SCOTT BRACED FOR BLUEGRASS BONANZA

Topics:  Brian Scott

Chris Knight
Knight Motorsports Management
Xpress Motorsports
July 14, 2008

NCTS ROOKIE TO DO ARCA, NCTS DOUBLE DIP IN KENTUCKY

Mooresville, NC (July 14, 2008) - - NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series rookie Brian Scott gets set for another dual performance this weekend at Kentucky Speedway when he competes in both the Automobile Racing Club of America’s Kentucky ARCA RE/MAX 150 on Friday July 18th and the Built Ford Tough 225 NCTS event on Saturday July 19th. Scott looks forward to racing in both events on the 1.5 mile high-banked Bluegrass oval, a track he claims has plenty of personality.

“I think Kentucky Speedway is a great race track,” Scott said. “It has a lot of character and it's a very interesting track with pretty big corners and a short backstretch. The big corners lead to really high speeds, and you can carry a lot of speed through the corners. It’s really a fast racetrack. There are some bumps to it that can pose problems if you’re not quite handling right or you don’t have your package or platform worked out perfectly. It’s a track where you drive really deep into the corners, so it’s about getting it to work through the air and being able to drive down into the corners and then get on the gas. It’s also a place that does not seem to be very forgiving. You really have to look out for certain parts of the racetrack and be on your toes. For whatever reason, it seems to be one of the faster, trickier mile-and-a-half tracks. Kentucky is really like no other track we run in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, but if I had to compare it to another I’d say it is maybe closest to Kansas. Kansas has more grip and it is smoother, but cornerwise, I think Kansas is the most similar to Kentucky.”

Scott completed double duty at both Daytona and Michigan earlier this year. The 20 year-old Boise, ID native has made one previous ARCA start at Kentucky, finishing 13th in his ARCA debut last July. Saturday’s event will be Scott’s first NCTS foray at Kentucky. He knows from his 5th place ARCA finish earlier this year at Michigan that his ARCA experience with Venturini Motorsports can provide a boost to his truck efforts with Xpress Motorsports.

“It’s always a confidence booster to run well and to get additional track time,” Scott said. “No matter what you’re in as a driver, if you can run well it brings confidence to you. It’s an affirmation of your abilities. I know it was really helpful to run Michigan right before the truck race. The biggest difference in running the ARCA race is it helps with track familiarity, knowing what it’s going to do and certain ways you can manipulate the track to help your vehicle. The Venturini organization is a great organization. It’s a smaller group than what we have with our Xpress Motorsports truck team but they’re a really close-knit group of guys 0 they do everything together. It seems like they have great team camaraderie, and they are just really behind that program. They want to succeed and they know their vehicles need to perform well. They expect nothing other than victory and being a frontrunner because everyone knows their equipment is capable of doing that.”

Coming off a solid 13th place finish at Memphis, Scott knows his NCTS efforts are on the upswing. Halfway through his first full year of truck series competition the driver of the No. 16 Albertsons Chevrolet has a much clearer understanding of the magnitude of his challenge.

“The most surprising thing is just the overall competitive level in the truck series,” Scott said. “We’ve come this far this year and the only repeat winner is Ron Hornaday Jr. Rookies have won, and three drivers in a row this year got their first victories in the series. It’s showing that the equipment gap really isn’t that big, and any given weekend over 20 trucks easily have the capability, the equipment, the team and the driver that can go out there and win. It’s a close series – look at our qualifying every week and almost always if you altered your time by a tenth of a second better or worse, you’re moving at least 10 spots. It is a very close field with close racing, and you have to drive hard. You have to have a truck with a lot of speed and you have to drive hard. That’s a hard balance to achieve but if you do you’re going to be up there. I’m really encouraged by what’s been happening the last couple of weeks. Being able to put a couple of good runs together and not having any misfortune or big mistakes helps. Then you can look at the next race and reflect back on the same race, and maybe you can up your expectations or at least have the peace of mind you’re going into the next race having put together a couple of good runs. The momentum is everything. We have a little bit of it on our side and hopefully we go to Kentucky and build even more momentum for the next race at Indy.”

The Built Ford Tough 225 NCTS race at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, KY is slated for Saturday June 19th at 7:00 ET. The national television broadcast on SPEED starts at 7:30pm ET. The event will be broadcast via radio worldwide on Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SIRIUS Satellite Radio NASCAR Channel 128. The Kentucky ARCA RE/MAX 150 is scheduled for Friday July 18th and will be broadcast live at 8:00pm ET.

For More Information Contact: Emmett Byrd – Xpress Motorsports – (704) 662-8088 – emmettbyrd@aol.com

Please visit www.XMS16.com