Friday, June 20, 2008 Iowa Corn 250 Presented by Pioneer – Iowa Speedway Round 8 of 18 in the IndyCar Series
McDONALD’S DRIVER WILSON AND HOLE IN THE WALL CAMPS DRIVER RAHAL TURN FIRST LAPS AT IOWA SPEEDWAY; RAIN REDUCED TRACK TIME FROM FOUR TO TWO HOURS
1st: Danica Patrick 17.4612 / 184.317 mph
14th: Justin Wilson 17.8175 / 180.631 mph
16th: Graham Rahal 17.8350 / 180.454 mph
Justin Wilson, No. 02 McDonald’s Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “This is a very tight track; it surprised me every lap. You go out there and every lap you go halfway through the corner and it suddenly tightens up on you. It’s challenging. I can see that the race is going to be tough. We’re just working away, trying to get the McDonald’s car a little bit quicker. Hopefully we can tackle that overnight and get it to run a little bit freer through the middle of the corner and have a good qualifying tomorrow. Craig (Hampson) and I worked well today. He’s engineered one or two cars before. We were able to get straight to work and it has been very good so far.”
FAST FACTS: Will be his be his first race here and 11th on an oval… Paternity leave has been a theme at the McDonald’s team (aka Happy Meal team) this season as Wilson and wife Julia welcomed their first child in April and crewman Kyle Sobczak and his wife welcomed their first in late May. Wilson’s race engineer Mike Talbott will miss the Iowa race to be with his wife, who is due to give birth to their second child any day. His fill in? Senior engineer Craig Hampson, who was race engineer for four-time Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais, will replace Talbott this weekend before returning home to also await the birth of his second child…Is ranked 20th in the point standings with 117…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 seventh on the one-mile oval in Milwaukee.
Graham Rahal, No. 06 Hole in the Wall Camps Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I think we are okay. We didn’t run new tires at the end so maybe we’re in the top-10 realistically -- but tenth of the top-ten. We definitely have quite a bit of work to do. We didn’t really trim the car all that much so we question how far off we actually might be. The track is pretty small and fast. It feels fast in the cornering and much slower on the straightways but that’s the way these high downforce circuits go. On a long run it will be pretty tough mentally because it gets very repetitive, very quickly on a track this length.”
FAST FACTS: Will be his first race here and his fifth IndyCar Series race on an oval…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 127 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 finish is 12th place on the 1.5 mile oval at Kansas Speedway.
NHLR AT IOWA SPEEDWAY: This will be Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing’s first race here.
