Robert Richardson Jr. Puts Wildlife Conservation Society Into Daytona Nationwide Season-Opener

DAYTONA BEACH, February 19, 2011: Robert Richardson Jr., qualified his No. 23 Wildlife Conservation Society Dodge Challenger R/T 38th Friday afternoon at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway securing the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) a starting position for tomorrow’s DRIVE4COPD 300, the 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) season-opener.

Richardson Jr., who is pulling double-duty this weekend by also partaking in Sunday’s prestigious Daytona 500, maneuvered his brilliantly designed No. 23 Wildlife Conservation Society Dodge Challenger R/T around the 2.5-mile superspeedway in a time of 51.064 seconds at 176.249 miles per hour.

Boasting a defying paint scheme, crafted by the legendary NASCAR artist Sam Bass, the No. 23 Dodge Challenger will display a tiger, an elephant, a penguin, a dolphin and a turtle along with the Wildlife Conservation Society logo. R3 Motorsports, Sponsormonsters and WCS will use this recently announced partnership to bring further awareness to the need to save wildlife and wild places around the globe.

“The car was real smooth, it drove real well,” said Richardson, who will make his 70th career Nationwide start and ninth at Daytona Saturday afternoon. “I just want to thank everyone who has commented on the paint scheme. It’s really cool to be driving something this neat. Hopefully, we can have a good run tomorrow and put this No. 23 Wildlife Conservation Society Dodge Challenger R/T up front.”

On Thursday morning, Richardson Jr., the McKinney, Texas native drafted his WCS Dodge Challenger R/T to the 11th fastest time proving that has a car competitive enough to be a threat in the 30th annual DRIVE4COPD 300.

“I said it yesterday and I’ll say it again, we have a real good race car,” sounded Richardson Jr. “It may not have been super fast by itself, but she really hauls in the draft and that’s when it counts. Our biggest goal is to avoid any trouble on the track and be around with five laps to go so we can give everyone that supports WCS something to cheer about!”

The green flag waives in Saturday’s DRIVE4COPD 300 (120 laps / 300 miles) at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway shortly after 1:00 p.m. Eastern on February 19th with live coverage on ESPN2, MRN Radio and Sirius XM Satellite Radio (Channel 128).