Alex Tagliani Nationwide Series Race Report (en04-05-25)

For Immediate Release on behalf of MacDonald Motorsports:
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Alex Tagliani Dodge #81
NASCAR Nationwide Series Event-Phoenix International Raceway



Start Position: 	41st
Finish Position:	38th
Laps Completed:	14 of 200




*Alex Tagliani is driving for the 2nd time this season for MacDonald 
Motorsports in the NASCAR Nationwide Series event at Phoenix 
International Raceway.  This was Alex's first oval race in a NASCAR 
Nationwide sanctioned event.



Alex Tagliani, Driver Dodge #81
"The worst possible scenario that we could imagine, happened to us 
today.  I crashed the car in qualifying and we didn't have a spare 
short oval car, the only spare was a speedway car that was set-up for 
Homestead next week.  Which makes it rough as the car isn't built for 
this type of track so we knew that we were going to be lucky to get 
very many laps in on the race.  It was very unfortunate but we knew 
we could start the race and then we would pretty much have to park it 
pretty fast since the speedway car has totally different brakes and 
set-up than the short oval set-up that we need for Phoenix.  This was 
a tough deal.  I said to the guys, 'I don't know what to say, I don't 
know if it was me' and the bummer is that we didn't even need to push 
hard in qualifying because we were locked in already.  The car seemed 
like it had a wheel hop and then I was in the wall in Turn 4.  I 
thought I was through the turn, and then the car just stepped out. 
I'm not sure if I got too high or what really happened but the rear 
really started to move on me and then bam, I'm in the wall.  I don't 
think I've ever had that happen.  The car wasn't loose or anything 
and I wouldn't have risked it anyway.  It was really disappointing. 
Even though it was my first time on an oval in this car, I adapted 
quickly and we had a good practice yesterday so this was really 
unexpected.  This was disappointing for everyone that works on the 
car and I guess sometimes this is the way it goes in racing.  It 
would be nice to have a "do-over" but that doesn't happen too often. 
I am just sorry for the guys and hope they have a good weekend in 
Homestead." 



Media contact:
Jana Watt
FAZZT Race Team for MacDonald Motorsports
(317) 709-3855
jwatt@mi-connection.com