MCHENRY, Ill. -- After a very successful weekend in Richmond for the entire Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) organization, its No. 20 Nationwide team has been busy preparing a new race car for Denny Hamlin to drive at tonight's Royal Purple 200 NASCAR Nationwide race at Darlington Raceway: the first-ever Raybestos/WIX primary sponsored entry.
 
Hamlin took the checkered flag in the Nationwide race this past weekend, and has won the past three straight Nationwide events at Darlington. He hopes to continue his winning ways this weekend at Darlington, in a car both equipped with -- and sponsored by -- long-time JGR team technical partners, Raybestos Brakes and WIX Filters. Both brands represent divisions of parent company Affinia Group, a global leader in automotive aftermarket parts.
 
“It’s cool to have Raybestos and WIX Filters on my car Friday night,” said Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 20 Raybestos/WIX Toyota. “They are two companies that really contribute to our success at JGR, and hopefully we can put them in victory lane. Raybestos provides a great brake package for our cars that I know have benefited me, especially on the short tracks we run in the Cup series. And, WIX Filters has been with JGR since almost the beginning, which says a lot about the quality of their products we use.”

With the benefit of more than 100 years of on-track development, the famous Raybestos “ST” series of racing brake pad compounds provide Hamlin with consistent, reliable stopping power under prolonged high-temperature operation, according to Affinia. The Raybestos racing brake pads that the Joe Gibbs cars run are developed by the company’s very same engineers and friction formulators, in the same Affinia Kentucky R&D facilities, that develop and test Raybestos brake parts for streetcars, police vehicles and the heavy-duty market.

An iconic brand within stock car racing, WIX Filters engineers the best-performing, most reliable filters in the world for automotive, diesel, racing, off-road, agriculture and industrial applications, the company states. WIX represents one of JGR’s longest running alliances, having served as a technical partner for the race team since 1993.
 
Affinia adds that the lessons learned in competition on tracks like Darlington Raceway, and in working with championship-caliber teams like Joe Gibbs Racing, are continually translated into ongoing innovation and product improvements across Affinia’s Raybestos and WIX product lines.