06/02/2008 Mid-Ohio program story
 
 
 
 
 
Homeless Animals Will Win
If Prendeville Can Complete
Both Firestone Indy Lights Races
This Weekend at Mid-Ohio
 
 
Fans Make Donations On-Line at RacingLapsforBestFriends.com
 
By Linda Mansfield
 
Mid-Ohio takes center stage this weekend in the Racing Laps for Best Friends 
program, which raises donations to the Best Friends Animal Society based on 
the number of laps Andrew Prendeville completes in the Firestone Indy Lights 
series.  Twin 40-lap races are on the docket here at Mid-Ohio Saturday and Sunday.
 
Best Friends is a not-for-profit, charitable organization that is one of the 
largest animal welfare concerns in the world.  Its headquarters are in Kanab, 
Utah, where it cares for some 1,500 animals on any given day.  Best Friends 
also works with shelters and rescue groups around the world, including here in 
Ohio. Their common goal is a day when there will be no more homeless pets. 
 
Best Friends provides adoption, spay/neuter and educational programs. It has 
an impressive network of members nationwide which assists their local areas as 
well as national and even international cases.  Best Friends also publishes 
Best Friends magazine, the nation's largest general-interest animal magazine.
 
Best Friends' sanctuary in Utah often becomes the home of animals that other 
groups have been unable to place. It has been in the news this year because it 
was given the responsibility to care for and rehabilitate 22 of the dogs 
formerly owned by NFL player Michael Vick.
 
Last year Prendeville decided to try to raise both exposure for Best Friends 
and donations to the group by advertising it on his race car, the Best Friends 
Animal Society No. 5, and his Racing Laps for Best Friends program was born. 
Through a Web site he developed at racinglapsforbestfriends.com, fans can make 
donations to Best Friends in any monetary amount from 25 cents and up based 
on the number of laps Prendeville completes in any or all of his Firestone Indy 
Lights races.  The tax-deductible donations go entirely to Best Friends.
 
If Prendeville's Best Friends Animal Society No. 5 should complete all 40 
laps of the Firestone Indy Lights race here on Saturday and a fan pledged $1 a 
lap for that race, the fan's credit card would be charged with a $40 donation to 
Best Friends after the checkered falls.  If the fan made a similar donation 
for Sunday's race and Prendeville would drop out of that one at the halfway 
point, the donation for that event would be $20.
 
Fans here at Mid-Ohio can cheer Prendeville on in person. For other races 
they can follow his progress live on-line at indycar.com/indylights, or on the 
tape-delayed race broadcasts on ESPN2.  Results are also posted on 
racinglapsforbestfriends.com.
 
Prendeville became interested in Best Friends' work through his mother, Pat, 
who has made donations to the group for many years.  She even adopted two cats 
from Best Friends' sanctuary.
 
Andrew's travel schedule doesn't permit him to have a pet of his own right 
now, but each month he makes a donation to Best Friends to sponsor one of the 
dogs at its sanctuary.  Animals available for on-line adoptions are part of 
bestfriends.org.  
 
Prendeville chose a dog named Ballsy that became homeless - and traumatized - 
due to Hurricane Katrina.  Details of Ballsy's rehabilitation can be obtained 
through a blog Prendeville writes on racinglapsforbestfriends.com.  Other 
information on Prendeville can be obtained at andrewprendeville.com and 
andersenracingteam.com.