Grand American Rolex

Driving the No. 3 Southard Motorsports Lexus Riley, Lewis posted a lap at 1:46.114 (115.348 mph) to secure a starting spot on the outside of the fifth row for the second endurance race of the 2008 Rolex Series season.

"I'm sure glad that I put one lap in the book to get us up there in the top 10," Lewis said. "I was really planning on when the tire temperatures came in and the car came to me a little bit, that my second, third or possibly fourth lap would be my quickest. But you always have that wonder at Watkins Glen if someone might put one off or make a mistake. It's one of those things where you have to do the balance of, 'How slow do I go to get it there,' or 'Do I put a lap down in the middle?' I kind of went in the middle. We could have been probably in the top five in qualifying if I would have gone for it, but I think it was probably the smart thing to do overall."

Given that Ricardo Zonta crashed just four minutes into the 15-minute qualifying session and the green flag never flew again, Lewis' strategy definitely worked out. Unfortunately, the other Lexus runner in the field wasn't as lucky, as Scott Pruett never posted a flying lap and wound up 17th on the Daytona Prototype grid at 1:54.722 (106.693 mph) in the No. 01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing Lexus Riley.

"Terrible," Pruett said. "It's one of those things. They give you 15 minutes, and Grand-Am is going to review something to do to guarantee you time. Our car is fast. The 01 car has been fast all weekend long, and we were on a very fast lap. To not complete it and not get any lap is frustrating. I'm disappointed for the team, and I'm disappointed for us, because we clearly have a fast car. Lexus is right back where it needs to be. It's a six-hour race, so we need to focus on it. The good news is we've got a great car for the race. I think this is one of our strong points. I think our strengths even come through further on long races than short races, not that it hasn't been great in the short races. Unfortunately, we were one of those cars that got caught out today, but we'll come back swinging."

While he and co-driver Memo Rojas will have a long way to go in the race to get to the front of the field where they have grown accustomed to racing, Pruett remains optimistic about the team's chances.

"Everything is easier with a fast car," Pruett said. "Clearly, our car has been running very well all weekend. It's a six-hour race. Last year, dang, between the first-lap incident and cutting a tire, we lost two laps last year and we came back to finish second. We were fighting for the lead, but finished second. You've just got to be patient and you've got to be smart. There's a lot of racing."

Pruett and Rojas head into Saturday's race as the Daytona Prototype points co-leaders. The teammates have won three of the first five races and have not finished worse than third all season. However, Pruett pointed out that it's still far too early in the season to be counting points with nine races still remaining on the calendar.

"You kind of always know they're out there, but I like to get four or five from the end before I really would look at changing some strategies based on points," Pruett said. "We're a little ways from there."

For their part, Lewis and No. 3 Lexus co-driver Bill Lester are also looking for a strong run on Saturday in upstate New York.

"We've got a really good powerplant," Lewis said. "We've got a good chassis. We've got guys that can make good pit stops. Always, the endurance races we've done really well at. Six hours is really a good number for us. Bill Lester and I can run flat out for six hours. It's really a sprint race for us. That's what we're looking forward to."

Max Angelelli will start the race from the pole position in a Pontiac Dallara.