2015-04-10

Derek White to Drive Grafoid Dodge in the NASCAR Xfinity Series



Derek White Motorsports

 



 

PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION

 

NASCAR Xfinity Series

 

Derek White to Drive Grafoid Dodge in the NASCAR Xfinity Series

 

Veteran driver Derek White has signed with Motorsports Business Management (MBM) principal Carl Long to participate in the remaining rounds of the 2015 NASCAR Xfinity Series. The team will be supported by Grafoid and Braille Battery.

 

Kahnawake (Canada), April 10, 2015 – The partnership between Derek White and Carl Long is the fruit of many years of discussions, as both shared a common goal of building a NASCAR team capable of competing at the highest level with a partner they had full confidence in. The team will prepare on and supply trackside support for the No. 13 Grafoid Dodge that will race in every round of the 2015 NASCAR Xfinity Series. White will drive the car for the majority of events, and it will be rented out for events when business commitments prevent White from attending the event.

 



Derek White, a Mohawk based near Montreal (Canada), came to NASCAR racing after almost 30 years of Drag Racing, culminating with a 1300hp / 8-second car. At the time, White wanted an even more exciting outlet for his energies and turned to oval racing on pavement in 2009. He enjoyed the new type of racing right from the start. "After a few races in a Sportsman car, I moved up and had to learn completely different driving techniques while competing in the highest level of stock car racing in Canada, the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series (NCaTS). I took it easy at the beginning, learning from watching the old pros and making sure that I was never in the way. I am really proud to have been named the 2010 Rookie of the year in NCaTS.''

 

History repeated itself after some 35 races in NCaTS, as White started looking for tougher competition and more power. Derek first turned to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for six races before moving up to the Nationwide Series (Now called the Xfinity Series), just one step below the top series in NASCAR, the Sprint Cup.

 

As he points out, he is now racing in a different world. ''The thrill of driving up to 200 mph (320 km/h) close to a wall, on a much longer and wider track, is beyond anything I have ever experienced. Adjusting to twice the speed, to the aerodynamic forces and to the mix of highly skilled and less experienced drivers, is a fantastic challenge for me. I go racing to get a break from running my businesses, and an Xfinity weekend is certainly another world far from my day-to-day work.'' Derek's race strategy is simple: get a feel for the track, the traffic and the competition in the early laps, then push harder to take advantage of the inevitable incidents and move up the order in the second half of the race.

 

White already has his eye on the Sprint Cup, against the best drivers and cars in NACAR. As he admits: "I am always up for a challenge, and running against the absolute best is what I really want to do. I am doing everything I can to achieve that goal."

 

Main sponsor Grafoid, "Leading the Graphene Revolution", came on board this year. Founded in 2011, Grafoid Inc. is a research, development and investment company that helps fund, manages and develops markets for processes that produce graphene for use by leading corporations and institutions. Graphene is an extraordinary element, the basic structural component of organic elements such as graphite, charcoal and carbon. It is 100 times stronger than steel by weight, conducts heat and electricity with great efficiency and is nearly transparent.

 

As Derek explains: ''Together with Grafoid, we have already approached NASCAR and top teams to see how graphene can be used to add solidity and safety, and decrease the weight of the race cars.'' NASCAR operates a top-flight R&D facility in Charlotte NC, where the cars of today and tomorrow are being studied and developed and where modern composites such as grapheme could find more applications at major teams and suppliers.

 

Braille Battery has also signed up as a partner for the team effort. A subsidiary of Grafoid, Braille Battery is the world leader in ultra lightweight Lithium-Ion high performance batteries and also produces the world's first and only AGM carbon fiber race batteries.

 

The next round of the 30-race series will take place at Texas Motor Speedway, with practice on Thursday April 9th then qualifying and racing on Friday April 10th

 

-3


0-


 

Posted by Marc Patrick Roy at 10.4.15

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)