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Brickyard Super Weekend Profile: Alex Gurney

July 02, 2012 | By John Oreovicz

The Gurney family legacy at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is not lost on Alex Gurney.

The 37-year old son of American racing legend Dan Gurney knows that his father scored three top-three finishes in the Indianapolis 500 as a driver, and two more as the constructor of Eagle Racing cars.

Alex Gurney also knows that Dan Gurney was one of the world’s best sports car drivers, winning the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans teamed with AJ Foyt and numerous other prestigious international endurance races.

Alex worked his way through the open-wheel road racing ranks to Formula Atlantic, but was unable to break into Indy cars. He stepped into sports cars instead, landing a job with Bob Stallings’ GAINSCO Racing team in the Grand-Am Rolex Series.

Teamed with fellow Formula Atlantic graduate (and Indy car hopeful) Jon Fogarty, Gurney and the GAINSCO team rewrote the Grand-Am Daytona Prototype record book with their highly successful 2007 season. After breaking through for an initial victory at Mexico City, Gurney and Fogarty added six more wins and 10 pole positions.

The duo repeated their championship success in 2009, and despite enduring a difficult 2012 campaign, remain among the combinations to beat in Grand-Am Daytona Prototype racing. Gurney and Fogarty have won twice in 2012, bringing their total of DP wins since 2007 to 18.

Gurney is looking forward to racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first time.

“We’re all excited about it,” Gurney said. “I guess it’s been 50 years since my dad first went there in 1962, so that’s a pretty neat deal. We can’t wait to race there and everyone is really excited.”