IPS: Mid-Ohio: RLR/Andersen Racing race report

RLR/Andersen Racing's Prendeville Finishes Fourth In Indy Pro Action at Mid-Ohio

LEXINGTON, Ohio, July 22 - After posting RLR/Andersen Racing's best Indy Pro Series qualifying results to date by qualifying third on Saturday, Andrew Prendeville duplicated his best results in the series to date by finishing fourth Sunday morning at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course with his Best Friends Animal Society No. 5.

Richard Antinucci, who started beside Prendeville in fourth place, won the race over Wade Cunningham, Stephen Simpson, Prendeville and Hideki Mutoh.

Antinucci and Cunningham got by Prendeville at the start to push him to fifth, but Prendeville was able to maintain that position lap after lap, even after a restart on lap 23 due to Jonathan Klein cutting a tire after he and CR Crews had contact on lap 22.

Point leader Alex Lloyd, who led the first 15 laps before Antinucci passed him in the esses, stopped in turn one on the restart due to mechanical difficulties, which advanced Prendeville to fourth place. Prendeville was able to hold off Mutoh the rest of the way to finish the 40-lap race in that position.

The solid top-five finish was very satisfying for the Fairfield, N.J.-based crew, which worked non-stop in order to get two entries ready for this event after both were damaged in an accident at Nashville Superspeedway last Saturday.

Passing is very difficult on this 2.258-mile, 13-turn road course, and Prendeville's teammate, Joey Scarallo of Smithtown, N.Y., finished where he started by placing 18th in the GroupAWheels.com No. 15.

ESPN2 will air its coverage of the event at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday, July 26.

The next race is Aug. 11 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Ky.

Quotes follow:

Andrew Prendeville: "It was a great weekend; our best yet.

"I don't think I had any contact with anyone. It was close with [Bobby] Wilson; I'll have to ask him if we touched, but I don't think so. We raced hard, but we've done that so many times before. But no, I don't think there was any contact.

"They were gaining 10 car lengths on the straights, and I could pull nine to 11 car lengths on them in the twisty stuff to keep in front of them. The only way that was possible was because we had a really good-handling car.

"The start was not the greatest. Cunningham blew right by me; that was just a case of better straight-line speed. But I was able to make up a lot of the distance, and I almost got the position back a little later.

"We finished all 40 laps for the Best Friends Animal Society. We had our best qualifying result yet, and we duplicated our best race result. It was a great weekend."

Joey Scarallo: "We didn't have the results we wanted here with the GroupAWheels.com car; the team and Speedway Engines are checking a possible engine issue that occurred during the race. But I have to thank the RLR/Andersen crew for getting the car repaired so we could even be here this weekend after the crash at Nashville last Saturday. They worked very hard, and I appreciate it."

John Andersen (team manager): "It was a great effort by the RLR/Andersen Racing team to bounce back from Nashville, where both cars were damaged. It was also a great job by Speedway Engines to get us a motor for this weekend. We also want to thank Larry Bishop of EMCO Gears for turning around two gearboxes for us so quickly."

-credit: rlr/ar