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ORANGE COUNTY, CA. -- (National Distribution) June 25th, 2008.
O'Connell Racing (OConnellRacing.com, a southern California based Grand-Am Rolex Series and NASCAR road racing team announced today a finish of 20th at Infineon Raceway in the NASCAR West race held over the weekend. After qualifying 21st in the unusual heat of the fire stricken Sonoma Valley located north of San Francisco, the team decided on a revised pit strategy from the version utilized in 2007 that left team driver Kevin O'Connell attempting to work his way through a field of over zealous drivers. Roy Montgomery commented, "Based on the history of this race we knew there were going to be a significant amount of laps run under caution. We chose to come in on lap 18 under caution with the leaders. We were one of the only teams to gamble this early and two laps after the restart there was another caution. Everyone
came in at this point which cycled us to the front." From the announcement of "Gentlemen, start your engines", the team realized that the radio communication between O'Connell and any team members including the spotter was non existent. It was later determined that a new helmet ear piece plug was defective and was would not transmit sound into the drivers ear piece. The entire race was run without any real time spotting from team spotter Ronnie Norwood and the only time O'Connell could communicate with the team was during cautions or red flags period when the radio could be manually removed from the holder inside the car. O'Connell commented, "I am not sure spotting would have helped in this race because of the difference in
road racing in NASCAR versus the Rolex Series. I am accustomed to checking
my mirrors for DP's in Rolex Series and adjusting my racing line when needed but this racing has much more contact than any others."With three laps to go in the event and after numerous cautions and wrecks O'Connell was in 9th position and had moved to 7th after contact with two front running cars. O'Connell stated, "Regarding the crash out of Jefferson in the 42, we were glad to hear he was fine. On the exit of the corner I got around two spinning cars and got back on track and headed flat out for the slow right hander moving to the inside to close the door on the inside line. When you hear a circle track driver like Jefferson talk about "cutting across my hood" that is oval track gibberish and a metaphorical reference to determined hard nosed road racing. If you review the film footage, he chose not to lift and he got the front end loose and ran himself out of asphalt and at one point I think he intended to try a pass in the dirt. With 3 laps to go we were all racing hard. What we all know now is that there is a very dangerous rise in the unused portion of the track in that corner of Infineon." Jefferson's airborne contact caused O'Connell to spin and resulted in problematic damage to the #59. For the remaining two laps of the race the engine's water temperature escalated and the team brought the car to a finish of 20th with moderate to the car.
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.
Contact:
Roy Montgomery (949) 721.1769
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