Fogarty Qualifies Second For Third Time This Season In No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Chevy

DAYTONA BEACH, July 2, 2010: Jon Fogarty will start the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Chevrolet Riley from the outside of the front row in Saturday’s Brumos Porsche 250 At Daytona after his top lap of 1:42.454 (125.090 mph) was just off the pole time in Friday morning’s qualifying session on the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course. It’s the third time this year that Fogarty and GAINSCO will start on the front row after also qualifying second for last month’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen and at March’s Grand Prix of Miami.

Fogarty will start alongside the pole-winning No. 10 SunTrust Ford Dallara of Ricky Taylor, and both drivers battled a partially wet and drying track and each other for the top time throughout the 15-minute qualifying session. Both repeatedly improved their lap times before Taylor turned a lap time of 1:42.341 (125.228 mph) to just edge Fogarty and GAINSCO for the pole.

“All in all it was a good run for the No. 99 GAINSCO Chevrolet,” Fogarty said. “They were keeping me informed of Ricky’s times and when he first did his times in the one-minute-42 range I really thought that was going to be difficult to beat. Then the times just kept coming down as we ran. We had no dry running up until this qualifying session and I think we were a little bit conservative and basically ran too much downforce in qualifying not knowing the condition of the track, just to be safe. I think we could have gotten away with a little bit less, which may have given us that extra little bit to get the pole. We are definitely very close and competitive up front with the 10 car but I think we achieved our times a little bit differently. We are going to think about what’s best for the race but we are certainly happy to be on the front row with the No. 99 car.”

Despite a light rain, the qualifying session was actually the driest the Daytona road course was all day after morning practice was run in a steady downpour. Even in practice in the wet, however, GAINSCO was pleased with the performance of its No. 99 “Red Dragon” Daytona Prototype.

“I think we are in a good position for the race even though I haven’t driven in the dry yet,” said Gurney, who turned GAINSCO’s fastest laps in the rain. “That will be a little bit of an unknown, but we have a lot of laps around here so we kind of know what’s going on.”

In last year’s Brumos Porsche 250, Gurney battled for the lead with Taylor’s teammate Max Angelelli for the majority of the latter stages of the race. The GAINSCO and SunTrust race cars repeatedly swapped positions before Angelelli out-horsepowered the No. 99 for the win on the last lap. In 2008, Scott Pruett used the power of his Lexus Riley to also beat GAINSCO to the line in a last lap thriller.

“We hated to give away those last two years on the last lap and hopefully we can go one better this year,” Gurney said.

Saturday’s Brumos Porsche 250 will mark the 100th race of the Daytona Prototype era after the division debuted at the “World Center of Racing” in the 2003 Rolex 24 At Daytona. Round eight of 12 races on the 2010 schedule, the 2-1/2-hour timed sprint on the 3.56-mile Daytona road course is scheduled to start at 11:15 a.m. local time, Saturday, July 3, and can be seen in virtual live coverage that day on SPEED at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT.

GAINSCO, Gurney and Fogarty have finished no lower than second in the last three runnings of the Brumos Porsche 250, including a come-from-behind win in 2007 that was part of that season’s dominating run to GAINSCO’s first GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototype Team and Driver Championships. GAINSCO, Gurney and Fogarty picked up a second set of season titles last year, and join only rivals TELMEX/Chip Ganassi Racing and Pruett as repeat Daytona Prototype Champions.

The No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Chevrolet Riley is currently fifth in the 2010 GRAND-AM Rolex Series Daytona Prototype team championship with 172 points. The team has finished sixth in each of its last three races at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Watkins Glen International and Lime Rock Park, in addition to a fifth-place run at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) in April. The best finish of the season was third in the Grand Prix of Miami in March, but that result came in between a pair of engine failures in the season-opening Rolex 24 in January and in April’s race at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama. GAINSCO switched to motors built by ECR Engines two races after the Alabama round and will makes its fourth race start with the new power plants tomorrow.