Flat Tire Costs Brandon McReynolds Shot at Another “Perfect Weekend”

Youngster Dominates Race from Pole Before Tire Issues Force Him to Pit

MOORESVILLE, NC (November 18, 2009) – Just one weekend ago, Brandon McReynolds was talking about how close he came to achieving the “perfect weekend” after taking the victory at Kingsport Speedway in the penultimate UARA-Stars event of the year.

This past Saturday afternoon, McReynolds wanted to prove that Kingsport was no fluke and was on his way to finally achieving the “perfect weekend.” McReynolds dominated the season finale for the UARA-Stars Series at Concord (NC) Speedway before a flat tire with just 45 laps to go forced him to pit out of the lead as the field was ready for a late-race restart. Because of the unscheduled stop, McReynolds fell a lap down and eventually finished a disappointing 14th.

“There is nothing you can do about it I guess, but it really stinks when the best car on the track doesn’t win the race,” said a disappointed McReynolds after the race. “We had them covered all weekend long. The #28 Airplus Insoles / Team McReynolds Dodge was as close to perfect as a racecar can get. We were on cruise control out there. I think maybe only Kyle (Grissom) had anything for us, but our car was so good on the long runs. We were just ready to roll to the finish but you can’t control when the tires start to come apart on you. We had no choice but to come in and pit.”

Up until the lap 107 pit stop, McReynolds was never out of the top spot all weekend long at Concord. In the morning’s two practice sessions, McReynolds found himself atop the speed charts. When qualifying rolled around, Brandon and the #28 Airplus Insoles / Team McReynolds Dodge once again found themselves up front, nearly a tenth of a second quicker than second-place Grissom.

“You always want to come to a track and lead everything, but I really wanted to be on the pole to back up what we did here (at Concord) a few weeks ago,” said McReynolds, referring to the race at Concord that was rained out just prior to race time, where McReynolds grabbed the pole. “Counting the pole we got for the rainout that they eventually scrapped, that was three poles in a row for this team. We wanted to prove that we were fast and we were the car to beat here all weekend long.”

When the green flag fell on the 150-lap event, McReynolds did just that, jumping out to the lead on lap one and never looking back. McReynolds held off early restart challenges from Grissom and eventually pulled out to a several-second lead as green-flag runs continued, leading the first 106 laps of the event.

However, following the second red flag condition of the race, McReynolds realized his right front tire was going flat and had to give up the lead to come to pit road. Brandon was able to get off pit road quickly thanks to quick work from the team, but lost a lap in the process. Despite being a lap down, Brandon showed the strength of the #28 Airplus Insoles / Team McReynolds Dodge by racing from dead last on the grid back up to the rear bumper of the leaders in the closing laps.

“It’s really disappointing to come out of there with a 14th-place finish when we knew and everyone here knew tonight that we were the best car. But like I said, there is nothing we can do about tire problems. It is just a part of racing. You have to take the bad with the good I guess. We just really wanted to wrap up the season with two straight races of getting the pole, leading all of the laps and winning the race. And we were on our way of doing that, but sometimes the racing gods just say it wasn’t meant to be.”

Much like last week, it was Brandon’s good friend Coleman Pressley that kept McReynolds from achieving the “perfect weekend” by eventually winning the race.

“I guess Coleman (Pressley) kept me from getting the perfect weekend again,” joked Brandon after the event. “Last week at Kingsport, he ran one really good lap in practice and knocked us off of the top spot in practice. This week, he took advantage of our problem and won the race. It’s ok though. He’s one of my good friends and if I can’t win, I like to see one of my buddies take the win. There are a lot of good racers in this series and I have a lot of friends out here racing. So it is nice to see them win if we can’t.”

Brandon ended the season with three wins and three poles in 16 UARA-Stars Series starts. Brandon also had seven top-five finishes and 10 top-10 finishes along the way. In addition to his UARA accomplishments, McReynolds finished second in the annual Bailey’s 300 at Martinsville Speedway in early October.

The season was a huge success and team owner Larry McReynolds knew it wouldn’t have been possible without a lot of help.

“I want to personally thank all our team members (Crew Chief Nick Hutchins, Adam Fournier, Chris Howell, Brandon Laws, Ryan Flores, Pat Giese and Steve Drummond) for their hard work during this 2009 season,” said Larry, who is also Brandon’s father. “All of them, as in any team, played a huge roll in our success this year. I would also like to thank Corey LaJoie and Matt DiBenedetto for going to Ace Speedway and Concord Speedway as ‘stand-by’ drivers while Brandon was under the weather.

“More importantly, none of this year would have been possible without our primary sponsor, Airplus Insoles, and our associate sponsors Turtle Wax, Draco Springs, Performance Friction Brakes, Sparco Uniforms, The Joie of Seating, Wix Filters, Brown and Miller Racing Products, Quarter Master, CJR Products and Joe Gibbs Driven Oil. A special thanks to Greg Marlowe with Marlowe Racing Chassis for working so closely with us the past two years and to Don Kowalsky with Kowalsky Engines for giving us horsepower second to none. Last but not least, thanks to our driver and my son, Brandon, for driving his heart out every single lap of 2009 and not giving up when things were down.”

Team McReynolds hopes to carry the team’s late-season momentum into the 2010 season by setting a goal of moving to the NASCAR Camping World East or ARCA Series or a combination of both, but still with the desire to run some UARA events. The biggest challenge to accomplish any of this is to secure sponsorship. We feel like we have a great package to offer with a talented young driver, a championship caliber race team and not to mention the likes of Larry McReynolds to help promote the brand of any product or company. Anyone with interest, leads, thoughts or ideas to help Team McReynolds achieve our goals would be greatly appreciated. We strongly feel we can move Brandon to one of these top series and not only be competitive, but help give a company a huge bang for their buck. Team Owner/Dad Larry McReynolds is getting concerned that time is running out, but said "we will keep searching and mainly keep the faith something will come our way." Please contact the shop office at 704-799-9170 to discuss the opportunities available.

As always, check out the UARA-Stars website, www.uara-stars.com, for race recaps, results and point standings. And check out the new Brandon McReynolds website, www.brandonmcreynolds.com, for all the information on Brandon and the entire team.

If you can’t make it out to the track to enjoy the action live and see how Brandon and the team are doing, be sure to follow along with at-track coverage and Twitter updates from www.race22.com.

About Airplus

Airplus is a brand of Implus Footcare, LLC, headquartered in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park. Airplus is one of the top national brands in the footwear accessory industry, with distribution in thousands of retail outlets across North American, and in 65 countries throughout the world. The products incorporate the latest technology to give both men and women the ultimate in comfort, support, protection and durability. For more information, including a list of retail outlets, please visit www.airplusfootcare.com or call 1-800-446-7587

About Implus Footcare, LLC

Headquartered in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, Implus is an innovative leader in the “below the ankle” categories of insoles, performance socks, shoe laces and shoe care. Implus’ brands include Sof Sole®, Yaktrax®, apara®, Airplus®, SneakerBalls® and Sof Comfort®, and are distributed in over 50,000 retail outlets across North America and in 65 countries worldwide. For more information, please visit www.implus.com or call (800) 446-7587.

Ó SCMSRN.com/Paul J Miller 3^rd, 2000-2009