NASCAR Nationwide: Alex Tagliani Phoenix practice quotes

For Immediate Release on behalf of MacDonald Motorsports: Friday, November 13, 2009
Alex Tagliani #81 // NASCAR Nationwide Series Event—Phoenix International Raceway

Final Practice Position: 23rd

*Alex Tagliani is driving for the 2nd time this season for MacDonald Motorsports in the NASCAR Nationwide Series event at Phoenix International Raceway. This will be Alex’s first oval race in a NASCAR event.

Alex Tagliani, Driver #81

“This weekend is my first time in the stock car on an oval and so far, I think it has gone pretty well. I think the most difficult thing for an open-wheel guy to remember is that you have to focus on not overdriving the car. If you try to be more aggressive to shave some time off on your lap you actually will lose more time than you gain. That is tough to remember because in the open-wheel car, you can push harder and shave tenths off your time but if you do that in the stock car you can actually drive the car in too far, and lose a second a lap. So it is a steep penalty for overdriving the car. In the 1st session the car was a little tight with understeer but we kept making changes and by the 2nd session the car was much freer and we ran much better and improved our lap times. We are going to make a small change tonight for qualifying tomorrow and I think we should conceivably be a top-20 car. Our main goal for the race tomorrow is to try and stay out of trouble and out of the way and bring home a good result for the team. These guys are really excited this weekend and they are putting forth so much effort. For a small team, they really do an excellent job and I hope I can bring them a good result.”

Randy MacDonald, Team Owner—MacDonald Motorsports

“We are all so happy to have Alex here with us again this weekend. The team really puts all of their effort into their preparation and so does Alex and that really shows when he is here to drive for us. It is such a pleasure to see the boys so excited and motivated! We had our best team result going in Montreal when we got involved in an incident on the last restart so I think there is a feeling of unfinished business going into this weekend. I think we are all looking forward to a good race and a good result.”

Media contact: Jana Watt // FAZZT Race Team // jwatt@mi-connection.com