This Week's American Eurocopter Chevrolet at Texas Motor Speedway

11/2/2011 This Week's American Eurocopter Chevrolet at Texas Motor Speedway

This Week's American Eurocopter Chevrolet at Texas Motor Speedway... Joey Coulter will pilot chassis No. 018 from the Richard Childress Racing NCWTS stable this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. This chassis was built in-house by the RCR team this season and was most recently utilized by the No. 22 team at Kentucky Speedway in October, where Coulter finished 13th after starting ninth. He also raced this Chevrolet at Atlanta Motor Speedway in September, finishing 13th and at Pocono Raceway in August, finishing sixth. This Chevrolet debuted at Kentucky Speedway in July, where Coulter finished seventh. The team tested this No. 22 racer at Pikes Peak International Raceway in June.

 

Coulter at Texas... In his lone NCWTS appearance at Texas Motor Speedway in June 2011, Coulter finished fifth after starting second. He has one start at the track in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards, starting fifth and finishing 23rd in April 2010.

 

The Season so Far ... Coulter is placed fifth among all NCWTS drivers with an average running position of 12.211 in the season's first 23 races. He has a driver rating of 85.4, placing him eighth among all drivers, is ranked eighth among all drivers early in a run with an average running position of 8.550 and has completed 73.7 percent of the laps he has attempted in the top 15, ranking him fifth. He is ranked third among all NCWTS drivers in quality passes (passing a driver in the top 15 while under a green flag) and is ranked eighth in the NASCAR Loop Data Statistics category of Fastest Laps Run.

 

Welcome, American Eurocopter ... American Eurocopter joins RCR as primary sponsor of the No. 22 Chevrolet for this weekend. Based outside of Dallas, Tex., American Eurocopter manufactures, markets, sells, assembles, supports and provides training solutions for Eurocopter rotary-wing aircraft in the United States. Since beginning operations in 1969, it has become a leading provider of helicopters of U.S. civilian, parapublic and military markets.

 

Last Race Recap ... Coulter used patience and pit strategy at Martinsville Speedway to earn his fourth top-five finish of the 2011 season. During a lap-92 restart the rookie driver went from seventh in the running order to 18th in just one lap as he got shuffled to the outside groove. Pit strategy came into play soon after, as Coulter was one of three drivers who pitted during a lap-103 caution and did not need to pit when other teams began making pit stops on lap 114, propelling him to ninth in the running order for a lap-119 restart. Coulter spent the remainder of the race showcasing his short track racing roots and nearly made a pass for the fourth spot on the last lap before finishing fifth.

 

Get to the Points ... With two races remaining in the 2011 NCWTS season, Coulter is eighth in the driver championship point standings, one marker out of seventh and 92 markers out of the top spot.

 

Competitive Rookie Race ... With 201 points, Coulter leads the NCWTS Sunoco Rookie of the Year point standings, four markers ahead of Cole Whitt, who is second in the standings.

 

New Experience ... Following Friday night's NCWTS race at Texas, Coulter plans to travel to a small town just outside of Childress, Texas, for a deer hunt with his RCR teammates, Austin and Ty Dillon. The Dillon brothers are experienced hunters but this will be Coulter's first hunting expedition.

 

Meet Joey Coulter in the Lone Star State ... Coulter will take part in a Q&A session with teammates Austin and Ty Dillon at 3:15 p.m. on the Chevrolet Stage at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday, November 4.

 

JOEY COULTER QUOTES:

How do you feel about Texas Motor Speedway?

"I had an absolute blast at Texas Motor Speedway in June. We qualified really well and we raced well. It's an awesome race track. There is plenty of room to race so the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series puts on a great show for the fans. I feel like we are capable of doing even better this time around because I have more experience driving trucks now. The track is really fast and I am hoping for a good weekend. We've had some success on mile-and-a-half tracks this year so it would be good to build on those past performances this weekend."