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| Watkins Glen Crown Royal Race Notes: Gidley / McDowell |
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With the race for the Championship winding down with only two races remaining after tonight's 200-mile contest at Watkins Glen International Raceway, Memo Gidley and Michael McDowell needed a strong showing in the Crown Royal 200 at the Glen. Starting from the 6th position, McDowell rolled off the starting grid in anticipation of the green flag. When the green flag flew, the Daytona Prototype field screamed down the front stretch and began winding their way around the 2.45-mile road course. Unfortunately six laps into the contest, the 76 car entered into a corner on the inside and made contact with the 12 car spinning it out. As the 12 car spun it clipped the inside rear of the No. 19 Playboy/Uniden/Palms Ford-Powered machine causing McDowell to spin out of control. When the car came to a complete stop McDowell climbed from the cockpit and began conversing with his teammates regarding the damage. As McDowell was taken to the infield medical center for a routine checkup, the crew of the No. 19 began making repairs to the popular black and orange machine. With approximately 50 minutes remaining in the 2-hour time limit race, the No. 19 machine returned to competition with Memo Gidley behind the wheel. With the team's race all but finished, the Mooresville, NC-based team knew how important it was to finish the race. With such a close Championship battle every position counts and by rejoining the battle the team was able to pick up a few more track positions. The team will now take the No. 19 machine back to the Mooresville shop and make the necessary repairs to get the Playboy/Uniden/Palms sponsored machine into race ready condition before heading out west for the final two races of the 2006 season. The team can next be seen competing at Infineon Raceway on August 26th, just a few miles from Memo Gidley's home. Race Quotes: Memo Gidley - It's unfortunate that Colin Braun caused the accident that damaged our car and sent us back to the garage. Considering the rear was knocked off and it was missing some body work when I returned to competition we were able to run competitive lap times. If it wasn't for that accident we could have finished in the top-five for sure. Michael McDowell - We had a really good car it was just unfortunate that the 76 car didn't show more patience in the early stages of the race. The guys did a great job making major repairs, getting us back on track to gain valuable points.
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