Bob Stallings Racing’s Gurney and Fogarty close on championship lead at Road America

ELKHART LAKE, Wisconsin – GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing drivers Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty closed to within four points of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series Championship lead Saturday at Road America despite an eighth-place finish in the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance® Corvette Daytona Prototype at the VisitFlorida.com Sports Car 250.

#99 Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP: Jon Fogarty, Alex Gurney

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

Gurney and Fogarty leave Road America a close second in the driver standings with 242 points, while Dalziel and Popow have 246. The same 242 points has the BobStallingsCars.com No. 99 GAINSCO “Red Dragon” ranked third in the team standings, nine points out of first place.

Leading two laps and battling in the lead pack throughout his race-closing stint, Gurney took over from Fogarty just 45 minutes into the time 2-3/4-hour race.

“We were having a pretty good race, the car was quite good, and it felt like late in the tire life were a little bit better than whoever I was following,” Gurney said. “We felt pretty good about it. The guys made a nice stop and timed the fuel just right in our final stop. Things were looking good.”

Gurney was in fourth place and running in a tight train of race-leading cars in the closing minutes of the race. He had a chance to make a move for a third-place podium spot and went to the inside to pass the similar No. 9 Corvette Daytona Prototype of Brian Frisselle going into Turn 1 just a few laps from the finish.

“At the end of the race I thought I had a shot at the podium,” Gurney said. “I kept getting a run on the 9 car on the front straight and this particular time I was right on him, I made the move and when he turned in I was trying to get somewhat out of the way. We touched a little bit, definitely had contact, and I spun.”

Gurney quickly gathered it up and continued on in the GAINSCO “Red Dragon” to cross the finish line in eighth place on the lead lap. The No. 99 lost four positions in the spin, but gained much more than that in the overall championship picture.

“We went for the win, Alex was going for the podium, and we feel good about our race this weekend,” said Team Owner Bob Stallings. “We actually gained six points in the driver’s championship, just four points out and now and just nine back in the team points. We came here for the win, we had a really good car, and our Team Engineer John Ward called a really good race. The strategy was spot on.”

Starting driver Fogarty drove only the race’s opening 45 minutes but played a key role in fine-tuning the No. 99.

“We improved the car, not only from qualifying to the race but even during the race,” Fogarty said. “We tuned on it during the pit stops and ended up with a car that was quite quick and we were racing it hard and at the limit going for the podium and the points. No one is grabbing this bull by the horns really when it comes to the championship. Things are still wide open, we would have liked to have taken control this weekend, but now we will and do it next weekend at Kansas.”

Next up for GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing and the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series is the inaugural SFP Grand Prix next week at Kansas Speedway, August 16 – 17. The race can be seen live Saturday, August 17, on the all-new FOX Sports 2 network at 8 p.m. EDT/5 p.m. PDT with an encore telecast the following day, Sunday, August 18, on FOX Sports 1 at 4 p.m. EDT/1 p.m. PDT.

Bob Stallings Racing