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Prendeville Finishes All 77 Laps At
Nashville Saturday For Racing Laps for
Best Friends
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07/12/2008
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By Linda Mansfield, Restart
Communications
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 LEBANON,
Tenn., July 12 - Neither a thunderstorm, a green
race track nor a loose race car could keep
Andrew Prendeville from finishing ninth in the
Sunbelt Rentals 100 Firestone Indy Lights race
Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway in the Best
Friends Animal Society No. 5.
With the solid showing he completed all 77 laps
of the race, guaranteeing the most donations
possible to Best Friends from the fans that made
per-lap donations based on his performance at
racinglapsforbestfriends.com.
The race was delayed an hour and 45 minutes due
to a thunderstorm. With the IndyCar race
following on the schedule, compete with live TV,
Prendeville's race became a timed event of 45
minutes or 77 laps, whichever came first.
Luckily for the not-for-profit animal welfare
group there were only two caution periods in the
race, and all 77 laps were completed.
The storm erased all the Firestone Firehawk
rubber that had been laid down on the 1.33-mile
concrete oval in practice and qualifying, making
for a green track. Although it was easy to spin
without that rubber, Prendeville stayed out of
trouble throughout the race.
Prendeville, a native of Chatham Township, N.J.,
started 12th, but he zoomed into the top 10 by
the end of lap one. Franck Perera passed him
with six laps down to push him to 11th place,
but he got tenth back on lap 14 when Dillon
Battistini pitted with a flat tire. That put
Prendeville right behind Brent Sherman, whom he
passed on lap 17 for ninth place.
He got eighth when Jeff Simmons pitted for a new
nose cone, and then stayed in that spot for the
next 21 circuits. He moved up to seventh on lap
45 when James Davison dropped out after contact
with Jonny Reid.
The restart on lap 53 didn't go well for
Prendeville. He dropped one spot initially, but
then got caught by a train of cars and slipped
back to 11th. He regrouped at the end though,
passing Sherman for tenth with five laps to go
and getting by Pablo Donoso on the last lap for
ninth place.
"The Best Friends Animal Society car was real
loose at the beginning of the race," Prendeville
said afterwards. "I made adjustments, and just
tried to balance the car for the second half of
the race.
"I lost some positions there once when I was
hung out to dry on a restart," he noted. "I was
on the outside, and I just got passed. But then
we were able to regroup, and we finished ninth.
"Will [Paul] and Seb [Jubelin, his mechanics]
did a great job, as always," he said. "I'd also
like to thank everyone who made donations to
Best Friends on racinglapsforbestfriends.com. We
were able to finish all 77 laps, which is good."
Saturday's race will be televised at 2:30 p.m.
Eastern time July 17 on ESPN2.
Prendeville's next two races are next Saturday
and Sunday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in
Lexington, Ohio. It is one of the Las
Vegas-based driver's favorite tracks. Donations
to Best Friends based on that doubleheader, as
well as the other races remaining on the 2008
schedule, are already being accepted at
racinglapsforbestfriends.com.
Fans can also purchase Best Friends raffle
tickets at
racinglapsforbestfriends.com.
Prizes are sessions at the famous Bertil Roos
Racing School.
Tickets for a raffle featuring prizes of
sessions at the Bertil Roos Racing School may
also be obtained through the
racinglapsforbestfriends.com
website.
Additional information is available at
bestfriends.org,
indycar.com/indylights and
andersenracingteam.com.
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