Annett has a strong car for Friday race at Bristol

Michael Annett • No. 43 Pilot Flying J Ford Mustang

Michael Annett on Going to Bristol Motor Speedway: “I’m excited to go to Bristol this weekend. We had a tough time in Montreal, and I’m looking forward to putting that behind us and getting our momentum back on Friday night in Thunder Valley. We need to get back our streak of top-five finishes so we can gain some ground in the point standings. We know we are good on oval tracks, and we had a strong car in Bristol earlier this year. We are bringing back that same car this weekend and I know the crew has been working really hard this week to give me a great setup. Friday night under the lights at Bristol always makes for an exciting night, and hopefully when all the sparks are done flying at the end of the night our Pilot Flying J Ford is in Victory Lane.”

Crew Chief Philippe Lopez’s Thoughts on Bristol: “We went to Bristol earlier in the year and it was just our fourth race of the season. We were still in the building process of this No. 43 Pilot Flying J team and we still come out of the weekend with an 11th-place finish. We are looking to improve upon our earlier performance at Bristol this time around because we are no longer building race cars, we are now racing race cars.”

Lopez on Challenges at Bristol: “We may face some challenges this weekend since they have made some changed to the track surface since we raced there in March. They shaved the top of the race track and got rid of the variable banking. From everything we have heard it sounds like we better have our Pilot Flying J Ford handling well on the bottom of the track. That may pose a problem for us because last time we were there we ran really good on the top of the track. That’s not going to be available to us anymore, so we are going to have to use all of practice to run the bottom and learn how to make our car work well on the bottom. I believe that we are going to see the winner of the race run on the bottom of the track all night and hopefully that can be Michael and our Pilot Flying J Ford.”

Chassis History: The No. 43 RPM NASCAR Nationwide Series team has prepared chassis No. 621 for the 250-lap race in Bristol, Tenn. This Pilot Flying J Ford Mustang was run previously this season at Bristol and Dover.

Source: Richard Petty Motorsports