Grand-Am, Homestead - Qualifying Report
Red Dragon On Pole

Coming out on top of a highly competitive qualifying session, Jon Fogarty captured a Daytona Prototype record-extending 17th career pole position with a lap of 1:13.655 in the No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Chevrolet/Riley co-driven by Alex Gurney.

The top seven DPs were separated by less than one second, with the top six DPs all featuring different engine-chassis combinations.

“We were really close last year, and we have been capable of turning quick times here, but I am encouraged by some of the longer runs we did in the previous practice session,” said Fogarty.

“We were able to maintain a pretty good pace on old tires. We want to put the whole package together and I think we are coming close this weekend. We are in a good position tomorrow, starting up front, and we didn’t put too may laps on our qualifying tires.”

“A great run by Jon, really consistent over his laps, and it looks like we improved the car a little bit,” added Gurney. “We are excited and I think we are going to have a hell of a fight at the end of the race with everybody. We’re in a place that we haven’t been, maybe ever, setup wise, but we have been trying hard to get it right at Homestead, and it looks like today we got it right.

“It’s going to be brutal, actually, and within 10 laps you are going to be really, really be struggling on the tires. It is going to be fun to watch.”

Memo Rojas was second-quickest, running a lap of 1:13.838, followed by Paul Edwards in the No. 99 Spirit of Daytona Chevrolet/Coyote, Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 SunTrust Chevrolet/Dallara and Brian Frisselle in the No. 77 Office Depot Ford/Dallara.

Mark Blundell only managed to get four laps in during his first qualifying stint in a DP in the #23 United Autosports/MSR Riley/Ford; “I’m a little disappointed, especially for the team, with only P8,” he said. “It was the first opportunity we’d had to run new tires and it just didn’t quite come together – perhaps I got a little too greedy and asked too much as I made a mistake on both ‘flying’ laps and paid the price. That said, with a little bit more work in the final practice session, we should have a strong racecar for tomorrow’s race.”

The #3 SCDE Chevrolet/Riley of Henry Gilbert and Shane Lewis will start the team's debut race from 11th; "This is a new car for our team, and we just got our Chevrolet engine, but we really want to do this race," said Lewis. "We are both from Florida and we want to run a good race at Homestead. Henry has a lot of friends and supporters from all over Florida."

In GT qualifying, Jan Magnussen gave both Stevenson Motorsports and the Chevrolet Camaro their first pole position in the class. The Dane ran a lap of 1:19.772 in the No. 57 Camaro co-driven by Robin Liddell.

Boris Said qualified second in a brand-new No. 31 Whelen Engineering Corvette with a lap of 1:20.301.

The #59 Brumos Porsche will start 12th in class after having to change the gearbox during practice and being unable to test the new box before qualifying started.

The race starts today (Saturday) at noon Eastern Time and is live on SPEED TV.