Hampton, Georgia, (Sept. 5, 2010) - Bobby Labonte drove the TRG Motorsports No. 71 TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet Impala SS to a 31st place finish in tonight's running of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Emory Healthcare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Labonte started the 500-mile race from his 12th row qualifying position. The TRG Motorsports boys had continued to work on the set-up of the No. 71 TaxSlayer.com Chevy after qualifying. With a strong qualifying effort Labonte still thought the red Chevy was too tight in the turns.
"We were too tight all day Saturday, even in qualifying," Labonte said. "Dan (Stillman, crew chief) and I decided to loosen the car up for the race, maybe we went too far. The car was really loose from the drop of the green flag. I was able to maybe get five good laps and then the handling would drop-off."
As the evening wore on the track temperatures were as much as 20-degrees cooler compared to what the team witnessed during practice and qualifying on Saturday.
"The guys were ready. We knew we had to build in a lot of adjustability into the car to make sure we could chase the track. I think we put in two spring rubbers, took the track bar all the way down and even made a heavy sway-bar adjustment at the end just to try something. The car was real free on the bottom and I was doing a lot of sliding all night. I think we should have left the set-up pretty much where we ended practice on Saturday. That was really the best the car handled all weekend."
Kevin Buckler, team principal, had the team working every pit stop.
"Dan had the guys making multiple adjustments each pit stop," Buckler said. "We were making air pressure adjustments, wedge in, wedge out, we even took a big swing at it at the end to try and learn something. After practice and in qualifying we thought we were headed in the right direction with the set-up. We had much cooler race temperatures than practice. We are doing exactly what we need to be doing - making exponential gains on our learning curve. Even though the finishing position wasn't what we wanted, I like the way the team performed this weekend."
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will move onto Richmond International Raceway for the Air Guard 400 to be run on Saturday, September 11.
TaxSlayer Pro's computerized tax return system, which was introduced to professional tax practitioners in 1992, is the first chapter in the company's impressive corporate story. The second was in 1998 when they used the basic technology from the professional package to develop their own individual version for online preparation and e-Filing. Growing out of an established firm with a solid reputation of over 30 years in the Tax Preparation business, TaxSlayer.com has the full expertise of a professional tax service behind every return. The TaxSlayer.com individual program is a fully featured online tax preparation step-by-step system that is designed for the individual taxpayer. This program provides all of the forms, calculations and communication links to allow you to prepare and e-File a tax return electronically with the IRS. Additional information can be found at www.taxslayer.com and www.taxslayerracing.com.
TRG Motorsports is based in Mooresville, North Carolina. Currently the team fields a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series entry as well as a limited Camping World Truck Series effort and an ARCA RE/MAX Series team. The Racer's Group was founded in 1993 and has been competing at the top level of sports car racing. TRG's Porsche sports car program is run out of the company's headquarters in Petaluma, California. The team has the most wins of any team in the Grand-Am Rolex Series with 30, including the 2005 and 2006 Rolex Series GT championship trophy to go along with wins in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona (three) and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
For more information please contact Kyle Chura at (248) 821-0468 or
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. Detailed team info can be viewed at www.trgmotorsports.com and www.theracersgroup.com.
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