Justin Wilson, No. 02 McDonald’s Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “The track is really bumpy. I was saying to my engineer that the car is good right up to the point where I can’t see anymore. And then I can’t tell you anymore after that. On the entry to Turn 1 and Turn 3 it’s pretty difficult to focus and see where you are going. But we’re working on it and making some improvements. Hopefully the McDonald’s team is going to get better as the weekend goes on. The transition has been really hard. There were a lot of new things to get used to and adjust to. We’re just trying to catch up but every weekend is the same – it’s a new track. It’s a lot to learn and on top of that we are learning about a new car and the team is working what seems like 24 hours, seven days a week right now. It’s pretty intense. The hours they are working are just crazy.”
FAST FACTS: Will be his first race here, eighth on an oval this season and 13th on an oval in his career…Is ranked 19th in the point standings with 171…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 and ¾ mile track in Richmond.
Graham Rahal, No. 06 Hole in the Wall Camps Dallara/Honda/Firestone: "It's important to get out here. It's obviously quite a bumpy circuit. You can see the concrete slabs all through circuit. It's pretty bumpy and it's difficult the first couple of laps you take out there. It seems pretty tricky. I was talking to (Dan) Wheldon last week and he said it was the most difficult oval that we got to of all the big Superspeedways. It definitely came true because its definitely quite challenging. We’re pretty happy with our speeds today. We didn't know where we were going to be. We definitely didn't trim out, which is what we think (Hideki) Mutoh did. We're pretty happy with where we're at. There's still a long way to go, but we have some more little aero bits to go on tomorrow. Every little step counts. To be second out of (12) cars out here (is good). There are guys like Ryan (Hunter-Reay) and Mutoh who will be competitive throughout the weekend.”
FAST FACTS: Will be his first race here and eighth on a new track this season of 10 races…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 183 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 NASHVILLE SUPERSPEEDWAY: This will be Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing’s first race here.
