Saturday, April 5, 2008
Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg – St. Petersburg, Fla.
Round 2 of 16 in the IndyCar Series

McDONALD'S® DRIVER WILSON TO START THIRD IN THE HONDA GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG; HOLE IN THE WALL CAMPS DRIVER RAHAL TO START NINTH IN HIS SERIES DEBUT

Pole: Tony Kanaan 1:02.5322
3rd: Justin Wilson 1:02.6426
9th: Graham Rahal 1:02.8122 (progressed to 2nd round of 3 possible)



Justin Wilson, No. 02 McDonald’s Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “This weekend has just been great from start to finish for the McDonald’s team. I’m glad to have made it through to the final six, and I’m pretty pleased with third. Would like to have gone a tenth quicker and got the pole position but that’s racing and Tony (Kanaan) obviously put a good lap in. You definitely have to be fit for the new format but it’s also mentally taxing to go through that emotional rollercoaster. It’s tough to have to keep pushing yourself to the limit but I think it worked well. We weren’t expecting to be this competitive but it’s a dream come true considering what the team has been through the last five weeks. I think generally we’re just very pleased with the way the McDonald’s car is handling and hopefully we keep it up in the race tomorrow.”

FAST FACTS: Will be his first race here, second in the IndyCar Series, and first in an Indy car on a street course …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.



Graham Rahal, No. 06 Hole in the Wall Camps Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “On the first round of qualifying, I was on a fast lap and I came through the chicane and Mutoh was parked there and it ruined that lap. It was easily on pace with what these other guys did at the time. The series doesn’t want you messing around on your in-lap but he must not have understood. We still made it into the second round of the fastest 12 cars and we ran a 63.0 on our third lap on old tires and everybody else was on new tires and we were P3 (third fast) and we were looking pretty good. And then, on my in-lap we were already two-tenths up and my engineer Todd said to go ahead and come in because we were going to change tires. We did that and didn’t go quicker so we probably should have finished the other lap. Actually starting ninth isn’t too bad considering all the challenges we’ve had."

FAST FACTS: Will be his first race here and his first IndyCar Series race. His first time behind the wheel of an IndyCar Series car on a road/street course was Tuesday when the team tested for three hours at Sebring International Raceway…Will attempt to become the youngest winner in IndyCar Series history. Marco Andretti holds the record for his ’06 win at Infineon Raceway at 19 years, five months and 14 days old. Nelson Philippe holds the Champ Car record for his ’06 win in Australia at 20 years, two months and 29 days old. With his second place finish in Houston in 2007, he became the youngest Champ Car driver (1979-2007) to finish on the podium at 18 years, three months and 18 days.



NHR competed in the Champ Car race here in 2003 with rookie Sebastien Bourdais and Bruno Junqueira. Bourdais won the pole position in his Champ car debut and became the first driver to accomplish the feat since Nigel Mansell won the pole for the ’93 Australian event – also while driving for NHR. He led 30 laps and became the first driver in the 25 year history of series to lead the first laps of his inaugural Champ car race. He also set the fastest race lap but he put too much pressure on himself to get back to the front after the team pit him out of sequence and contact ended his race. Junqueira was 2nd fast in prov. qualifying on Friday but his fastest lap in final qualifying (possible 3rd) was not allowed because he brought out a red flag when he spun and stopped on course. More red flags resulted in a seventh place start. He dropped to 14th in the race due a disengaged air hose on the inside rear tire changer’s air gun that but charged back to a 3rd place finish.



The morning warmup will begin at 8:30 a.m. EDT tomorrow while the 100 lap Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will begin at 2:30 p.m. EDT and be televised live on ESPN. 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.