Race Report: Peak Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy 300
at Chicagoland
JOLIET, IL Aug. 29, 2009—In spite of the cold temperatures
Saturday night, the racing action was hot and heavy in the Peak
Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway.
Unfortunately for Ryan Hunter-Reay and the ABC Supply team, the
beginning of the race saw him get stuck behind a couple cars causing
him to lose the main draft.
“I got hung up in the beginning behind guys who weren’t flat-footing
it through the turns and we lost the main draft and that sealed out
fate,” said Hunter-Reay afterwards. Starting 18th,
Hunter-Reay lost half a lap by the time of his first pit stop on lap
42. Being out of the main draft, the car was using more fuel which
caused him to pit earlier than the leaders. The leaders passed him
when he emerged from hi stop and he was never able to get the lap
back. He had a slight push in the beginning of the race - the team
the front wing on the second stop. Compunding the issue was being
geared too low in the top two gears.
However, several yellows slowed the pace, allowing the field to
catch up to the leaders, near the halfway point . Hunter-Reay was
able to stay in the draft and run with the pack even though it
wasn’t for a top 10 position due to his earlier travails.
With 17 laps left in the 200-lapper, Helio Castroneves suffered a
suspension failure which shot his car into the wall bringing out the
final caution. He escaped uninjured. The green flag flew with 10
laps to go setting up a tense battle among the top five cars. Ryan
Briscoe edged out Scott Dixon at the line while Mario Moraes beat
Dario Franchitti to finish third. Graham Rahal rounded out the top
five.
With the aerodynamic changes recently authorized by the IRL, the
cars were able to run closer together than they had in recent
months. There were races within the race as the cars ran two and
three wide nearly the entire race. Several times cars touched wheels
as the drivers diced for position.
“When we have racing like that we have to take it back a step and
have more respect for each other,” said Hunter-Reay. “There was a
lot of chopping out there. I saw a couple times where cars touched
and should have gone flying. There were way too many close calls.
This racing can be fun if you do it right.”
The next race is the Japan Indy 300 at Twin Ring Motegi on September
19th.
Hunter-Reay Qualifies 18th at Chicagoland
JOLIET, IL Aug. 28, 2009--Ryan Hunter-Reay will start 18th in
the PEAK Antifreeze and Motor Oil Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway.
He posted a four-lap average speed of 212.337mph Friday afternoon.
“We’ll go out and concentrate on a ‘race’ car, that’s what we’ve
been looking forward to, is a race car,” said Hunter-Reay following
his qualifying run. “We’re obviously not here to qualify, we’re here
to race. Hopefully we’ll get something sorted out in the final
practice session this afternoon. The ABC Supply car in Kentucky was
good and I know this is a different track from Kentucky, but the car
was pretty good there. [Hunter-Reay started 17th in Kentucky] If we
didn’t have that pit lane incident with Conway and Moraes in the
race, I think we would have been alright. We’ll keep our heads up,
it’s frustrating being back where we are but we can definitely race
forward.”
Team Penske captured the front row with Ryan Briscoe outpacing his
teammate Helio Castroneves with a 215.364mph average to Castroneves’
215.202mph speed average. The race gets underway tomorrow evening at
9:00 p.m. local time which makes it the latest start for a race this
season. VERSUS will be begin broadcasting live from the track an
hour earlier or 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
NOTES & QUOTES: PEAK Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy
300 at Chicagoland Speedway
• Ryan Hunter-Reay on Chicagoland: “I enjoy racing at
Chicagoland; it makes for some great racing as the fans will tell
you. The key for us is to go back there with a car that’s similar to
the one we had at Kentucky and make a good race car out of it. I
think the most interesting part of this weekend will be to see what
teams are doing with the 300 lbs. of available downforce. At
Kentucky there were quite a few different approaches and ours was
somewhere in the middle. As far as the track goes, I’ve heard there
are some new bumps. Chicagoland races like a big track whereas
Kentucky races a little bit smaller. I think it’s because
Chicagoland has more banking, but I’m not sure. I just know that
some 1.5s feel like they’re a mile long and others feel like they’re
2 miles long.”
• RHR on racing at night: “I think it’s great for the fans.
On the track, it’s the same for the drivers--night or day--but for
the fans, everything looks a lot faster at night. There is one
challenge associated with racing at night, though. On the in and out
laps, it’s hard coming off the oval at 200 mph onto the access road
which isn’t really lit up very well. You have to be very fast around
the access road coming into pit lane and when you come off a very
well lit oval onto a darker area that is flat with no banking, it is
definitely difficult. One advantage to racing at night is that the
track changes less because you don’t have as much of a temperature
fluctuation.”
• Vitor Meira to be at Chicagoland: Meira, who hasn’t missed
a race in the States since his first one back at Watkins Glen, will
be at Chicagoland this weekend. Although he isn’t driving, Meira
works as a teammate to Hunter-Reay; they discuss the track, car
set-up and race strategy with team owner A.J. Foyt and chief
engineer Adam Schaechter. • ABC Supply roofing
customer Vande Roofing, Siding & Construction of Roscoe, IL won
the ‘Your Name Here’ contest for the PEAK Antifreeze & Motor Oil
Indy 300. The company name will be atop the sidepods of the No. 14
ABC Supply Dallara/Honda. Keith Vandewoestyne will receive selected
merchandise, race tickets, hospitality and garage passes, plus a
Meet and Greet with Ryan Hunter-Reay. The “Your Name Here” promotion
selected winners by random drawing from a pool of entries sent in by
ABC Supply customers earlier this year.
• IZOD spokesman Ryan Hunter-Reay will be appearing at the Macy’s
department store located at 111 North State Street; Chicago, IL
60602 on Thursday, August 27 from 5:00 - 7 p.m.
• On Sunday morning A.J. Foyt will fly to Indianapolis along
with some of his crew to watch their first Red Bull Indianapolis GP
motorcycle race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Foyt had planned to
go last year but Hurricane Ike hit Houston hard and he cancelled his
plans to attend. It appears that weather won’t be a factor in this
year’s race on Sunday.
• Past performance at Chicagoland Speedway: Hunter-Reay
finished ninth last year after starting 16th. In his first
appearance at the track in 2007 he started 12th and finished
seventh. The Foyt team’s best finish came in 2001 when Donnie
Beechler finished fifth and A.J. Foyt IV posted the team’s best
start in 2004 which was sixth.
• The PEAK Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy 300 will be shown live
at 9:00 p.m. ET Saturday night, Aug. 29 on VERSUS.
• For more information on the Foyt Racing program, please
check these web sites: www.ajfoytracing.com and www.ryanracing.com. |
