TEAM REPORTS (DAYTONA) - GANASSI/SABATES PRE-RACE FACTS

Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Rolex Sports Car Series

Brumos Porsche 250 – Daytona International Speedway ADVANCE

TEAMS: Back to back Rolex 24 At Daytona Champions TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates and drivers Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas in the No.01 TELMEX Lexus-Riley, Rob Finlay and Michael Valiante in the No.19 Z-Line Designs/Mission Residential/Make-A-Wish Foundation Lexus-Riley.

VENUE: Daytona International Speedway this Thursday, July 5th (8:00 p.m. ET) on the 3.56 mile in-field road course in Daytona Beach, Florida. Round 8 of 14 in the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series season.

AIR DATE: July 5th, 8:00 p.m. ET, LIVE, on SPEED Channel

LAST RACE: Mid Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, OH. No.01, St. 5 Fn. 2, No.19, St. 15 Fn. 7

NEXT RACE: July 14th, Iowa Speedway (400K), Newton, IA (Inaugural Event)

TEAM POINTS: No.01 TELMEX Lexus-Riley, 212 points (1st, + 16); No. 19 CGRFS Lexus-Riley, 75 points (18th, -137)

DRIVER POINTS: Scott Pruett, 212 points (1st, +11); Memo Rojas, 187 points (3rd, -25); Rob Finlay, 135 points (12th, -77); Michael Valiante, 123 points (18th, -89)

EXHAUST NOTES: Another consistent performance from the no.01 TELMEX Lexus-Riley entry at Mid-Ohio (June 23rd) has further increased the team points lead and Scott Pruett’s lead in the driver standings, …Although Pruett and other CGRFS drivers have been victorious at the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the team has yet to be the first to cross the finish line at a mid-season Daytona race… The TELMEX team will enter their seventh of eight races with a confident points lead, and the no.19 CGRFS duo also enters the sunshine state with their heads held high after a positive result in the previous race.

DAYTONA HISTORY AND MORE: Victory Circle is not a foreign place to the no.01TELMEX Lexus-Riley team, especially after garnering back-to-back victories at Daytona International Speedway for the Rolex 24 At Daytona in 2006 and 2007. Aside from success in the winter months in Florida, both the no.01 and no.19 DP’s have yet to win a race during Florida’s heat and summer moon. In 2004 (Pruett and Max Papis) and 2006 (Pruett and Luis Diaz) had their strongest starts from pole in the no.01 Lexus-Riley DP entry, but finished the races with 2nd and 3rd place podium finishes respectively.

At last year’s Brumos Porsche 250 event, from their 5th place start on the grid, the no.19 duo battled a fuel mileage issue and made a strategic gamble that did not pay off but resulted in a 7th place finish. Mastering the hotter track conditions and standing on the highest podium block at the end of the evening is certainly the focus of this year’s 4th of July celebration for the CGRFS Rolex team.

DAYTONA REWIND: 2006’s Rolex racing-packed Thursday ended in a podium finish for the CompUSA no.01 pilots, Pruett and Diaz. From a pole start, Diaz led a majority of his 34-lap stint; however, his lead was surrendered to the no.23 Porsche-Crawford powered car. Since the Porsche and Pruett were battling the ever present fuel mileage game, both teams had to pit in the final laps of the race and relinquish their positions. The evening ended with the no.01 team stepping up onto the 3rd place podium.

No.19 drivers, Finlay and Valiante also encountered disappointment from fuel mileage gambling. Off the starting grid in 5th, Finlay consistently drove the Make-A-Wish/Z-Line Designs DP until Valiante took over at the only yellow flag caution pit stop of the race. Valiante briefly lead the race, after taking an out of sequence pit stop; however, a scheduled green flag stop by the leaders ruined the strategy, and the team left Daytona with a 7th place finish.

CGRFS continues to be the most successful team in Daytona Prototype history-holding record wins (14), poles (19), and podium finishes (34).