LEBANON, Tenn. (June 5, 2010) — Pacific Northwest native Tayler Malsam scored a solid 11th-place finish in his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut on Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway.
Starting from the rear of the 43-car field because of an engine change after qualifying for the Federated Auto Parts 300, the 21-year-old from Sammamish, Wash., steadily moved through the field in his first run in the No. 10 Toyota for Braun Racing. Although Malsam went a lap down early in the race, he used the wave-around rule to get back on the lead lap and was able to challenge for a top-10 finish in the closing laps of the race.
"Everything felt good, I didn’t have any complaints the whole night,” Malsam said. “We were just a tad bit loose in, but other than that we were fine."
Series point leader Brad Keselowski started deep in the field but dominated once he got out front, leading 98 of 225 laps for his third win on the season and his second career trip to Nashville’s victory lane. Carl Edwards briefly challenged for the lead on the final restart with 24 laps to go, before falling back to finish second. Paul Menard made it a NASCAR Cup Series sweep of the top three positions, with Justin Allgaier — who led the first 58 laps from the pole — finishing fourth and Mike Bliss rounding out the top five.
Malsam’s run to the front on Saturday is all the more impressive for the fact that a week ago he was slated to race in Friday’s NASCAR truck race instead. Kyle Busch Motorsports announced on Tuesday that Malsam, who was No. 11 in truck series standings after seven races, would instead move up to the Nationwide Series with Braun.
After a short but hectic week that included getting his seat fitted in the No. 10 Toyota at the Braun shop and learning the names of his crew, Malsam was bothered by electrical problems during both practice sessions on Friday at Nashville. That led to an engine change that negated his 25th-place qualifying effort earlier Saturday, and in his pre-race TV interview Malsam talked about how different the vehicles were in the NASCAR truck and Nationwide series, and he said his goals for the race were to complete all the laps and learn as much as he could.
Still, once the green flag fell, things seemed to fall into place for Malsam, who needed just 50 laps to move into the top 20. He was caught on pit road and lost a lap when the second of eight caution flags waved, but when the next yellow came out 20 laps later he didn’t pit and was therefore able to take the wave-around to get back on the lead lap.
“You’re doing one heck of a job for your first time with us,” crew chief Stuart Cooper told Malsam over the radio right before the final restart. “Be smart on your passes and let’s finish this one."
Malsam is scheduled to compete in a total of 13 Nationwide Series races for Braun Racing.
On the Web
www.taylermalsam.com
www.oneeightyracing.com
www.braunracing.com
About One Eighty
One Eighty is a privately-held company located in downtown Seattle, Washington. Chairman and CEO, Dan Madsen has developed a combination of people, platform and pipeline focused on changing the way business is done. His drive is to make One Eighty not only a great company to work with, but also a great company to work for. Since 1988, his business philosophy has been simple – Always put people first and positively impact the lives of employees, customers and business associates everyday. This philosophy has been applied to One Eighty’s senior housing brands (Leisure Care, Leisure Care Premiere, Dolcetto and Signature 180.) They operate over 40 communities and nearly 7,000 units in the Western United States and Canada. One Eighty also owns hospitality brands Twist Travel™, PrimeFit™ and Edibility™ and is involved in One Eighty Racing, a NASCAR race team. For more information visit www.oneeightytwist.com
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