Fogarty claims fourth straight pole position in Grand-Am series

TOOELE — While Jon Fogarty won his fourth consecutive pole position and series-tying 13th career overall pole Friday in Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. The Daytona Prototype point leader viewed the session as a test for today's Utah 250.

Fogarty and Alex Gurney, co-drivers of Bob Stallings Racing's No. 99 GAINSCO Pontiac Riley, enter today's penultimate round of the 2009 campaign with a five-point cushion over Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett, drivers of Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates' No. 01 TELMEX Lexus Riley, and Brian Frisselle and Max Angelelli, drivers of the No. 10 SunTrust Ford Dallara (274-269).

Rojas and Frisselle both qualified for the second row for the two-hour, 45-minute event (SPEED live, 3:30 p.m. MT).

Fogarty was pressured for the pole throughout the 15-minute session by Timo Bernhard, who co-drives the Penske Racing No. 12 Verizon Wireless Porsche Riley with Romains Dumas. Fogarty ran a lap of 2:35.737 (103.698 mph) to snare his fifth pole in six races.

"We worked on getting our car more raceable rather than setting it up for qualifying," Fogarty said. "We had a very dominant car this morning, but knew that in the heat of the day conditions would change, and we tried to have the car drive good in these conditions. We expect these conditions to be similar to tomorrow's race, so we were treating qualifying more as a test session for tomorrow's race."

Bernhard clocked in second fastest, 2:36.560 (103.153 mph). While Penske Racing has yet to win in Rolex Series competition, Miller has produced first-time winners in all three prior Grand-Am races at the 4.486-mile circuit.

"I think the race pace will be closer to our time, so they will not run away from us," Bernhard said.

Rojas and Frisselle ran at close quarters throughout qualifying. Rojas ran 2:36.675 (103.077 mph) to edge Frisselle for third.

"It was really frustrating, because I caught Memo during my stint," Frisselle said. "I tried to move the gap back to get away from him, but he brought himself back to me and I was in his dirty air for my last lap - which is the fastest lap. I thought that was a cheap shot move."

Rojas, who has been battling bronchitis all week, did not think he was blocking.