BITD: Nevada 2000: Day 6 of 6

TONOPAH to LAS VEGAS, Nev. (July 14, 2000) - Day 6 of 6

Distance - 220 Miles

Day 6 Race: Larry Roeseler Wins The Final Stage; Toyota/PPIM Finish Third Overall

* Toyota off-road racer Larry Roeseler, who began the day from the 18th position, unofficially won the sixth and final stage of the Best In The Desert Nevada 2000. Roeseler, his driving teammate Ivan "Ironman" Stewart and the Toyota/Precision Preparation Inc. (PPI) Motorsports team finished third overall at the six-day event.

* Roeseler took the wheel of the Toyota Tundra off-road truck and immediately began reeling in his competitors at a rapid pace. He was physically ninth on the racecourse by the time he made his first pit stop. Roeseler overcame the handicap of having to make a number of course passes on the most difficult section of the entire six-day event; and he only had 220 miles to make his final mad dash to the finish, the second shortest day of the event.

* Roeseler physically finished sixth on the course today, but with corrected time (each vehicle starts one minute behind the previous vehicle from the prior day's finish) he finished just ahead of overall race winner Troy Herbst in a Class 1500 Unlimited buggy.

* Coupled with Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Day 3 victory, the Toyota/PPIM team is unofficially the only team to win more than one stage in the six-day event.

"Quotes"

Larry Roeseler:

* "The Tundra ran awesome today, and as they have all week, the team did an amazing job in the pits. We had a really great week with the exception of one bad hour yesterday, which pretty much took us out of the running for the overall win."

* "This event was so much fun to race. I think running it in stages gave everyone a chance to bunch up every morning and made it more interesting."

* "We really went racing today. Yesterday, I was cruising at about 80 percent of what the truck could do before we had the trouble. Today, we showed everyone what we could do."

* "We really wanted to win this race, and we were in control with an 11 minute overall lead until that last stretch yesterday. That's the way it goes.

* It was great to get some competitive seat time in the Tundra, and I loved being with this fantastic team. Although we didn't win here, I think we showed were the team to beat in November at the Baja 2000.