The win gave Stallings Racing, Fogarty and Gurney the lead in both the team and driver championships, with 119 points each.
Downforce>Miles per Hour
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca had been updated over the off-season, with new paved runoff areas to keep cars out of the gravel traps. Apparently this worked, as there were half as many yellow flags this year as last. Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is a tight, high-downforce course; Daytona Prototypes were pushing through slowest turn at 45 mph and topping out at 155 on the straight.
The racing was furious for the first twenty laps. Lap nine saw a yellow as a TRG Porsche split a radiator. A collision between Scott Tucker in the #55 Supercar Riley BMW and Brad Jaeger in the #77 Doran Dallara Ford brought out another yellow on lap eighteen; many drivers took this opportunity to make their mandatory first pit stop.
Several teams also made a driver change here, including the Gainsco car. Unfortunately, according to race stewards, these drivers needed to drive another twenty seconds to complete their requisite thirty minutes to earn championship points. In the Gainsco pits, Jon Fogarty said that even if he didn’t get points, he would not get back in the car, because the extra pit stop might cost the team the race.
On the restart, Roman Dumas in the Penske Porsche was hot on the heels of Memo Rojas’ Telmex Ganassi Riley Lexus, who was chasing Brian Frisselle in the Suntrust car; Frisselle had not yet pitted.
The Porsches had received some massaging from the series organizers after New Jersey; the GT Porsches were allowed to drop some weight and also allowed to run wider rear bodywork, which would allow them to run the RSR suspension.
The DP Porsches were given back sixth gear, in exchange for another hundred revs. Apparently the change suited the Penske car; the series-leading Brumos Porsche, on the other hand was struggling. After having never finished out of the top five all season, Darren and Law and David Donohue barely able to hang with the top ten. Having 2008 bodywork, which generates less downforce, really hurt them at Mazda Laguna Seca.
On lap 23, Leh Keen in the Farnsbacher Loles Porsche took the GT lead from Nick Ham in the SpeedSource
Mazda RX8. Ham stayed glued to Keen’s bumper; the pair swapped the lead three times in a single lap. The Mazda had better straight-line speed; eventually Leh Keen had to ease off the save the Porshce’s tires.
The GT Pontiacs had been forced to add 25 lbs., but the Pontiacs seemed not to notice as the Stevenson Pontiac GXP.R, with Robin Liddell at the wheel , passed Leh Keen’s Porsche on lap 53 and started hunting down Ham in the Mazda.
Miles per Gallon>Miles per Hour
By lap 57, Memo Rojas led by seven seconds, with Alex Gurny right on the tail of Roman Dumas. The Gainsco car had more fuel and fresher tires. This mattered, because on lap 63, Dumas pitted and handed off the car to Timo Bernhard. Alex Gurney came in at the same time and handed off to Jon Fogarty. Because the Gainsco car needed less fuel, it got out of the pits ahead of the Penske Porsche.
Penske planned to run the Porsche without a third stop. They felt they could make fuel and take the lead when the rest of the leaders came in for a splash to finish. Because there were so few yellows this year, most teams were worrying about their fuel mileage—most teams had figured on frequent yellows to stretch their mileage.
