Near halfway into the 2007 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup season, Jeff Gordon is forcing two-time defending WIX Filters Lap Leader Award winner Tony Stewart into a tight race for the 2007 WIX Filters Lap Leader Award. Gordon leads Stewart by a one-race margin in his pursuit to claim the year-end $75,000 prize and the series title.

“Winning the WIX Filters Lap Leader Award again shows the strength of this team,” said Gordon after receiving the honor for a fourth time, which gave him the early lead in the point standings. “That’s great. We shoot for that and get the bonus points every weekend.”

Gordon, who leads the series in points, led 469 total laps at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and Richmond International Raceway to earn his four Lap Leader awards. Stewart has claimed three Lap Leader awards this year; Jimmie Johnson has earned two; and Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Denny Hamlin have each won Lap Leader awards once this season.

Mike Wallace continues to lead the Busch Series competition with his three WIX Filters Lap Leader Award wins at California Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway. Jason Leffler is following behind Wallace closely with two wins this season, while Marcos Ambrose, Juan Pablo Montoya, Steve Wallace and Brad Coleman are tied with one weekly award each.

Mike Skinner, who won the 2005 and 2006 WIX Filters Lap Leader Awards in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, is on the fast track to earning this year’s award. Skinner has won the Lap Leader award in four of seven races this season, by leading 414 laps at California Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Martinsville Speedway and Kansas Speedway en route to first place in the point standings. He leads Travis Kvapil, Rick Crawford and Ron Hornaday Jr. by three points each in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series WIX Filters Lap Leader Award point standings.

“We will keep running WIX Filters,” said Skinner, while at Martinsville Speedway. “We run them on my kid’s late model stuff, our truck and our cars, everything I own has a WIX filter in it.”

The WIX Filters Lap Leader Award is part of Affinia Group’s Motorsports program, which includes WIX Filters as the number one filter in NASCAR and an exclusive NASCAR Performance Product, the Raybestos Rookie of the Year Award and Raybestos® brand brakes as the Official Brakes of NASCAR.

The WIX Filters Lap Leader Award is presented to the driver who leads the most laps during each race in NASCAR’s NEXTEL Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck racing series. The award includes a cash prize presented to the winning driver during a ceremony before the next race and an end-of-year payout and trophy for the driver who earns the most WIX Filters Lap Leader awards over the course of the entire season. Cash awards for the end-of-year honor are: $75,000 for the NEXTEL Cup Series; $20,000 for the Busch Series; and, $10,000 for the Craftsman Truck Series.

In order to be eligible for the WIX Filters Lap Leader Award for a single event, drivers and teams in each series must run the WIX Filters decal on the front fender and use WIX oil or air filters in their vehicles. Additionally, for any year-end payout, teams must run the decal on the front fender for every race they participate in, with an allowance for one race, and they must always use WIX oil or air filters.

Since 1939, WIX Filtration has been an innovator in filtration products. WIX designs, manufactures and distributes products for automotive, diesel, agricultural, industrial and specialty filter markets. Its product line includes oil, air, cabin interior, fuel, coolant, transmission and hydraulic filters for automobiles, trucks and off-road equipment. WIX is the number one filter in NASCAR and an exclusive NASCAR Performance Product. For more information, visit www.wixfilters.com.

Affinia Group Inc. is a global leader in the on and off highway replacement products and service industry. In North America the Affinia family of brands includes WIX® filters; Raybestos® brand brakes and AIMCO® brake products, and McQuay-Norris® and Spicer® Chassis parts. South American and European brands include Nakata®, Filtron®, Urba® and Quinton Hazell®. For more information, visit www.affiniagroup.com.