Friday, March 28, 2008
GAINSCO Auto Insurance Indy 300 – Homestead, Fla.
Round 1 of 16 in the IndyCar Series

McDONALD'S® DRIVER WILSON QUALIFIED 17TH IN HIS INDYCAR SERIES DEBUT AT THE SEASON-OPENING GAINSCO AUTO INSURANCE INDY 300

1st: Scott Dixon 4-lap avg. speed of 213.341mph (L1: 213.230, L2: 213.203, L3: 213.382, L4: 213.548)
17th: Justin Wilson 4-lap avg. speed of 208.757 mph (L1: 208.695, L2: 208.735, L3: 205.881, L4: 208.716)



Justin Wilson, No. 02 McDonald’s Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “The transition has been tough; especially for all of the mechanics and crew that have worked flat out for the last four weeks. I’m very pleased and proud of them for what they’ve done and I’m also happy to have gotten the first qualifying out of the way. It wasn’t quick enough but we are working on the car to make it faster. Right now I am just happy to have made that start and get one qualifying session behind me. We’re taking it one step at a time. Every mile and lap we do helps us get closer to our goal of running in the front. The McDonald’s car has gone backwards and forwards. The first session went very good but in the afternoon session we had a lot of oversteer and I wasn’t very comfortable so for qualifying we managed to get it back to neutral car and it felt very good but I don’t think it was that quick. I was just trying to make sure I was flat for all four laps and after that it is a case of it is whatever it is. I ran the shortest distance with the least amount of scrub that I could get away with. I know it’s just a case of needing time to work on everything. I have a lot of confidence in the team behind me. We’ll get quicker as the season goes on.”

FAST FACTS: Will be his first race here, first in the IndyCar Series, first with NHLR and sixth on an oval. Although he has never raced at Homestead, it is the site of his first time behind the wheel of an open-wheel car in the U.S. as well as his first time on an oval and first time to drive a car prepared by Newman/Haas Racing, who brought him to the U.S. to test for them on October 8, 2002. Although invited back for a driver shoot-out he opted to pursue an opportunity in F1. Sebastien Bourdais ultimately won the shoot-out and went on to become Rookie of the Year (2003) and four-time champion (2004-2007)…He has competed on an oval track five times. His most recent oval race was in 2006 at the Milwaukee Mile where he started fourth and finished second to Bourdais while driving for RuSPORT. In 2005 he started third and finished fourth in Milwaukee and started ninth and finished 11th in Las Vegas. In 2004 he started eighth and finished fourth in Milwaukee and started 15th and finished eighth in Las Vegas…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 championship contender until the conclusion of the penultimate race of each season.



NHR competed in five events here from 1996-2000 with Michael Andretti and Christian Fittipaldi. In total they earned TWO WINS (Andretti – 1997, 1998) and THREE PODIUM finishes (2nd – Andretti 1999). Fittipaldi earned the team’s highest start here of fourth place in 1998 and his highest finish here was also fourth that same year.



The season-opening GAINSCO Indy 300 will begin at 8:00 p.m. ET and will be televised live on ESPN2. The IMS Radio Network, in association with Indycar.com and many of our member tracks, will be providing Live coverage of all IndyCar Series practice sessions, as well as qualifying. This audio will be heard on Indycar.com.