CICCI/KELLY RACING TAPS MEXICAN DRIVER CARLOS PARDO TO DRIVE #34 BUSCH CAR IN MEXICO CITY

From Cicci / Kelly Racing

Frank Cicci, owner of the Frank Cicci Racing with Jim Kelly NASCAR Busch Series race team, announced today that veteran Mexican driver Carlos Pardo has been hired to drive the familiar #34 Cicci/Kelly Racing Chevrolet in the Telcel Motorola Mexico 200 race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City next weekend.

Pardo has competed regularly in several Mexican-based Series and notched titles in four consecutive seasons. He was the Tourismo Series champion in 2000 and followed that up with back-to-back crowns in the Mexican Super Truck Series in 2001 and 2002, and the inaugural championship in the Desafio Corona circuit in 2004. The Desafio Corona Tour is endorsed by NASCAR and served as a support event for last year’s first-ever Busch Series race in Mexico City.

Pardo also started a pair of NASCAR Busch Series North (now the new NASCAR Grand National Busch East Series) races in 2005. He finished a very respectable eleventh in each race, one at the Star Country/Domino’s Sausage Pizza 150 at the Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, VA, and the other in the Edge Hotel 150 at the Adirondack International Speedway in Beaver Falls. NY. Pardo was entered each time in cars owned by Lori Williams.

“We tested (Pardo) him on the road course at Virginia International Raceway, and he adapted to the heavier car real quick and kept getting better and better”, said Cicci, now in his 28th season as a NASCAR team owner – 19 of them in the Busch Series.

“Carlos has turned hundreds of laps on the Mexico City course, and our team is really looking forward to going to Mexico City with a driver and car capable of winning”, Cicci added.

Cicci’s #34 Monte Carlo will carry primary sponsorship in the Mexico 200 on March 5 from Telcel, Mexico’s largest cellular telephone service provider. Additional support will come from MobiTech, a NASCAR licensed computer furniture manufacturer, and VecTech, producer of an extensive line of consumer electronic products.

The Vasquez Marketing Group was instrumental in brokering the deal between Pardo and Cicci/Kelly Racing. Cicci/Kelly Racing has a guaranteed starting berth for the first five races on the 2006 Busch Series schedule as a result of its 23rd place finish in owner points in 2005.