Germain Racing driver Justin Marks has never been to Memphis, TN. This weekend, he hopes to learn the tricks of Memphis Motorsports Park and maybe take in a trip to Graceland. Marks, of Rocklin, CA, will drive the no. 9 Construct Corps Tundra in Saturday night's O'Reilly 200 at Memphis.
"Memphis, itself, has a great tradition of music and it's the home of one of my favorite artists, Elvis Presley. I've never been to Memphis, so I definitely plan to visit Graceland while we're there," said Marks.
"As far as the race track, I know Memphis Motorsports Park is a track that can frustrate a lot of drivers, both rookie and veteran. Germain Racing's no. 9 team obviously has the right setup in their notebooks from last year's pole and near victory. I plan on listening a lot, communicating clearly and paying attention to my braking and acceleration points around Memphis and hopefully we'll come out of there with a very strong finish in the Construct Corps Tundra."
Crew chief Jason Overstreet is one of the rarities heading into Memphis - he's a crew chief that loves to race at Memphis.
"I love it. I love it because everybody else hates it," said Overstreet. "By luck of the draw, it seems it's always hot and miserable there and I love it. I've had some good success there some good qualifying runs and we've had some crashes there. It's just a great, rough short track and I love going there."
Overstreet says he'll use the notes the no. 9 Tundra team gained from last year's near victory at Memphis when Brad Keselowski stepped in to fill the seat for suspended driver Ted Musgrave. Keselowski earned the no. 9 Tundra team's first pole award and nearly took the team to victory lane.
"We'll use the setup from last year, and we'll work on keeping Justin from over-driving the corners at Memphis. It's tempting, but it kills lap times, so that will be a big focus this weekend," said Overstreet.