyrd Skynyrd 5:30p-11p NSCS “HOT PASS” IN EFFECT 6:30p NSCS Duck Commander 500

(334 Laps, 501 Miles) 30 min Portacool Post-Race Show featuring post race Charlie Robison

TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY ticket info www.texasmotorspeedway.com 817.215.8500 Facebook: Texas Motor Speedway Twitter: @txmotorspeedway Instagram: txmotorspeedway

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