Indy Grand Prix of Alabama
 

Race Report: Indy Grand Prix of Alabama


LEEDS, AL April 11, 2010—Vitor Meira drove the ABC Supply Dallara/Honda in his 100th IndyCar Series race and finished 18th in the inaugural Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park Sunday afternoon under sunny skies.


The spectator turnout exceeded forecasts for the first ever IZOD IndyCar Series race held in Alabama with the crowd estimated to top 53,000. Taylor Hicks sang the national anthem and retired NBA star Charles Barkley was the Grand Marshal and waved the green flag.


Starting 20th, the ABC Supply team chose to start on the black primary tires , run a full fuel stint, pop on the red alternate tires and run a short fuel stint, and then finish out the race on the primaries with another long fuel stint. The team’s strategy changed in midstream when during the first stop on lap 28, a tire changer took longer than planned; since the fueler was to stop when the tires were finished, the car took on nearly a full load of fuel.


Adapting to the situation, they ran the fuel stint out, pitting on lap 55 and then pitted early in their final fuel window on lap 67 for a splash of fuel in the hope there wouldn’t be a yellow before the end of the race. A yellow came out with five laps to go which enabled several cars to stretch their fuel to the checkered.


The race started without incident which was surprising because the track was very narrow making it difficult to pass. Meira was running 20th until some cars tried an alternate fuel strategy and pitted within the first 10 laps. A yellow came out on lap 11 and leaders Will Power and Mike Conway pitted only to see most of the cars in the top six stay on track. Most of the midpack cars pitted but Meira stayed out and came across in eighth spot.


When Meira pitted on lap 28 for fuel and the red alternate tires, the plan was to short fuel to minimize his run on the red alternate tires. However, the stop came off slower than planned so the car took on nearly a full load of fuel. Meira rejoined the race in 22nd spot. As the different fuel strategies were engaged, he climbed back up to 10th by lap 44. When he pitted for tires and fuel on lap 55, he was running twelfth. The second stop was normal but he rejoined the race in 21st spot. Again he climbed up the scoring board to 11th as other cars pitted. When he short-pitted for fuel only on lap 67, he dropped back to 19th. When the yellow came out with five laps to go, it dashed his hopes to pick up about four more spots but he did pick up another position when the pit stops cycled out.


Helio Castroneves won the race followed by Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Will Power and Marco Andretti, who had to make a late stop for a splash of fuel with about eight laps to go.


“Overall, it wasn’t as we wished or thought it would be, we thought we’d be a bit better,” Meira said after the race. “It’s a shame. But we’ll go back to the shop and review everything and then head to Long Beach and try to gain some points back.”


Meira is now 10th in the standings. The IZOD IndyCar Series’ next stop is the Long Beach Grand Prix Sunday, April 18th in southern California. The race will be televised on Versus starting at 3:30pm.

Qualifying Report: Indy Grand Prix of Alabama


Vitor Meira will start his 100th IndyCar race tomorrow in the IZOD IndyCar Series Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, a 90-lap race around the 2.38-mile Barber Motorsports Park circuit. Meira qualified with a speed that was 15th fastest overall, 116.399mph, with a lap time of 1:11.13 but because of the knock-out qualifying format, he will start 20th.


Will Power won the pole for the third straight race. Second through fifth are Mike Conway, Helio Castroneves, Marco Andretti and Scott Dixon.


The ABC Supply team was disappointed in the qualifying run, especially since they felt they had come away with a good baseline setup after testing here in late February.


“We didn’t come in here thinking we would have the difficulties that we’ve had,” Meira said. “We seem to get it right for the race but qualifying—it’s not helping right now. We always have to risk too much on strategy or be smarter than everybody else which is hard to do sometimes. We’ve got to get qualifying down. I am as much a part of that if not vital for that.


“The car was much better from yesterday to today, we picked up a lot of time, not only with the car but it had to do with weather and tires. What matters is that we are faster and the gap is less to the leaders.


Indeed, Meira was 1.3 seconds off of second place time yesterday and today was .48 seconds off second place time. He reduced the gap to quick time by four tenths, but pole winner Power was half a second ahead of the entire field.


“We’ll think about it this afternoon,” Meira said, “and again come up with a smart aggressive strategy. Anyway this is A.J.’s way—smart and aggressive so I bet we’re going to go for that. For the future, we need to -- and I mean everybody including me -- we need to get better in qualifying and once we do that we’ll be in much better shape for the race.”


The race will be broadcast live on Versus starting at 3:30pm ET with the green flag set to wave at 3:45pm ET.
 

IZOD IndyCar Series Practice Session Report – Friday, April 9


LEEDS, AL April 9, 2010—Vitor Meira and the ABC Supply team have their work cut out for them tonight as they try to make the right decisions going into qualifying tomorrow morning for the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama presented by Legacy Credit Union.


Meira was 22nd on the speed charts after two one-hour practice sessions at Barber Motorsports Park’s 2.38 mile, 17-turn road course outside of Birmingham. His best lap time was 1:12.60. Quick time set by Will Power was 1:11.18 while Dario Franchitti was tenth with a time of 1.11.77.


“We definitely learned a lot at the test and tried to improve on it but that wasn’t the case today,” said Meira. “I think we went backwards a little bit from what we had at the test --again because we wanted to try things and thought they were better. It wasn’t what we expected here, it wasn’t what we’ve been doing, but again you’re gonna run into problems at times—that’s when you have to overcome them. We’ll go back and look at the information we have and make the best decision we can for tomorrow.”


