Bobby Santos to Sub for McDowell at Gateway
2010 Whelen Modified Champ Will Practice for MacDonald Motorsports

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (October 21, 2010) - 2010 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour (NWMT) Champion Bobby Santos will return to the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) this weekend at Gateway International Raceway. Santos will practice and setup the No. 81 Drive Reply-K-Love Dodge for MacDonald Motorsports for the 5-hour Energy 250, as driver Michael McDowell will be competing in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) events at Martinsville Speedway. Depending on McDowell's NSCS schedule, Santos may also qualify the car. With 49 cars on the entry list, the team will look to Santos to utilize his experience to make the show. this will be a hard feat.

Santos, who became the youngest driver to win a NWMT championship, made four NNS starts with Riley-D'Hondt Motorsports in 2007. Three of the four starts were at short tracks, including the similar-sized Nashville Superspeedway. Santos qualified in the top-10 for two of the four starts, with a highest start of fourth. He also made eight ARCA Racing Series starts and collected two poles, with a highest finish of fourth. This year, the 25-year-old collected four wins, four poles, nine top-five and 11 top-10 finishes in the NWMT 14-race schedule.

MacDonald Motorsports competed in 30 NNS events this year with the No. 81 Dodge. Their highest finish this season was a 10th-place finish at Watkins Glen International with McDowell behind the wheel. The team's highest starting position was fifth at Road America. McDowell will look to make his 24th NSCS start this weekend at Martinsville Speedway.

"Michael is racing in the Cup race at Martinsville," explained MacDonald Motorsports owner Randy MacDonald. "Based on his schedule and the distance, Michael will not be able to make practice. Gateway is just over a mile track and there are 49 cars entered, so we needed someone who could get the car dialed in and possibly qualify it, depending on how Michael's schedule ends up going. We want to be as completive as possible and get the car as fast as possible. If the driver needs to get it in the race, we have to have a good level of confidence that they can make the race. We started throwing names out for subs. Bobby has some ARCA and Nationwide experience. He's familiar with that style of racetrack and the cars, and he's pretty hot right now, coming off the championship and winning four races and four poles. He was available and willing, so it was a perfect fit."

"It is exciting that I will get to practice for somebody this weekend," commented Santos. "I am hoping that I can qualify it to see what I can do. I'm trying to make the best of this opportunity and see what it can lead to. It shows that people noticed what we did this year in the Whelen Modified Tour. I had one race left on my schedule, so when this opportunity came, I was very glad to take it and see what I can do."

First practice for the 5-hour Energy 250 will be held from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. CDT, with final practice from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. CDT. Final practice will be broadcast on ESPN2, as well as Saturday's qualifying at 9:35 a.m. CDT. The 5-hour Energy 250 will begin at 2:30 p.m. CDT on Saturday, October 23rd and can also be found on ESPN2.