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 Race
Report: Road Runner Turbo Indy 300
KANSAS CITY April 26, 2009--Vitor Meira's record at
Kansas Speedway remained intact but not for the right reasons in
Sunday's Road Runner Turbo Indy 300. Meira has always finished
in the top-ten when he has finished the race at the 1.5-mile
superspeedway, but today his race ended on lap 14 when Helio
Castroneves rear-ended Meira hard enough to send the No. 14 car
spinning into the turn four wall.
Starting 14th in the ABC Supply Dallara/Honda/Firestone Indy
car, Meira had passed four cars on the first lap to slip into
tenth. He challenged Ryan Briscoe for ninth for several laps
before settling in behind. About ten laps into the run, the car
started to push and Meira began to fade back. Once he lost the
lead pack, the second pack caught him quickly. Marco Andretti
passed him for 11th on lap 13. The next lap Meira was battling
with Hideki Mutoh when Meira's race ended with the hit from
Castroneves, who had started at the rear due to a penalty levied
after qualifying.
“To me, it was very clear what happened," said Meira. "In every
drivers’ meeting, the rule is on ovals you enter high, stay high
and exit high. Obviously, (Hideki) Mutoh didn’t understand that
and just came down on me. He entered high and just tried to use
the whole track in front of me. I washed out a little bit. Matos
was outside of me. I couldn’t go anywhere, so I had to lift. (Helio)
Castroneves came and hit my attenuator and I spun around. I
would understand if it was the 15 laps from the end, but not 15
laps from the start. It was wrong.”
The No. 14 car spun backwards into the turn four wall, knocking
the rear wing askew and bending the lower wishbone in the rear
suspension. Meira wasn't injured. When the car was brought back
to the garage, the ABC Supply crew set about to repair the
damage with the intention of returning to the race. However, by
the time the car was ready for the race, team owner A.J. Foyt
had decided too many laps had gone by. After five laps of
caution for Meira's accident, the race stayed green until lap
96.
"We didn't have that much to gain in points and we risked losing
a lot by going back out under those circumstances," said Foyt.
"With Indy coming up, it just wasn't worth it to risk getting
Vitor hurt. We'd lost too many laps. As it turned out, we
wouldn't have gained any more points by going back out, so we
made the right decision."
Meira was credited with 22nd and is now 15th in the IndyCar
Series point standings.
Scott Dixon won the race. Castroneves, whose crew replaced the
front nose assembly on his car, finished second. Tony Kanaan,
Ryan Briscoe, Danica Patrick, and Marco Andretti rounded out the
top six.
 NOTES
& QUOTES: RoadRunner Turbo Indy 300
Vitor Meira: ABC Supply No. 14 Dallara/Honda/Firestone
Meira on Kansas: “It’s really a normal one and a half
mile oval, very standard except for the seams, the seams [in the
asphalt] are very severe. You can run over them [across them]
but you can’t run on them. If you put a tire on the seam, it
really moves the car—it loses a lot of grip. If you start
turning in [to the corner] on the seam, you’re eventually going
to wash up. The seam doesn’t have any grip. That’s the only
trick: to have a good line, you have to always be aware of the
seams.”
Handling Traffic at Kansas: “Nowadays in the IRL,
everything is so close that even if you are by yourself and you
are trying to overtake a slower car by moving up to the second
lane, it becomes difficult. You’re going to have to run a longer
line and the guy running the shorter line has the advantage.
Since everything is really close, it becomes really difficult,
but if there is a place where traffic is a little bit easier to
deal with, that would be Kansas Speedway.”
On His Success at Kansas: “For me there was a time there
[2004-2006] when I finished in the top three for three races in
a row. It’s one of those tracks where I know what to do and what
to ask from the car…I really like the track and maybe it fits
what I like from the car. It’s a track that changes a lot during
the race and I was able to predict what the track and how the
car was going to be by the end of the race so we could prepare
for that. You have to prepare your car for the last ten laps of
the race, not really the first ten.”
Meira has finished in the top 10 at Kansas every time
that he finished the race: 2nd in 2004, 3rd in 2005 and 2006 and
8th in 2007. His first race and most recent race there ended
early with mechanical problems. The Foyt team won the
doubleheader at Kansas Speedway in 2002 with Airton Dare winning
the IndyCar race and A.J. Foyt IV winning the Indy Lights race.
ABC Supply roofing customer Rite Way Roofing, Inc. of
Fayetteville, AR won the ‘Your Name Here’ contest for the
RoadRunner Turbo Indy 300. The company name will be atop the
sidepods of the No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda. Larry Corbitt
will receive selected merchandise, race tickets, hospitality and
garage passes, plus a Meet and Greet with Vitor Meira. The “Your
Name Here” promotion selected winners by random drawing from a
pool of entries sent in by ABC Supply customers earlier this
year.
Kansas City Connections: Cecil Taylor, born, raised and
still living in Kansas City, has worked with Foyt since 1966.
Taylor doesn’t travel the entire circuit anymore but he still
works on the tires for the team at Indy and is always at his
hometown race.
Last race: In the Long Beach Grand Prix, Meira and the
ABC Supply team had a tough weekend. It was Meira’s first time
to the temporary street course and the Foyt team’s first time
there since 1995; since then the course has been changed
substantially to accommodate urban development. Meira qualified
20th, ran as high as 11th and was credited with 14th. He slid
into a tire barrier on the final lap which capped a
disappointing weekend. “Vitor’s still got stuff to learn about
working with us and he’s learning real quick but at the same
time, we didn’t give him a top-10 car at Long Beach, so it
really made for a bad weekend,” said A.J. Foyt.
The Road Runner Turbo Indy 300 will be shown live at 4:00 p.m.
Eastern time Sunday, April 26th on Versus.
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