Race Report – Watkins Glen
 WATKINS
GLEN, N.Y. July 8 --After six straight oval track races, the
IndyCar Series returned to the road courses with the running
of the Camping World Watkins Glen Grand Prix at Watkins Glen
International, an historic 3.3 mile course in New York’s
Southern Tier. Scott Dixon won the race for the third straight
year.
Darren Manning ran strong for most of the 60-lap event Sunday
afternoon in his first ever race at the Glen. Starting ninth
in A.J. Foyt’s No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda Manning moved
to eighth immediately. He ran in the top ten the entire race
except for a short stint during differing fuel strategy runs
when he dropped briefly to 14th. A slow pit stop during a
caution period on lap 25 cost him a couple positions but he
reclaimed them on the restart lap.
As the pit stops cycled through, it appeared that Manning was
looking at a solid seventh place and possibly a sixth place
finish. However, in the final ten laps of the race he dropped
back to ninth which is where he finished.
“Overall, I was quite pleased with the way the car handled,”
said Manning afterwards. “I was able to run with the front
guys. We dropped back a bit on that one pitstop but I got the
two positions back on the restart. I was a bit disappointed
with the last part of the race. I lost power in my arms with
the track gripping up as much as it did. I lost strength. I
need to get in the gym a little more and get a bit more like
A.J.”
The tough track conditions were a first for the IndyCar Series
regulars because the past two races had been characterized by
rain. This race started out under partly sunny skies and ended
without a drop of rain falling until the teams were packing up
their equipment onto the trucks.
“Darren drove a good race, but he got tired at the end,” said
team owner A.J. Foyt. “I knew what happened. He said he could
have run harder but he probably would have crashed which is
what happened in St. Pete so I think he made the right
decision. He could have blamed the car but he was honest and I
respect him highly for that. We’re still coming together as a
team but the improvement is there with every race.”
Manning moved to 13th in the standings with 188 points. Marco
Andretti is 12th with 197 markers.
Following Dixon across the line were Sam Hornish, Dario
Franchitti, Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, Buddy Rice, Dan
Wheldon and Kosuke Matsuura.
The next race is the Firestone Indy 200 at Nashville
Superspeedway Saturday night, July 14th. The race will be
televised live on ESPN starting at 7:30 pm eastern time.
Notes & Quotes: Watkins Glen Grand Prix
Darren Manning: No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda
·
Darren Manning on racing at the Glen: “It’s great to get
back to a road course. Hopefully we can improve on what we
did at St. Petersburg and the Mid-Ohio test. We have a good
baseline set-up so that will speed up the fine-tuning we
have to do for the Glen…I’m looking forward to racing there.
I did the suitability test with Helio Castroneves to see
what was needed for the Indy cars to run there and then I
did the two-day open test but I never raced there. It’s a
fast course. It’s rare to find a modern day road course with
such fast corners. It gives us a fresh challenge. We’re
going back to the old days. With the increase in speed of
the race cars, now most tracks make the corners slower to
make the tracks safer for the drivers. But the Glen kept the
fast corners and improved the safety of the track.”
· Manning on wet weather as a factor at the Glen: “Well, we
practice and race in the rain so we won’t lose practice time
because of the weather. Growing up in England, I probably
raced more in the rain than I did anything else so I
wouldn’t mind if it did rain.”
· Wet weather still a factor for Foyt: The wet weather in
central Texas has been a big factor for A.J. Foyt recently.
Foyt owns a lake house on Lake Travis which has reached
flood stage due to all the rain. Foyt and his son Tony had
to empty the 8,500 square foot house of its furniture as the
first level flooded last week. They returned earlier this
week to empty out the second level where the main living
quarters are. It is about three feet from flooding with more
rain predicted.
· Past performances at the Glen: The Foyt team’s best finish
at Watkins Glen is fifth with Felipe Giaffone in 2006. In
the inaugural event in 2005, Jeff Bucknum drove to an 11th
place finish after starting 19th. Manning has never raced at
the Glen.
· A.J. Foyt will be traveling early Thursday morning to
Daytona International Speedway to participate in the track’s
festivities honoring all living Daytona 500 champions. Once
the activities conclude, Foyt will then board his jet for
the IndyCar race in upstate New York.
· All Star Insulation & Siding Co. Inc. of East Hampton, MA
is this weekend’s winner of the ABC Supply Your Name Here
Promotion for its customers. The company name will be put on
the top of the sidepods of the No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda.
Edwin Losacano will receive selected merchandise, race
tickets, hospitality and garage passes, plus a Meet and
Greet with A.J. Foyt and Darren Manning. The “Your Name
Here” promotion selected winners by random drawing from a
pool of entries sent in by ABC Supply customers earlier this
year.
The Watkins Glen Grand Prix will be shown live at 3:30 p.m.
eastern time Sunday afternoon, July 8 on ABC-TV.
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