Friday, June 27, 2008
SunTrust Indy Challenge – Richmond International Raceway
Round 9 of 18 in the IndyCar Series

HOLE IN THE WALL CAMPS DRIVER RAHAL QUALIFIED THIRD FOR THE SUNTRUST INDY CHALLENGE AT RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY; TRACK CONDITIONS HINDERED McDONALD’S DRIVER WILSON WHO WAS FIRST ON TRACK IN QUALIFYING

POLE: Tony Kanaan 4-lap avg. speed of 167.876 mph (L1: 16.2065, L2: 16.0055, L3: 16.0687, L4: 16.0526)
3rd: Graham Rahal 4-lap avg. speed of 167.250 mph (L1: 16.2360, L2: 16.1721, L3: 16.1017, L4: 16.0642)
23rd: Justin Wilson 4-lap avg. speed of 159.652 mph (L1: 16.9711, L2: 17.0602, L3: 16.8524, L4: 16.7633)



Justin Wilson, No. 02 McDonald’s Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Being the first out in qualifying is never ideal. The thunderstorm and the different type of rubber from the cars before us made it difficult and I was sliding around quite a bit. I was just trying to hang on. We have been a little bit off on our setups the whole weekend. I felt like we got somewhere in the last practice session but it was hard to get the time out of the car in the laps available. The car was just starting to come on though and we were getting quicker each lap. The grip was just coming up and I’m not sure if that was because of the rain or the different type of rubber. It’s frustrating. We came here thinking we would be reasonable but we’ve been so far off pace. It has been a difficult weekend but as usual the McDonald’s team works through it and we get quicker and we have a better race than we do qualifying.”

FAST FACTS: Will be his first race here and 12th on an oval…Is ranked 19th in the point standings with 135…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: “Everything really came together for us in qualifying. We’ve been struggling here all weekend. Luckily if it was going to come together at one point it’s good that it’s in qualifying. It would be even better if it came together tomorrow. Obviously it’s important to start up front here because it’s really hard to pass so we’re pretty happy. We made a bunch of changes. The guys did a good job because all weekend we’ve been struggling and struggling and just didn’t know what to do so I didn’t know what to expect in qualifying. I figured we would be close to Justin’s time but when I went out there the car was really good. The only thing holding me back from going flat was that I couldn’t get the car to downshift mid-corner. I think that if our gearing was a little bit different, which we will know for next year because we didn’t expect to go this fast obviously, I think we would have had a shot at pole.”

FAST FACTS: Will be his first race here and his sixth 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 16th in series points with 147 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 RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL: This will be Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing’s first race here.