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A Busy Day At Road America

It was a busy day of practice at Road America on Friday.

The NASCAR Nationwide Series had two practice sessions today for Saturday’s Bucyrus 200. Also on the track today were the SCCA Pro Racing Trans-Am Series and the SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup, which is part of the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development Ladder

In the final NASCAR Nationwide Series practice session, Jacques Villeneuve was fastest at 106.773 mph. It was also the quickest speed of the day.

The next four fastest speeds were all set in the first practice session.

In the first practice session, Brad Coleman was second fastest of the day and fastest in the early session with a speed of 106.334 mph. He was followed by Ron Hornaday Jr. with a speed of 106.127 mph. Colin Braun was fourth quick at 106.127 mph. Michel Jourdain Jr., who was practicing in place of Paul Menard set the fifth fastest speed of the day at 106.047 mph.. Menard was in Infineon Speedway, practicing and qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 300.

In the combined results for the three Trans-Am Series practices held today, Tony Dries, driving a Jaguar XKR, was quickest of the day at 115.559 mph. Mike Skeen, driving a Corvette, was second quickest at 114.815 mph. Tony Ave, who is also driving in the Nationwide Series Bucyrus 200, was third fastest at 114.503 mph.

Fastest of the day in the Mazda MX-5 Cup was Brad Rampelberg, who recorded a speed of 91.304 mph. Second quickest was Justin Piscitell at 90.892 mph. Third fastest was Lyonel Kent at 90.736 mph. All three speeds were set in the second of three practice sessions.

Two press conferences were held today. The first featured Victor Gonzalez Jr., Owen Kelly and Jacques Villeneuve.

Gonzalez is the first driver from Puerto Rico to race in NASCAR. He is very pleased to be running in the Nationwide series. Gonzalez has previously raced at Road America in the Star Mazda Series and in Formula Atlantics.

He is very excited to have his father here for the race.

“I wanted to give a good Father’s Day present to my Dad to see me racing at such a great facility,” he said.

This weekend marks the first time Villenueve has been at the track since 1995 when he won an IndyCar race here.

“It’s very different than in an open-wheel (car), definitely. Even though (it has been) 15 years, I still remember the track as if I had driven it last week. So that’s good. It was always one of my favorite road courses. I was looking for an excuse to come back here and it’s been great fun,” he said.

The second press conference featured Brad Coleman, Colin Braun, Ron Fellows and Michael McDowell, all of whom have previously run at the track in different series and will run in the Bucyrus 200.

Tomorrow is the big day of the weekend as the NASCAR Nationwide series cars will qualify for and run, the Bucyrus 200. Also on tap tomorrow is qualifying for the Trans-Am and MazdaMX-5 Cup, both of which will race on Sunday. In addition, the Mid-American stock cars will practice for their Sunday race.

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