Crown Royal 200, Watkins Glen – Preview
Seventh Heaven For Chip Ganassi racing?

The first of two DP-only races sees the Grand-Am series return to Watkins Glen for a 200-mile blast around the short course, with several drivers looking to capitalise on, or take revenge for, their Montreal results.

The previous round ended in extraordinary fashion, with Mark Wilkins and Brian Frisselle claiming AIM Motorsport’s first victory by six hundredths of a second from Antonio Garcia and Christian Fittipaldi’s Cheever Racing Pontiac Coyote. Having come so close, the Spaniard and the Brazilian will be looking to go one better in Upstate New York, while Frisselle and Wilkins now have the taste of victory on their lips.

But they will not be as determined to win as David Donohue and Darren law in the #58 Brumos Porsche Riley, nor Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand in the #23 AJR/Ruby Tuesday Porsche Riley, after both these cars ran out of fuel in the death throes of the last race. Hand’s misfortune cost AJR a real chance of a win with its new chassis in only its second race, but the team is ready to bounce back. "The short course at Watkins Glen is not one of my favorite courses," said Hand. "The long course is a lot of fun, but the short course makes for a really tough race. It is going to be two hours of complete chaos. It will be very difficult to pass because it has a lot of fast corners. 

"However, I think the difference for us now is that we are starting to get this car squared away and we are racing with the leaders. If we qualify well and we are at the front of the train, I think we have a chance to win. I also think that no matter where we go now, we will be a strong contender."

The 2007 edition of this race was claimed by Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney in the GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Pontiac Riley; one of the seven victories they amassed en route to the title. This year, the duo have not enjoyed such success and have only one win to their name so far, despite leading more laps than anyone else in the last three races. "It's amazing the number of races that we really should have won, where we had a car to win and we were in the lead when something totally out of our control happens," said team owner Bob Stallings. "I realize it is all racing and it is what it is. We just have to bounce back and we will."

Their 2008 equivalents, Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, do, however, have an opportunity to equal the #99’s 2007 tally with victory on Friday evening. While their motivation is obvious, Fogarty’s and Gurney’s is that they currently lie in second place in the points, despite the difference of top-step visits, and still have a chance to reel them in.

Two new Daytona Prototypes are brought to the field of battle this weekend. Childress-Howard Motorsports makes its debut with the upgraded Crawford chassis (and Pontiac grunt), with the manufacturer looking to prove its doubters wrong and reassert itself as a contender. Andy Wallace and Andy Lally will be doing their utmost to achieve this.

Alegra Motorsports also makes its debut in the DP category, but with a Porsche Riley and three of the four drivers who claimed victory in the GT class of the 2007 Daytona 24.

20 DPs will take the start (assuming all come through qualifying okay) and, with only four of them having so far taken a win, the chances are that this will be yet another very closely fought Rolex race.