The difficult part for Meira is that there is no third practice session before qualifying. The qualifying session starts at 9:20 a.m. which may be the earliest regularly scheduled qualifying session the IZOD IndyCar Series has ever held. The schedule is very tight due to the four different series running at the picturesque Barber Motorsports Park this weekend.


“It’s tough but I would rather risk a good improvement than stay where we are at or get just a little better,” said Meira. “I trust A.J. and I trust Jeff [Britton, chief engineer] on the technical decisions that they make, so having said that, I would prefer to risk a considerable change than not.”


Meira is aiming to start his 100th IndyCar race this weekend. The race will be televised Sunday afternoon starting at 3:30 ET on the Versus channel.
 

Notes & Quotes: Indy Grand Prix of Alabama presented by Legacy Credit Union


• Vitor Meira will make his 100th start in the IZOD IndyCar Series this weekend in the inaugural Indy Grand Prix of Alabama Presented by Legacy Credit Union at Barber Motorsports Park. He made his IndyCar Series debut in 2002 at Kentucky Speedway where he started 13th and finished 15th. He proved to be a quick study because in his fourth and final start for Team Menard in 2002, he won the pole and finished third at Texas Motor Speedway.


• Meira on making his 100th IZOD IndyCar Series Start: “Already? It didn’t seem like it. A hundred starts is proof that I’ve been doing a good job because I never had to pay to drive so I always had to prove that I could do the job that people were expecting. I think that [reaching this milestone] is one way to prove that and to feel good about it. There is a lot to be done still! I have not done nearly everything that I want to do so I’m still pushing with the same will I had at my first race. There’s still a lot to be done.”


• Meira on the changes in the Series since his debut: “IndyCar has evolved a lot since then. I have not seen as many changes as the guys from CART, for example Dario [Franchitti] and all of those guys saw. When I joined, we did not have a lot of the teams we have nowadays. I saw IndyCar going from only ovals—mostly high speed ovals—to short ovals then to a couple road courses per year to now where we have 50% road courses and 50% ovals. I’ve seen Dallaras, G-Forces, Chevys, Hondas and it’s good to see and have this experience. It shows that IRL is doing a good job evolving it because there are only better teams and things are getting more and more competitive every year. To be part of it is cool too and to share the track with all the other drivers that have so much experience too.” [And what will the next 100 races look like to you?] “Hopefully it will go by like the first 100, full of achievements -- and entertaining!”


• Meira on key factors to success this weekend: “Among the many key factors we’re going to have to have this weekend is qualifying well. It is very important because of what the track presents to us which is a great facility with lot of high speed corners but very tough to pass. Having a good qualifying run will help. It won’t be a deciding factor but will help. We’re still going to have to have a good consistent car but qualifying is going to be more important than it is at other tracks.”


• Meira on why Barber Motorsports Park is so physically demanding: “When we were testing there, I felt it was very physically-demanding and I wasn’t the only one because I spoke with other drivers and they also thought the same thing. I think the reason for that is a lot of high speed corners and not very long straights. With the high speed corners, the car gets very heavy and very nervous so you have to be on your toes all the time. Not only that the steering gets very heavy because of the amount of downforce. With that there aren’t very many long straights so we don’t have a lot of time to rest. It’s quite a lot like Sonoma but with more high speed corners. We don’t have a lot of time to rest at Sonoma but there aren’t many high speed corners and Barber there are so that’s what makes it so physically demanding.”


• First Time Performance on road/street courses: In first time appearances at road/street courses, Meira has qualified in the top-10 twice and finished in the top-10 thrice; two of those finishes were in the top-five. He accomplished it driving for three different teams (Rahal-Letterman, Panther and Foyt). Foyt’s ABC Supply team posted two top-10 starts, six top-10 finishes, two of which were in the top five. Foyt used five different drivers: A.J. Foyt IV and Jeff Bucknum in 2005, Darren Manning in 2007-08, Meira and Ryan Hunter-Reay the past two years.


• Meira tested at Barber Motorsports Park earlier this year: Meira was 13th out of 21 drivers on the 2.38 mile, 17-turn Barber Motorsports Park track for the first 2010 Open Test held Feb 24-25. The weather was unusually cold which factored into the many incidents during the two-day test. Meira and the team were satisfied with their results given it was their first time to the track and Meira’s first time back at a road course since Long Beach in April, 2009.


• Last Race: Meira started 17th in St. Petersburg and finished 15th. Poor handling on the alternate (red-rimmed) tires which led team to use a contrarian pit strategy was primarily responsible for the performance. He’s now eighth in the standings.


• ABC Supply returns for its sixth year as primary sponsor of A.J. Foyt’s No. 14 with GAF-ELK signing on for another year on the car’s engine cover.


• ABC Supply roofing customer, Continental Roofing & Construction located in Madison, AL, won the ‘Your Name Here’ contest for the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. The company name will be atop the sidepods of the No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda. Lee Crabtree 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.


• The Indy Grand Prix of Alabama will be televised live April 11th, Sunday afternoon starting at 3:00pm eastern time on the VERSUS channel. For DISH-TV satellite subscribers, it’s on channel 151, DirecTV subscribers will find it on channel 603. Cable subscribers should check local listings.


• For more information, please check our web site: www.ajfoytracing.com or our AJFoytRacing fan page on facebook. To view that page, you must register for facebook (which is free).