ORANGE COUNTY, California — O'Connell Racing (OConnellRacing.com), a southern California based Grand-Am Rolex Series and NASCAR road racing team announced an 8th place finish at the Rolex Series race in southern New Jersey at the recently completed New Jersey Motorsports Park road course. After a disappointing qualifying session the team started 22nd on the grid with team driver Kevin O’Connell. O’Connell commented, “We did not have a chance to test here and with the promoter day cancelled after the Telmex car incident we were only able to get a short stint on the track for practice. I got as much time as I could in between searching for the right set up but we just ran out of practice sessions.”
In the Rolex Series drivers meeting Grand Am officials were adamant that penalties would be assessed in the form of drive through penalties for drivers repeatedly running off the racing surface do to unforced occurrences. O’Connell was able to move up through the field by avoiding any off track penalties and by missing several early crashes. With an early caution in the first hour of the race, the team elected to stay out and not come into the pits for tires and fuel giving O’Connell a chance to rotate up into 7th position for the restart. Near the end of the fuel run for O’Connell the car was handed off to Roush who took over driver duties for the next 120 minutes. Roush stated, “ That was one of the toughest races of the year and comparable to Watkins Glen in terms in heat and fatigue. I have never been “stuffed” by the DP’s in the corners as much as I experienced here today and I have never seen so many cars off. Grand Am did a good job of catching the off track stuff.” Roush was able to move up into 7th position with two laps to go and was passed in turn 1 on the final restart of the race when team principals failed to called out the car number with the make and color of the car that Roush was holding off for position leaving Roush to guess that the passing car was ultimately not for position. At the checkered flag the team had secured 8th in GT up from 22nd at the start of the race and was named the winner of the “Suntrust Bank Improve Your Position Award.” The team prepares for the Rolex Series final race of the 2008 season at Miller Motorsports Park in Salt Lake City, Utah.
About O'Connell Racing: O'Connell Racing is a professional California based road racing team that competes in North America in the Grand Am Rolex Series and in the NASCAR Nationwide series. The team races in select events in both of these respective series in a focused effort to bring the highest visibility, media and branding opportunities to its marketing partners and sponsors: General Environmental Management, Inc., Taleo Grill, Mothers Polishes-Waxes-Cleaners, Rubb-n-Repair, Wrenchmints, MicroFiberStuff.com http://microfiberstuff.com/ ,Neo Synthetics, Sparco USA, General Pacific Group, LLC., Xoodlz, Inc., PAOCO and Arnett Designs.
