for Saturdays Chevrolet GRAND-AM Detroit 200
No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Corvette Daytona Prototype and Fogarty Just Edged for the Pole in an Ultra-Tight Qualifying Session Friday for Tomorrows Two-Hour Detroit Street FightGAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing and Jon Fogarty held the pole three times during qualifying for Saturdays GRAND-AM Detroit 200 at Belle Isle but came up just a tick short when the checkered flag flew Friday at the end of a tight 15-minute session on the 13-turn, 2.36-mile Detroit street circuit.The teams top lap time of 1:27.802 (96.763 mph) was still good enough to earn an outside front row position for tomorrows timed two-hour race in which Fogarty will co-drive the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Corvette Daytona Prototype with Alex Gurney.Round five of this years GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series, the Chevrolet GRAND-AM Detroit 200 at Belle Isle is scheduled to green at 12:25 p.m. EDT local time tomorrow, Saturday, June 1, and can be in same-day coverage on SPEED later on Saturday at 5 p.m. EDT/2 p.m. PDT.Fogarty is the all-time Daytona Prototype career pole leader with 25 and also returned to Detroit with the GAINSCO Red Dragon team as the defending Belle Isle pole winners. A second-straight Motor City pole looked likely as Fogarty repeatedly posted fastest laps in the session but he and GAINSCO ultimately missed a shot at a final flyer as the No. 99 was getting low on fuel just as the track was coming up to grip.Its super tight, a competitive field, and it would have been really nice to get another pole, Fogarty said. I think we missed it a little bit and in retrospect it probably would have been smart to take on enough fuel to run the whole session because todays earlier rain shower really washed the rubber off the track. When the track got better at the end we just werent there and that was probably when the track was at its best.GAINSCO showed up with a typically strong car at Belle Isle and clocked in third fastest in Friday mornings opening practice and second in the afternoon run before qualifying.The car has been great, right from when we rolled off the truck, and it felt comfortable, Gurney said. It was a good day, we worked through our normal program and qualifying was incredibly tight with the first six cars within a few 10ths of a second. It will be a close race tomorrow and strategy is going to be important with the shorter two-hour time limit.GAINSCO is in contention for its third set of GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series Championships to go along with title in 2007 and 2009. The BobStallingsCars.com No. 99 GAINSCO Red Dragon, and the duo of Gurney and Fogarty, rank second, just seven points out of first, in the respective team and driver championships, 128121.Race-day Saturday begins with a 30-minute final practice warm-up session before that afternoons featured Chevrolet GRAND-AM Detroit 200 at 12:25 p.m. EDT.Noteworthy- Championship leader Chip Ganassi Racing and GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing are the only teams to post podium finishes in three of this seasons first four races, but only the Red Dragon squad has scored consecutive podium results in the last three races.
- Fogarty likes street courses and considers Belle Isle one of the best. It is always great to get to a street course, and of those, Belle Isle is one of my favorites, Fogarty said. Coming up through the open wheel ladder system, I was able to compete at most of North American street courses and I have always liked going to Detroit. We had good speed last year and I am confident we can build on that. Some changes have been made but I think the character of the track is still intact. The circuit has a good mix of turns, and some that are quite fast for a street course. That, together with walls and bumps, makes for a challenge, but we are up for it.
