DAYTONA PAUL REVERE 250 PRE-RACE REPORT
Stewart Qualifies Sixth, Duno's Car Develops Engine
Trouble
July 1, 2004 - CITGO Racing's two-car effort for the Paul Revere 250
at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, FL June 30-July
1, 2004 will start the race in 6th and 18th overall on the starting
grid - the #2 CITGO-branded Pontiac Crawford Daytona Prototype driven
by Milka Duno and Jan Lammers will start 18th, and the #20 CITGO-branded
Pontiac Crawford Daytona Prototype driven by Andy Wallace and Tony Stewart
will start 6th.
Milka and Jan will start 18th because the team needed to replace the
engine after qualifying. The engine was not performing at top capacity
and wisely needed to be changed out for the sprint race.
Grand American rules state that if an engine change occurs after qualifying,
the car will be placed on the grid at the back of the car's category.
As there are a total of 18 Daytona Prototypes entered for the Paul Revere
250
the #2 CITGO-branded Pontiac Crawford Daytona Prototype will now start
the race in the 18th position.
The #2 CITGO-branded Pontiac Crawford Daytona Prototype - Milka and
Jan's car - showed excellent times in the first practice session, but
toward the end of the session developed an engine problem causing the
car to lose 8-10mph from the top speed.
"Without this handicap Milka would most certainly have placed
the car in the top-ten on the grid," said team owner Rick Howard.
The first of two days of race activity contained the only three practice
sessions leading to the race, as well as the qualifying session. Unlike
other races on the schedule, there is no other race activity on race
day - except the race.
In Wednesday's first practice session both Milka and Jan had turns
behind the wheel and together they generated very respectable lap times
- placing them 4th overall with a fast-lap time of 1:50.542 with a top
speed of 116.938 mph. The second practice session was run in-total with
the handicap and therefore took the car from 4th to 9th overall.
Andy and Tony in the #20 CITGO-branded Pontiac Crawford Daytona Prototype
recorded the fastest lap overall in the first practice session, held
steady at 5th overall in the second session and brought it back up to
2nd overall in the final practice at night. Tony was given qualifying
duties and placed the car 6th overall for the start of Thursday night's
race.
"While I'm disappointed with our starting place on the grid, I'm
very happy that we were able to complete all three practice sessions
and score valuable track time," said Milka. "This team is
top-notch and they will be able to change out the engine tomorrow morning
with no problems. We were still able to work on our set-up - which isn't
affected at all by the engine change. So with the new engine tomorrow,
combined with our track time for set-up today, I think we'll start the
race in good order."
The Paul Revere 250 is the 6th race on the 12-race Rolex Sports Car
Series schedule and will be held at Daytona International Speedway as
part of a slate of racing that includes the Busch Series' Winn-Dixie
250 and the Nextel Cup Series Pepsi 400.
The race is on Thursday night, July 1 at 11:00pm EST and will be a
250-mile, 70-lap sprint race on the circuit's 3.56-mile road course
and under the powerfully bright lights of the speedway. The race will
occur right after the qualifying session for the Nextel Cup event. SPEED
Channel will broadcast the race tape-delayed on Independence Day, Sunday,
July 4 at 11:00am EST.
CITGO, based in Tulsa, Okla., is a refiner, transporter and marketer
of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals, refined waxes,
asphalt and other industrial products. The company is owned by PDV America,
Inc., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela,
S.A., the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
For more information on CITGO visit www.citgo.com.
Additional information on drivers Milka Duno and Andy Wallace is available
at www.milkaduno.com and www.andywallace.com, respectively. For more
information on the Grand American Sports Car Series please visit www.grandamerican.com.
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