DILLEY FINISHES TWENTY THIRD AT CIRCUIT GILLES VILLENEUVE
For Immediate Release Photo courtesy of Joe Hamilton MONTREAL, QUEBEC, Monday August 22, 2011: Mark Dilley driver of the No. 9 Rheem/Exide/PartSource/Farwell Racing Dodge finished a disappointing 23 in the 37 car field on Saturday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. In practice, it started to rain just as the field took to the track and NASCAR brought the 37 car field to pit road to allow the teams to prepare the cars for the wet track conditions. The rain quit with five minutes left in the practice session and Dilley was able to lay down a quick lap posting the ninth quickest time. The team made several adjustments to get the car where they wanted it, and after practice Dilley commented, “Man we have a fast car, it feels really good and with the changes I think we can get more out of it.” |
For qualifying, the cars were sent out in two groups, according to their practice times, and each group was given twenty-five minutes to tour the track and post their best times. Dilley was 15th quickest posting a time of 1:08.216 and an average speed of 90.153 miles per hour. Before the race Dilley commented that, “The car wasn’t too bad for practice, we didn’t want to push it too hard in the rain, but wanted to see what it would be like if we had to race under similar conditions. Fortunately the sun was shining for qualifying and we got some laps under our belt.” Dilley would start the NAPA AUTOPRO 100 in 15th on the inside of row eight and with the drop of the green flag settled into 16th. Twelve laps in and Dilley was running in 13th when two cars ahead of him made contact and spun out. This forced everyone to check up and Dilley was hit hard on the left rear wheel when the car behind him didn’t get stopped in time. No caution came out as everyone was able to continue, but Dilley thought he had broken an axle. He then made his way to pit road to have the crew check it out. The team made short work of repairs and Dilley was back on track without losing a lap but was at the tail end of the 37 car field. Dilley had made his way back into the top 20 with five laps to go, when the No. 9 Rheem/Exide Dodge was spun out by a lapped car. Again, there was no caution and Dilley lost several spots before he was able to rejoin the field. Dilley would make up a few more positions before the checkered flag, but ultimately finished 23rd. After the race Dilley commented, “We just had some bad luck again, we got tangled up in someone else’s mess and had to come to pit road because I thought we may have broken an axle. It was just a rear end locker and we were lucky when the caution came out and we were able to catch up to the field. Just when we were making up some ground we got hit again it and ruined any chance we had for a good finish. I’m looking forward to the next three ovals, I’ve won on all of those tracks and hopefully we can put on a good show for fans and sponsors.” The NAPA AUTOPRO 100 can be seen in its entirety on TSN on Sunday August 21 at midnight and Monday August 22 at 1:30 p.m. TSN2 will also air the event on Sunday August 21 at 6:30 p.m. Dilley is currently seventh in the NASCAR point standings. The next stop for Dilley and the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series will be on September 10th at Barrie Speedway for the Wild Wing 300 presented by Independent Electric. Mark Dilley is supported by: PartSource, Rheem Canada, Leland Industries, Exide Batteries, Sylvania and Castrol. For more information on the NASCAR Canadian Tire series please visit www.nascarlocalracing.com For more information on Mark Dilley please contact: Linda Jones Wide Open Motorsport Solutions (705) 730-4044 Email: ljones@wideopensolutions.ca |
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