NASCAR Cup

Watkins Glen: Andy Lally qualifying report

Lally Qualifies TRG Motorsports/TaxSlayer.com Chevy 15th at The Glen for First Sprint Cup Start Watkins Glen, N.Y., (August 8, 2009) - Andy Lally qualified 15th for his first ever NASCAR Sprint Cup Race today at Watkins Glen International for the ...

Published: Oct 2, 2009, 4:22 PM

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Lally Qualifies TRG Motorsports/TaxSlayer.com Chevy 15th at The Glen for First Sprint Cup Start

Watkins Glen, N.Y., (August 8, 2009) - Andy Lally qualified 15th for his first ever NASCAR Sprint Cup Race today at Watkins Glen International for the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen to be run Sunday, August 9. Teammate David Gilliland did not qualify for the race, so the team will put the TaxSlayer.com livery on the No. 71 for Sunday's race.

KB and Lally glen Lally put in a lap time of 72.460 that will see him start from the eighth row. The time was a half second faster than his best practice time. During the only practice before qualifying Lally and the team suffered through a misfire in the Chevrolet motor which hampered the amount of laps that he was able to complete. The team was able to fix the car with just eight minutes remaining in the session. The Northport, New York, native completed just four timed laps in practice, making his qualifying effort all the more satisfying and impressive.

"We overcame a little bit of adversity during our practice session today," Lally said. "We had a misfire in the motor. The crew did an amazing job of swapping out everything to come up with a solution to the problem to get the car right for qualifying. We really took a big swing at it for qualifying and it worked out. Slugger (crew chief Richard "Slugger" Labbe) and Kevin Buckler (team principal) really put a good car under me today. I just went for it. I want to thank TaxSlayer.com for coming onboard and we look forward to doing a good job for them this weekend."

Lally is elated to get his first Sprint Cup start at his home track.

"I am having trouble putting it into words how I feel about qualifying for my first NASCAR race. I have my whole family here and it is a great day. I grew up in New York and making my Sprint Cup start in my home state is just amazing. It puts a lump in my throat just thinking about it."

With his thoughts turning to the race, he knows there is more speed in the car and that should come in tomorrow's practice.

"In the few amount of laps we've had here I noticed a few things we need to work on for the race. A good race car here is a car that brakes well at key points and puts down power. We need to put down power coming onto the front straight and coming out of turn one. We also need the car to transition well in the Bus Stop turn. We will be working on that tomorrow in practice."

Kevin Buckler, TRG Motorsports team principal, is proud of his sports car ace.

"This is a really big weekend for TRG Motorsports and all of our friends and partners that believed in us and helped us to get this far," Buckler said. "What a job by Andy today. He had virtually no practice, couple that with the pressure of his first Sprint Cup start and that makes for a stressful day. He is a professional and has six pro wins here at The Glen and he gathered it up and did a great job in qualifying. It is too bad that David did not make the race. We have a lot faith in David and he represents the future of our team in NASCAR. He has done a fantastic job for us all season and got us here at The Glen and we will back next weekend at Michigan stronger than ever. We are excited to have TaxSlayer.com onboard with us. This will be one hell-of-a-good first race!"

-credit: trgm

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