HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — Joe Gibbs Racing on Tuesday named Kevin Kidd crew chief for its No. 20 Nationwide Series entry. Kidd replaces Dave Rogers, who was named crew chief for JGR’s No. 18 Cup Series team in November.

Kidd joins JGR after spending the previous four years in engineering with Richard Petty Motorsports. Most recently he has been in the Vehicle Dynamics Department working with the test team. Previously he worked on the No. 19 car of Elliott Sadler as race engineer and has also served as crew chief in the Nationwide series during the 2008 season with driver Chase Miller.

Prior to joining RPM, Kidd served as a race engineer for DEI, and before that he was a car chief at Penske Jasper Racing.

“We’re excited to have Kevin join our team here at JGR,” said J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing. “We already have a great team in place and Kevin will provide great leadership to them. His experience and knowledge should help keep us up front where our sponsors deserve to be each week.”

The No. 20 Nationwide Toyota entry for JGR will carry sponsorship from GameStop, Interstate Batteries, SportClips, and Pizza Ranch in 2010. While the driver schedule is still being finalized, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and Matt DiBenedetto are expected to share the duties behind the wheel.

Shot and produced by IMG Sports Media, “Countdown to the Daytona 500: Joe Gibbs Racing” will document every facet of the organization as the clock ticks down to the green flag at the Daytona 500 on February 14, 2010. At both JGR’s North Carolina headquarters and on the track at Daytona, viewers will be allowed in places they have never been before. The show will provide a behind the scenes look at the shop floor, team meetings and a glimpse into the inner workings of the team.

The show will include interviews with compelling personalities from drivers, team executives, crew chiefs and the unsung heroes behind the scenes as they prepare for the biggest race of the season

Led by NFL Hall of Fame coach, Joe Gibbs, JGR has become one of the most successful teams in the sport and features some of the most talented and exciting young drivers in NASCAR.

“Countdown to the Daytona 500: Joe Gibbs Racing” schedule:

• Episode 1 — 6 p.m. ET on January 24, 2010

• Episode 2 — 9 p.m. ET on January 31, 2010

• Episode 3 — 4 p.m. ET on February 7, 2010

• Episode 4 — 6 p.m. ET on February 13, 2010

About IMG Sports Media
IMG Sports Media, the sports production and distribution division of IMG Worldwide, is the world’s largest independent producer and distributor of sports programming, offering the market an extensive catalogue of more than 18,000 hours of television, online, mobile and radio sports content across 240 categories of sports, including golf, football (soccer), tennis, cricket, cycling, motor sports and mixed martial arts. IMG Sports Media also represents the broadcast rights to many of the world’s premier sporting events and maintains the world’s largest sports archive with more than 250,000 hours of footage. More information is available at www.imgworld.com.

Pizza Ranch congratulates Kyle Busch and the whole Joe Gibbs Racing team on winning the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series Driver’s Championship and Owner’s Point Championship.

Have you seen the new Nationwide Series Car Of Tomorrow (COT)?  NASCAR unveiled the new Chevrolet Impala, Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger and Toyota Camry this past Saturday at Talladega.  Then on Monday NACAR put the cars on the track for the first time on a superspeedway.  The Nationwide Series COT will make four appearances in the 2010 season and then is scheduled to go full time in 2011.  Check out these links for more information and pictures of all four of the cars:

www.nascar.com (Nationwide)

www.racingone.com

Matt DiBenedetto Interview from Joe Gibbs Racing on Vimeo.

Then in qualifying Matt came out fast earning the P4 spot.  During the first 50 plus laps of the race Matt held the #20 Pizza Ranch car in the top 5 and for just a moment was running in 1st when he overtook the veteran Mike Bliss (though he won’t get credited for leading a lap.)  Then under yellow around lap 60, Matt came in for his first pit stop.  Unfortunately, Matt sustained front right damage when pulling the car out of the pit and collided with charging double-duty driver David Reutimann.  The damage and subsequent stops to fix the damage dropped Matt way back in the pack around p34.  Then to make matters worse, Matt had to drop down to the grass in turn 1 to avoid a crash in front of him.  Even with some good driving Matt still picked up some damage.  The ailing #20 car led to Matt going a lap down to the leaders.  After some needed adjustments to the car, Matt dug hard to get in position to get the “Lucky Dog” free pass to get back on the lead lap.

Then the race got really exciting.  Crew chief Dave Rogers gave his rookie the following advice, “Don’t think about how badly you can finish, think about how you’re going to get around these guys in front of you.”  Matt then went on an amazing surge going from p22 all the way up to p6.  Then unfortunately there were 4 cautions in the last 20 laps which set up a bad situation for Matt.  About the 2nd lap into a restart, Brad Keselowski sput out Carl Edwards a few car lengths in front of Matt.  Matt let off the gas to try and avoid the wreck and got rear-ended by Jason Leffler which sent Matt spinning.  NASCAR put Matt at the back of the lead lap cars (16th) for helping bring out the yellow flag (even though Matt didn’t even cause the crash).  Matt was able to get 2 spots back and ended the day in 14th place.

It was quite a first run for Matt.  He drove great and handled the adversity during the race well.  I know Matt can’t wait to get behind the wheel of the #20 Pizza Ranch car again in the Nationwide series in 2010.