Saturday, July 28, 2007 Grand Prix of San Jose – San Jose, Canada Round 9 of 14 in the Champ Car World Series 2007 Season McDONALD’S ® DRIVER BOURDAIS TO START SECOND IN THE GRAND PRIX OF SAN JOSE; MEDI | ZONE DRIVER RAHAL TO START 6TH AFTER RUNNING FASTEST IN THE MORNING 1st: Justin Wilson 49.039 / 105.932 mph 2nd: Sebastien Bourdais 49.180 / 105.628 mph (guaranteed front row start with prov. pole) 6th: Graham Rahal 49.178 / 105.633 mph (5th overall in session) Sebastien Bourdais, No. 1 McDonald’s Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone: “Well, trust me, our performance in qualifying is better than this morning. You know, we've been basically struggling all day with realistically one bad rear tire. We only understood our problem when it was too late. And then when we wanted to check the car on new tires, we got a flat in the 15 minutes. So it just looks like nothing was going to be right today. Slowly on the first run, I tried to get things worked out and got another flat spot, so that didn't work. Then we made a pretty sizable improvement for the second run, and that got close, but it was nowhere near good enough for the pole. We had way too much understeer. So I think realistically we're pretty happy with the way it went because we were completely lost this morning and it doesn't happen very often, but it's pretty easy. So I think it puts things back in perspective. That just shows it's very easy to end up P10 in Champ Car. Just very glad we actually pulled one off yesterday because it would have looked pretty bad otherwise.” FAST FACTS: Leads the point standings by 21 points over Doornbos (194-174)…Will be his third race here. In 2006, he led 69 of 97 laps and won from pole after setting the fastest lap of the race and increased his lead over Wilson to 31 points. In 2005 he drove to victory from pole after he led 63/93 laps and set the fastest race lap to stretch his points lead from 22 to 28 for a total of 216 to Tracy’s 188 (+28)…He has the rare opportunity to win four consecutive championships this year if he can again capture the Vanderbilt Cup, which would extend his run that began in 2004. Bourdais would be making history as no Champ Car driver has ever won four straight championships. Four in a row is very rare in professional sports in fact it has never been done in either NASCAR or NFL and it hasn’t been accomplished in the last twenty years in the NBA, NHL or MLB. Graham Rahal, No. 2 Medi | Zone Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone: “After being fastest in the morning practice the Medi | Zone team was were pretty optimistic for qualifying today. The car was pretty good but at the end of qualifying we had too much understeer which is what kept us out of pole contention. At the same time we took a gamble on when to go out and went earlier than a lot of other people. We felt that the track was probably already it its peak and we went early to get a clear lap but it didn’t work out that way. The car is pretty good though so we’ll see how the race goes and try to move to the front.” FAST FACTS: Will be his second race here and first in a Champ Car. Started second and was in second place when he made contact with the tire wall and retired in 12th place in the 2006 Atlantic race here. Also set the fastest race lap…Finished second in the Champ Car Atlantic championship after a title hunt that concluded in the season finale. Led 129 laps to champion Pagenaud’s 31. He earned a series-high five wins (42 percent), four poles (33 percent) and six podium finishes (50 percent) in the 12 events and at 17 years old was the youngest race winner in series history (Monterrey, Mexico on 5-21-06). NHR has won TWO races, TWO poles and THREE podiums in two San Jose events. NHR won from pole in 2005 and 2006. Oriol Servia started second and finished third in 2005…Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing (NHLR) hopes to add to these numbers. The morning warm-up will take place from 11:00 -11:30 AM PT while the Grand Prix of San Jose will begin at 3:00 PM PT and be televised live on ESPN2.