Advanced Kawasaki’s Robbie Dowie remains hospitalized with a broken neck and will miss today’s Toyota 200 at Willow Springs. Dowie crashed in fast turn nine during Friday’s Toyota 200 qualifying session after he ran a two-lap soft qualifying tire for five laps. Dowie improved his qualifying time on the tire, pitted after three laps, asked a friend how the tire looked, and being told it looked good, headed out for another couple of laps. The tire delaminated and lost its tread and Dowie crashed in turn nine. He was transported with a broken C7 vertebrae and a concussion but according to his crew has full feeling and suffered no paralysis. According to Dennis Smith of Sport Tire Service, the Dunlop race tire distributor west of the Mississippi River, Dowie–who was at the track without the Advanced Kawasaki crew–was advised that Dunlop recommends that riders on qualifying tires make a relatively slow out-lap, come up to speed in turns eight and nine, make a fast flying lap, and then cruise into the pits on the next lap. With Dowie absent from the grid, WSMC officials haved moved up riders who qualified behind Dowie.