Friday, August 22, 2008 Peak Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy Grand Prix – Infineon Raceway Round 15 of 18 in the IndyCar Series
McDONALD’S DRIVER WILSON SET THE 11TH FASTEST LAPS IN PRACTICE FOR THE PEAK ANTIFREEZE & MOTOR OIL INDY GRAND PRIX WHILE HOLE IN THE WALL CAMPS DRIVER RAHAL WAS 21ST
Justin Wilson, No. 02 McDonald’s Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We brought out our new car -- new to us anyway – today. For some reason my seat didn’t fit as well in this chassis so we spent some time making some modifications for that and now it is much more comfortable. The chassis was previously used by Jon Herb and had been sitting in the shop for a few months being built when there were a few extra hours available, which wasn’t often. Other than that we just spent the day working on the setups and are about where we thought we would be performance wise. It would be nice for us to be a little bit closer to the front but we’ll study the data tonight. Not only did we not race here last year but everyone tested here last week so we knew we would have our work cut out for us here. We didn’t get to come here because we were still building this car. We thought we had been making improvements but these other guys weren’t standing still either. We’ve got more work to do to try and get the McDonald’s car to fell a bit better and see if we can do what we did at Mid-Ohio and sneak it up there and keep scraping through the qualifying rounds and make it to the final six. I think this is a great track, very challenging. It is a lot of fun to drive, demanding and technical.”
FAST FACTS: Will be his first race here and 12th on a new track of 15 this season…Is ranked 16th in the point standings with 249…Finished runner up in the Champ Car championship to the driver he recently replaced, four-time champion Sebastien Bourdais, in 2006 and 2007. Was a title contender until the conclusion of the penultimate race of each season…Highest start this season is pole on the streets of Long Beach and his highest finish is third on the street course in Edmonton.
Graham Rahal, No. 06 Hole in the Wall Camps Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It would have been nice to test here but unfortunately we didn’t do that because we have more ground to make up ovals and tested in Chicago. It’s an uphill battle for us to catch up to all of the people who did. This is a cool place; if the car is good it’s got to be a lot of fun.”
FAST FACTS: Will be his first major open wheel race here but he has competed on the track in Star Mazda in 2005...Is his sixth event this season on a road/street course after he won in St. Pete (April 6), finishing 13th in Long Beach, eighth in Watkins Glen, 16th in Mid-Ohio and 26th in Edmonton after being hit twice…In his IndyCar Series debut on a road/street course he became the youngest winner in major open-wheel racing in North America after winning in St. Pete on 4-6-08 at 19 years, 93 days old…He is ranked 17th in series points with 235 points…His highest start this season is second on the one-mile oval in Milwaukee where he narrowly lost becoming the youngest pole winner in series history to Marco Andretti. His highest oval finish is 10th place on the .894 mile oval at Iowa Speedway.
NHLR AT INFINEON RACEWAY: This is the first race for the team here. Of their 106 overall wins, 79 have come on road/street courses while 89 of their 107 poles have also come on this type of track.
