John Wes Townley, No. 09 Zaxby's-SPS Ford Fusion Express Notes-Iowa

A look back-Salem: With an 18th place starting position, Townley was forced to play it cautious early on, and in turn avoided what could be considered the “big one” on lap 30 when more than 10 cars piled up on the backstretch. Townley fought hard and raced his way up to fourth position until a late-race wreck involving the No. 99 of Ricky Stenhouse Jr and No. 11 of Brian Silas occurred, collecting the Zaxby’s-SPS Ford Fusion. The RAB Racing pit crew went to work, fixing minimal damage. Townley re-started 9th on lap 183 of 200 before settling in for an impressive 7th place finish.

Points Check: After a career best finish of 7th at Salem Speedway, John Wes Townley moves from 10th in the ARCA RE/MAX Series Driver points to 4th. Townley is the second highest ranked SunTrust rookie of the year contender with 370 points, only 85 points out of first. Robby Benton, Crew chief and owner of the No. 09 Zaxby’s-SPS Ford Fusion is also 4th in Owner points with 370.

Testing One, Two, Three, Testing: RAB Racing with Brack Maggard participated in the open ARCA test at Iowa Speedway on April 1st in preparation for this weekend’s Prairie Meadows 250. The No. 09 team posted the 14th quickest lap of 24.530 seconds and 128.414 mph. Overall, the team felt as if they struggled during the test but came back to the shop and made some front end geometry changes and gathered the information they needed to come back and be competitive for the 3rd annual race at Iowa Speedway.

RAB Racing at Iowa: RAB Racing has 2 starts at the .875-mile paved oval of Iowa Speedway. The team has scored one top-five finish; 3rd in October 2006 with driver Justin Marks. With a 16th place starting position in 2007, Justin Marks was able to battle his way into the top ten and remain there until misfortune struck the team. Marks was entering turn three when the car behind him lost brakes, collecting Marks, and unfortunately sending him into the turn four wall. The team was able to bring the damaged No. 65 Crocs Dodge into the pits to make repairs, but Marks lost five laps and settled with an 18th place finish.

Rookie Race: John Wes Townley finished a career best 7th in his second race in the ARCA RE/MAX Series at Salem Speedway. Townley was the 4th highest scoring SunTrust rookie finishing just behind Matt Carter in 3rd, Scott Speed in 5th and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in 6th.

Iowa Chassis: Crew Chief Robby Benton and the No. 09 team are bringing chassis No. 019 to the 3rd running of the Prairie Meadows 250 at Iowa Speedway. This is a previous Greg Biffle chassis from the Roush Fenway Racing Stable and this weekend will be the first appearance of this car for RAB Racing. This chassis is also expected to run at Rockingham Speedway and Pocono Raceway.

John Wes Townley Live: Rev up your engines! Prairie Meadows presents Iowa Speedway Night at the Races. Townley and other ARCA RE/MAX Series drivers will be signing autographs from 6:30-7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 17th. Meet your favorite driver, win tickets to the 3rd Annual Prairie Meadows 250, experience the Iowa Speedway Race Simulators and witness the crowning of Miss Iowa Speedway. LIVE horse racing starts at 6:30 p.m. CST. For more information on this event please visit www.prairiemeadows.com.

Up to Speed: The Prairie Meadows 250 is the third race on the ARCA RE/MAX Series schedule and will begin at 1:30 p.m. ET Saturday, April 19th with live coverage on SPEED. Practice for this event will begin at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, April 18th and SIM Factory Pole Qualifying will start at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 19th. You can view both of these events at www.arcaracing.com on their live timing and scoring board.

What the team has to say:

John Wes Townley, driver of the No. 09 Zaxby's-SPS Ford Fusion: “I thought the test went really well. My previous experience at Iowa Speedway gave me a pretty good basis of what to expect going into it, which hasn’t been the case at other tracks on the ARCA RE/MAX Series circuit. We struggled with tire chatter in the center of the corners early on in the day but worked through it and made the changes needed to be successful here this weekend. I’m confident in my team and know we will be a strong contender this weekend.”

Robby Benton, Crew Chief of the No. 09 Zaxby's-SPS Ford Fusion: "Iowa has always been a good venue for us. John Wes has never raced here in the ARCA RE/MAX Series, but took part in the open test. We learned a lot from that test and I feel that we can be a solid contender.”