CASCAR: Mark Dilley sixth at Mosport Speedway

Dodge-sponsored Charger driver earns his second pole of the season

BARRIE, ON – On Saturday night at Mosport Speedway, Dodge-sponsored Charger driver Mark Dilley started on the pole en route to a sixth-place finish in the 200-lap CASCAR Super Series race.

Dilley led the way in qualifying at Mosport to earn his second pole starting position of the season. The other was at the MOPAR Canada Day 300 at Barrie Speedway at the start of July.

The tight, high-speed half-mile Mosport oval is traditionally hard on brakes. And after leading all but three of the first 73 laps, Dilley’s Dodge / Mobil1 / Exide / Leland / Avenue MotorWorks / CRS Dodge Charger started to experience brake trouble – while running in third-place – leaving him vulnerable to challenges from others. In the end, the Barrie, ON resident came home in sixth.

Aside from brake woes, Dilley’s only other real adventure during the Mosport Speedway 200 occurred during the lap 73 pit stops, when the entire field was on pit road at the same time.

“The pit stop was crazy. We kind of got messed up there because the pit stalls were so tight that we couldn’t get out of our spot and we had to reverse. It’s just good that no one got hurt in the chaos.” By the time Dilley was able to extricate himself from his pit spot, he emerged in third-place for the restart.

“It wasn’t a bad day; we’re pretty happy,” said Dilley, after the race. “We’re proud to have won our second pole of the season, which shows our qualifying program is strong. The car was good early, but we just had no brakes at the end. It’s hard to go into the corner as fast as you need to go without them, so you’re kind of a sitting duck to get passed. A top five would have been nice, but sixth is all-right and we’ll go on to the next race.”

Following seven events, the #9 Dodge / Mobil1 / Exide / Leland / Avenue MotorWorks / CRS Dodge Charger is in sixth-place in the overall CASCAR Super Series points.

The weekend before the Mosport Speedway 250, Dilley was in action at the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres for the third road course event on the 2006 schedule. In that race, the #9 Dodge-sponsored Charger came home with an impressive fifth-place finish. “Finishing fifth there was a really good run for us. The car was excellent. We tried some new things on the car and they worked out for us.”

The next outing for the #9 Dodge Charger team will come in two weeks (on Aug. 25-27) at the ChampCar Grand Prix de Montreal, in Quebec. “I’m looking forward to Montreal. It’s a new venue for us, which is always fun,” said Dilley.

MOSPORT RACE NOTES: Mark Dilley’s Whitlock Motorsports teammate Dave Whitlock won Saturday night’s Mosport Speedway 200. The three-time CASCAR National champion came from 10th on the grid to earn the victory following a late-race pass of eventual second-place finisher Kerry Micks. Super Series points leader J.R. Fitzpatrick was third, ahead of MOPAR Dodge Charger driver Ron Beauchamp and Don Thomson.


Prepared by Inside Track Communications // For more information about the #9 Dodge team and its sponsors, visit www.whitlockmotorsports.com. For more on CASCAR, including complete race results, reports, point standings, event schedules and upcoming broadcast times for Super Series races on SPORTSNET, see www.cascar.ca