REVISED: Lofton Earns Best Career Pro Cup Finish in Front of Hometown Crowd

*         **Lofton Earns Best Career Pro Cup Finish in Front of Hometown
Crowd *





*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*



South Boston, Va. (August 8, 2009) - Matt Lofton returned to his home track
at South Boston Speedway and earned his career-best finish of fourth place
in Saturday night's South Boston 250.



“We had a great showing here [at South Boston],” commented Lofton.  “My
family and our company, Strutmasters, are from right down the road, so we
had a lot of our employees here to watch the race.  If there was anywhere to
get your best finish, I’d want it to be here in front of my home town
crowd.”



Lofton started the race in the sixth position and remained solid in the
top-six for the first half of the race.  During a long green flag run,
Lofton worked his way up to fourth.  A caution came out shortly after and he
brought his Strutmasters Chevrolet into the pits for the first pit stop of
the night.  Lofton’s crew put on four fresh tires and got him out in fifth
position.



Shortly after the restart, another caution flew and Lofton came back in for
fuel.  He then restarted in the fourth position behind Derek Kale, Brandon
Ward and Bobby Gill.  Lofton quickly worked his way past Gill after he slid
up the track, allowing Lofton the chance to pass him for third on the
inside.



While running in the third spot, contact was made between leader Derek Kale
and the lapped car of Brett Butler, which brought out another caution.  On
the next restart, Lofton started right behind new leader, Ward and had a
great restart, but lapped traffic prevented him from pulling off the pass
and even cost him a few positions.



“Everytime I had a chance to look low there was a lapped car in the way,”
explained Lofton.  “There at the end, a lapped car cut down on my nose which
got Clay [Rogers] right on my back bumper.  We battled with about eight laps
to go, then he shot me up the track a little bit.  I was able to gather it
back up but lost a lot of time, by then, Bobby Gill was there.  He gave me a
little shot and got back by me.”



Lofton has gained a lot of confidence over the last couple of weeks, and a
career best finish at his favorite track gives him that added confidence as
the Series gets closer to the Championship Series.



“A fourth place finish is great, but I really would have liked to finish
three spots ahead of that,” said the North Carolina native.  “We’ve been
building some momentum these last couple races.  This is the most complete
race we’ve ran all season, so it’s definitely something to build on for the
Championship Series.”



Lofton sits comfortably in the top ten in the standings with one more racing
remaining before the four-race Championship Series begins at Sept. 5 at
Concord [N.C.] Motor Speedway.



Matt Lofton and the rest of the USARacing Pro Cup Series [formerly Hooters
Pro Cup] will take a week off before returning to Langley [Va.] Speedway on
Aug. 22.

*ABOUT STRUTMASTERS*: Strutmasters was founded by Chip Lofton in 1999. Since
then, dozens of dealerships, parts and service chains nationwide, and tens
of thousands of individual drivers like you have installed our kits. Well
known companies that have purchased and used our product are: Midas,
Meineke, Monro, Ford, Walker Auto Stores, Kirks Management Co., and we have
even done a conversion kit for the C.I.A.!

For more information, visit www.strutmasters.com.



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