SunTrust Racing Qualifying Report

Braselton, July 18, 2009: The No. 10 SunTrust Ford Dallara of Wayne Taylor Racing will start Sunday’s Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Porsche 250 from the inside of the second row after qualifying Saturday at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala.

Brian Frisselle, who co-drove the SunTrust Racing machine with Max Angelelli to victory at the last Rolex Series event at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, clocked a fast qualifying lap of 1 minute, 21.273 seconds (101.878 mph) this afternoon over the beautiful, 2.3-mile, 16-turn circuit located just west of downtown Birmingham. It was the third-fastest lap among the 30 car-and-driver combinations entered for Sunday’s 2-hour, 45-minute feature event. Frisselle’s fast lap came on his next-to-last hot lap of the 15-minute qualifying session after he took a low-speed drive through the pit lane to cool his tires.

“We did a little drive through the pits at the end, there, to cool down the tires for one last shot at the pole,” Frisselle said. “Our next (hot) lap after that was looking good enough to put us on the pole but, unfortunately, I made two mistakes and it cost us our chance. It’s still a good starting position – inside row two – so we’ll give it our best shot and see what happens. It looks like it’s going to be a beautiful day for a race. It’s still going to be a tough race because it’s so hard to pass here. Track position is everything here, so qualifying was really important. I wish we could’ve gotten the pole. But we’ll try to get some positions during the race.”

Jon Fogarty scored his second pole of the season in the No. 99 Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing Pontiac Riley he shares with Alex Gurney. Starting alongside the No. 99 car is the championship-leading No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Lexus Riley of Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett. The SunTrust team is currently one point behind the No. 01 team in the point standings, while the No. 99 team is third, another two points back.

“I’m happy,” said team owner Wayne Taylor, who co-drove to victory with Angelelli in the 2005 edition of this race en route to that season’s Rolex Series championship. “P3 is a great position on this track. It’s really amazing the three cars in contention for the championship qualified 1-2-3. I think we’ve got a really good car for the race. Both Max and Brian have been very positive about the car since this morning. So I think we have a good shot at it tomorrow. I really do. At the end of the day, it only counts what happens tomorrow. I’m happy starting third. It was a good job by Brian.”

The top-five in qualifying were the following teams:

1. Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing (No. 99 Pontiac Riley) with Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney (1:21.057 at 102.150 mph)

2. Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (No. 01 Lexus Riley) with Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett (1:21.209 at 101.959 mph)

3. SunTrust Racing (No. 10 Ford Dallara) with Brian Frisselle and Max Angelelli (1:21.273 at 101.878 mph)

4. Doran Racing (No. 77 Ford Dallara) with Memo Gidley and Brad Jaeger (1:21.290 at 101.857 mph)

5. Spirit of Daytona Racing (No. 09 Porsche Coyote) with Antonio Garcia and Buddy Rice (1:21.516 at 101.575 mph)