Krohn Racing Just Misses Top Five at Daytona 250

Daytona, July 3, 2010: The No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford Proto-Auto Lola of team owner/driver Tracy W. Krohn and Nic Jönsson finished in the sixth position at the Brumos Porsche 250 race at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, July 3rd. The team settled for sixth place after gambling on fuel while running in the fifth position on the lead lap and ran out of fuel on the final lap of the race.

Tracy started the No. 75 car from the 10th position and pitted for fuel and tires while in sixth place under the first of two race cautions on Lap 13. Nic drove the final 90-minutes of the race and ran as high as fourth on Lap 35 of the 83-lap, two hour and 30-minute race.

The No. 01 TELMEX/Chip Ganassi BMW Riley of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, the current GRAND-AM points leader, won their sixth race of eight in the 2010 GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series season.

DRIVER QUOTES: TRACY W. KROHN, Team Owner/Driver No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford Proto-Auto Lola: “The car was very fast on the straightaways. We trimmed it out and made it as slick as we could. It was really difficult through the ‘bus stop’ but it was fast everywhere else. It came off the corners okay. We thought we had a pretty good race car. My hat’s off to Scott Pruett and Ryan Dalziel and those guys. The BMWs are strong motors. Well done.

It was wild because we had the car so trimmed out that it was just one of those things that you had to hang on going through the ‘bus stop’ because you had no down force at all. So you got a couple of different choices. You can try to brake as late as you can and just cruise through there and try to get back to power or you can brake a little bit earlier and then try to get a little bit of down force going through there. Neither one of them was quicker than the other so it was probably safe just to make sure you got through the corners safely.

We tried to get there but we ran out of fuel at the end otherwise we would have had a Top Five finish but we were real close.”

NIC JONSSON, Driver, No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford Proto-Auto Lola: “It’s been very difficult conditions all weekend. We had rain yesterday in practice. This morning was actually the first time we drove the car in dry conditions. We did some significant changes to the car that we thought was going to work well and I think the car was quite alright. Tracy started off the race and did a fantastic job. He really got going after about the first yellow. He pitted and put fuel in after about 17 minutes. Tracy stayed in the car and really got on it. He ran within two or two-and-a-half seconds of the leaders and came all the way up to sixth position before we pitted and I got in. So we know it was a fantastic performance by Tracy today to keep it on the lead lap and be able to go out there and fight for it.

We ran in the Top Four and had a very good car. I started to lose the rear end about a half-hour from the end and I couldn’t keep the 59 behind me. But we ran a competitive Top Five. Unfortunately, we did some miscalculations on fuel today and we ran out of fuel going into the “bus stop” on the very last lap under a white flag. We were running fifth at that point with no pressure from behind but we finished sixth in the end. The Proto-Auto Lola was competitive this weekend. We’ve had a very competitive car all year. It was unfortunate that at Mid-Ohio we ran fourth and we got bumped off the track. We’ve been due for a Top Five for a long time. At least we thought we were in contention today. That’s a good build for the rest of the season and hopefully the future. Again, thanks to the Krohn team for doing a great job and Tracy did a fantastic job today so I’m very positive going into New Jersey in a couple of weeks.”

DAVID BROWN, Krohn Racing Team Manager and Engineer: “We had a fifth place finish until the last lap. We made an error in the fuel calculation and we ran out of fuel with three-quarters of a lap to go. So we’re disappointed to not have achieved that fifth-place finish. Tracy drove the first 40 minutes or so very competitively with good lap times and Nic drove a great race as well.”