NASCAR Daily News Headlines * April 30, 2008

Osborne Returns To Action

In the time that Osborne was away from the track, interim co-crew chiefs Chris Andrews and Robbie Reiser accumulated one win, two top-five and three top-10 finishes. Had it not been for an engine failure in Atlanta, the win total may have been two. Edwards was leading the race when he was forced to retire from the event early.

Osborne is optimistic about the No. 99 team’s chances for this weekend in Richmond. “With how we ran before the part failure in the last race here at Richmond, I am counting on the Office Depot team having a good run,” Osborne continued. “We know that anything can happen, but if we can keep mistakes to a minimum we should have a good run.”

The No. 99 Office Depot team enters Richmond 10th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings. In nine starts, they have accumulated a series-leading three wins, four top-five and five top-10 finishes.

“Fan of the Year” Contest

Each week, a winner will be selected from fan entries by a panel of Roush Fenway Racing judges and be featured on the homepage of (www.RoushFenwayFanSite.com), the official home of Roush Fenway Racing’s online fan clubs. Weekly winners will receive a t-shirt and hat from Roush Fenway Racing. Once the season ends, all weekly winners will be displayed so the fans can select the overall winner. “We’ve had so many great things happen from an Internet standpoint over the past eight months and I just can’t forget that we owe all of our success to our fans. If they didn’t support the online component of our race teams, we wouldn’t be as successful as we are today,” says director of internet marketing, Amy Rowell. “This just reminds me of the importance of recognizing our fans as much as possible and giving them as many opportunities as I can to keep them engaged. They are a crucial part of our team. The ‘Fan of the Year’ contest is here to stay.”

The 2008 Roush Fenway Racing “Fan of the Year” will be Roush Fenway Racing’s VIP guest at the 2009 Coca-Cola 600. The winner will also receive apparel and merchandise designating them the 2008 Roush Fenway Racing “Fan of the Year”. S/he will be recognized in a display at the Roush Fenway Racing museum in Concord, North Carolina and will be featured on RoushFenway.com in a designated “Fan of the Year” area. They will also serve as the “official spokesperson” of the Roush Fenway Racing Online Fan Clubs and will be used in various press releases and online multimedia materials throughout the year.

In the meantime, 2007 Fan of the Year Jarrott Kirby is scheduled to visit Roush Fenway Racing May 22-26 for the Coca-Cola 600 weekend.

“Jarrott (Kirby) has been the best inaugural Fan of the Year and we have a lot of great activities and surprises planned for him and his wife Paula when they come to visit us in May,” continues Rowell. “I’m excited for him and want him to know that we are so happy he is forever a part of our ‘family’ here at Roush Fenway. It’s also fun anticipating who is going to fill his shoes next year but that’s going to be up to our fans.”

Log on to (www.RoushFenway.com) and click on the Fan of the Year logo to enter today! And remember, you must be a member of Roush Fenway Racing’s Online Fan Club to enter and vote.

Nationwide Series Ratings Up on ESPN Networks

The race earned a 2.6 rating and 2,962,000 household impressions, increases of 28 and 29 percent, respectively, over the same categories for last year's ABC telecast (2.1; 2,291,000). The event also earned the largest numbers for a NASCAR Nationwide Series race on the ESPN networks since live NASCAR racing returned to ESPN in 2007, eclipsing the previous high of 2.4/2,699,000 for the March, 2007, event from Las Vegas that aired on ABC.

The Talladega telecast also earned large increases across the board in important demographic categories, increasing 67 percent in Males 18-34, 50 percent in males 55 and older and 44 percent in persons 55 and older.

Cable ratings for the series have also increased in 2008. The average rating for the five NASCAR Nationwide Series events that have aired on ESPN2 is 1.9, a 10 percent increase over the 1.7 from this point last season. ESPN2 numbers do not include the rain-delayed event from California Speedway in February that was run on a Monday.

ESPN's multi-platform approach to NASCAR coverage is also showing increases in areas other than television. ESPN.com's motorsports section has grown 32 percent in visits during 2008, and ESPN's Fantasy Racing was up 43 percent in visits and 15 percent in page views during the Talladega weekend as compared to the same weekend last year. ESPN-owned Jayski.com was up 16 percent in visits during Talladega weekend.

The next NASCAR Nationwide Series race is at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway on Friday, May 2, and airs live at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.

Randy Moss Forms Truck Team

“We don’t have all of the details in place just yet, but I am very excited about Moss Motorsports becoming a part of NASCAR,” Moss said. “I am by nature a very competitive person and this is an outlet for me to compete at another level. There are some pretty awesome challenges in building a program like this from the ground up, but I am looking forward to it. That’s just another aspect of the competition – you want to find the best people available and you’re competing with all the other teams out there. We’re starting to look at who the best people are and working on getting them to be a part of our team.”

Moss is a ten year veteran in the National Football League and was a first-round draft pick in the 1998 draft out of Marshall University. He has been a NASCAR fan for several years including sponsorship of a local dirt track program and recently made the decision to get involved with the ownership of a NASCAR team. He is also a Goodwill Ambassador for the Urban Youth Racing School and furthers his youth advocacy while holding the same honor with American Youth Football. A major component of the Moss Motorsports program will be the continued involvement and support of youth programs.

“There are a lot of NASCAR fans in the locker room,” Moss said. “We’ve seen a lot of football players get involved – guys like Dan Marino and Troy Aikman to name a couple. I think it’s a good fit and gives some of the companies I am already working with an additional outlet. It’s a smart move on the marketing side of things but on the personal side of things I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Randy has kick started his efforts by contracting with Integrity Sports Marketing, LLC – a leading motorsports marketing company in NASCAR. “We know it takes time to build a team from the ground up, and we have some good people working with us to get that process started,” Moss said. “We are talking to the manufacturers, and we’re already evaluating some drivers. Eventually I’d like to be able to have our team work with some of the young guys that are working hard to make it up the ladder, but right now it might make more sense to find a driver with a lot of experience to get us started. But we really don’t have anyone in mind. We’ll look at who is available and find someone that can help us compete and win as quickly as we can.”

Moss believes Moss Motorsports will give his current marketing partners another avenue to gain exposure and will open doors for new companies that want to work with him.