Teammates closing in on series championship

TOOELE — Only five points separate teammates Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty from their nearest competitors in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. With just two races to go in the 2009 season, the stakes are high coming into the Utah 250 at Miller Motorsports Park this weekend.

"It definitely puts a lot of pressure on everybody," Gurney said. "Winning a championship is really one of those special moments for a driver in their career and for the team also."

Gurney and Fogarty overtook the points lead after a strong outing in their last race at Montreal. The duo claimed the pole position during qualifying for the Montreal 200 and rode that advantage to a third-place finish, while boosting their season tally to 274 points.

Fogarty is confident what he and Gurney accomplished up in Canada should set the stage for a better than normal showing in Utah.

"We had a strong performance, both in qualifying and in our pace during the race," Fogarty said. "That's a good sign for how things should pan out here."

If Fogarty and Gurney, racing in a Pontiac Riley, can maintain or increase their points lead at Miller this Saturday, it will put them in prime position to secure their second Daytona Prototype championship in three years. The duo finished atop the series in 2007 and claimed second behind the tandem of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas a year ago.

Fogarty credits consistency in how his team approaches races and race preparation as being the key ingredients to the successful run he and Gurney have enjoyed the last few years in the Grand-Am Rolex Series.

The bulk of the pit crew has remained intact since the team's inception in 2005. And the basic set-up of the sports car itself — down to the motor and chassis — continues to follow a template from which they have made few deviations.

"We have a formula that seems to work, and we just don't mess with it," Fogarty said. "We just fine tune, and that's kind of the key."

One thing Gurney and Fogarty are still chasing is a victory at Miller Motorsports Park. All three sports car races at Miller have produced first-time Daytona Prototype and overall winners. But a first-place finish has eluded Fogarty and Gurney in each previous stop at the track.

Their Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing team has made a few adjustments to the car set-up in hopes it will help deal with a smooth track that offers more grip, fast corners and sheer length than most other Grand-Am race venues.

Gurney feels like they have unlocked enough potential in the car to do better in Utah this time around, but he also knows it doesn't take much to be knocked out of the running on an unforgiving track like the one at Miller.