Nascar News: Giebler returns to Playa Del racing Team!

SONOMA, Calif. - Phil Giebler will return to the Playa Del Racing car No.12 this weekend at the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.

Giebler returns to the seat after a three race break since his last race at Watkin's Glen, where he had two 4th places finishes that stand as PDR's best results.

"I'm really excited to get back into the Playa Del Racing/Ethos Fuel Reformulator this weekend," said Giebler. "It's been hard not being in the cars these last few weeks, but I'm ready to get in there and see what we can do. I've never raced at Infineon (Raceway), but I'm confident we can put together a good showing this weekend."

Giebler will race the usual No.12 car, but similar to the last two Indy Pro Series events the Playa Del Racing machine will not be the sky blue that adorned the PDR car for the first half of the season. Tom Wieranga will step out of his No.41 machine with Giebler and the Playa Del Racing team taking over the car for this weekend's event.

"We made a deal with Tom (Wierenga) prior to the Nashville event," said PDR co-owner, Gary Sallee. "Unfortunately, the car was involved in an accident in Nashville that almost kept us from being in Sonoma this weekend. The Guthrie Racing guys did a heck of job putting the new car together with some help from our PDR boys, and hopefully we'll get a solid result this weekend to honor their efforts."

Giebler, the 2007 Indianapolis 500 Chase Rookie of the Year, is considered a road course specialist, but has never competed in a race at the Infinion Raceway. PDR Engineer, Mike Colliver, will play a key role in preparing a car that Giebler is comfortable in racing around the 2.22 miles road course featuring several elevation changes and blind corners.

"Phil (Giebler) is an outstanding road course driver and we're all confident he will get the hang of this track pretty quickly," said Colliver. "This is a very challenging track for both the drivers and the engineers which makes for a fun weekend for everyone in the series."

You can see Phil Giebler and the rest of the Indy Pro Series driver navigate the challenging 12 turn road course all weekend on indycar.com, or you can catch the taped national broadcast on ESPN2 Thursday, August 30 at 5:30pm.

Go to playadelracing.com for more information on Phil Giebler, Al Unser III, and the rest of the Playa Del Racing crew. Race one starts are 2:45pm EST on Saturday, and race two starts at 1:20p.m. on Sunday.