FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DAYTONA BEACH, FL  (February 10, 2010)--If the first of two practice days for Nationwide Series teams at Daytona International Speedway is any indication, the off-season changes at Rusty Wallace Racing (RWR) may be starting to pay large dividends. 

RWR’s Steve Wallace (No. 66 5-Hour Energy Toyota Camry) posted the fourth-fastest time of the 51 cars taking part in Wednesday’s practice session for Saturday’s DRIVE4COPD 300, with a lap of 48.836 seconds (184.290 MPH). 

Wallace’s lap was a mere one-tenth of a second off of the day’s quickest time—set by Tony Stewart—and placed him as the fastest Toyota driver of the session.

Said Wallace, “A lot of times at these restrictor plate tracks, you can’t put a whole lot of stock in the speed charts, but in this case, I really do feel like we have a top-five car this weekend.  It’s handling well and really pulls up well in the draft.  Our car would suck right up behind just about any other car out there today and that’s what you want here at Daytona.  I’d say that it’s definitely the best car that I’ve ever had here.

“With that said, we all know that there’s a lot that can happen between now and the end of the race on Saturday.  In final practice on Thursday, we’re going to work hard on making our race car even better, but even more so, on protecting our car.  This place is notorious for big practice crashes, so we’re going to be extra careful about staying out of trouble tomorrow.  If we can do that, I think we have a very strong 5-Hour Energy Toyota Camry for Saturday’s race.”

The next on-track session for the Nationwide Series is Thursday’s 11:30 AM ET final practice session, before Friday’s two-lap qualifying session, set for 3:10 PM ET.  Both sessions feature live television coverage by ESPN2.

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About Rusty Wallace Racing, LLC

U.S.-based Rusty Wallace Racing (RWR) is a professional auto racing team steeped in the legendary history of its founder and one of NASCAR’s top-ten drivers of all-time, Rusty Wallace.  The organization currently campaigns the No. 66 and No. 62 Toyota Camrys in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, piloted by Steve Wallace and Brendan Gaughan.  In 2009, RWR was the only organization with multiple drivers ranked among the top-ten in the final Nationwide Series driver standings.  For more on RWR, please visit rustywallace.com.