Dilley finishes fourth at Mosport Speedway: Exide Dodge Charger driver was second for much of the event

Courtesy Don Brooks

BARRIE, ON – On Saturday night at Mosport Speedway, CASCAR Super Series veteran Mark Dilley bounced back from a tough western swing with a fourth-place finish in the Mosport Speedway 200.

With the result, the Exide / Dodge / PowerWater / Mobil 1 / Dodge Charger driver climbed from fifth to fourth in the overall point standings with four events remaining on the schedule.

The Barrie, ON racer started on the outside of the second row in the field of 20 at the half-mile Mosport oval, and climbed to second-place on lap 22 when he passed his Whitlock Motorsports teammate Dave Whitlock.

From there, Dilley tailed race-leader and polesitter Don Thomson until the majority of the leaders pitted for right-side tires just past the halfway point of the event. The #9 Exide Dodge Charger won the race off pit road thanks to a superb effort by the #9 team. The excellent stop allowed Dilley to re-emerge in front of Thomson, in third place, behind two drivers who stayed out on the track.

Dilley passed both of those racers by lap 110 and was the leader of the race until Thomson retook the top spot on lap 124. With 15 laps to go in the 200-lap affair, Whitlock was on Dilley’s bumper and appeared to have the quicker car. Dilley’s plan was to allow his long-time teammate to move safely into the runner-up spot, in order to have a shot at the win.

Unfortunately, the pair made contact on the entry to turn 1, resulting in a yellow flag that send Whitlock to the end of the lead lap. Following the race, Dilley regretted the contact, but said he’d done all he could to let Dave safely around him.

“Dave thought he was ‘clear’, and I did everything I could to get out of his way,” said Dilley, after the race. “I just couldn’t go any lower; I was in the grass. I feel bad about what happened.

“Dave and I have been great teammates for years and we both know that neither one of us would do anything to take the other one out. But it was just one of those deals. Dave was on the outside and he was faster than me; there’s no doubt about it. We always let each other go if the other one has a better car in a given situation. Dave let me go earlier in the race and I was trying to return the favour when we got together. I wasn’t racing him, that’s for sure.”

Aside from the frustration caused by the contact with Whitlock, Dilley was pleased with his Mosport outing. “It was a good run. We had Exide on the hood for the race and we put on a good show for them and came out of it with a fourth-place finish. On the restarts, we were really fast for the first 10 laps but then we’d fade a bit. Donnie [Thomson] was the opposite, and his car would get going and check out after 10 laps. We had a great pit stop and beat everyone off pit road. The guys at Whitlock Motorsports did a great job of addressing the problems we had with the tires out west, so I’m happy about that, too.”

LOOKING AHEAD:
The next CASCAR Super Series race on the schedule for the Dodge / PowerWater / Mobil 1 / Exide / Dodge Charger team is this weekend’s stop at Cayuga 2000 Speedway, south of Hamilton, ON. Sunday’s (Aug. 14) race at the 5/8-mile speedway is Race #9 on the ’05 schedule.

“I like racing at Cayuga,” said Dilley. “We’ve never had a whole lot of luck there, but it’s fun to race on the big track and we’ll give it our best.”

RACE NOTES:
Dodge driver DJ Kennington passed Don Thomson with two laps to go in Saturday night’s Mosport Speedway 200 to win his third CASCAR Super Series feature race in the row. Thomson held for second place at the checkered flag, ahead of Dodge Charger driver Ron Beauchamp Jr.

For more information about the #9 team and its sponsors: http://www.whitlockmotorsports.com/

For more information about CASCAR, including complete race results, reports, point standings, event schedules and upcoming broadcast times for Super Series races on SPORTSNET, see http://www.cascar.ca/