2009 Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing // Press Release

Saturday, June 21, 2009
Iowa Corn Indy 250 – Iowa Speedway
Round 7 of 17 in the IndyCar Series

McDONALD’S DRIVER RAHAL FINISHED 11TH IN THE IOWA CORN INDY 250 AT IOWA SPEEDWAY; DOORNBOS HINDERED BY EARLY CONTACT AND FINISHED 15TH

McDonald’s driver Graham Rahal drove to an 11th place finish in the Iowa Corn Indy 250 at the banked 0.875-mile oval despite earlier contact with Danica Patrick that led to an unscheduled pit stop which put him two laps down to the leaders early on. He started from ninth place after water seepage caused “weepers” during qualifying and the starting grid was set by entry points. He maintained his position at the start of the 250-lap race and moved into seventh during the first of five cautions from Laps 2-10 for contact between teammate Robert Doornbos, who got sideways and Ryan Hunter-Reay who collected him. EJ Viso was also involved in the caution after he brushed the Turn 4 wall with his right rear tire. Danica Patrick pitted under the caution and he moved ahead of Marco Andretti into seventh place. After the restart he was passed by Andretti, Tomas Scheckter and Hideki Mutoh by Lap 13. The next caution came out from Laps 18-22 when the left front of Helio Castroneves’ car made contact with Scott Dixon’s right rear which resulted in a broken wing for Helio and flat tire for Dixon. Rahal moved up to sixth after a few cars ahead of him pit during the caution. On the restart Rahal was passed by a few cars before Danica Patrick also closed on him on Lap 24. She pulled on his inside and Rahal was as high on the track as he could safely run and the two made contact so Rahal pitted to make sure his left front suspension was not bent. By the time he returned to the track under green conditions he was two laps down to the leaders. After dropping as low as 17th place he battled through three more cautions until lap 123 and three more pit stops before the end of the race. The final 127 laps were run caution-free on the physically demanding track on a hot, humid day and Rahal took the checkered flag in 11th place. Dario Franchitti won the race while Ryan Briscoe finished second and 11th place starter Hideki Mutoh rounded out the podium. Rahal collected 19 points for his finish to maintain ninth place in the point standings with 145. Following are his post race comments:

“When we started the race, the McDonald’s car didn’t feel so hot right away. I was trying to work and do whatever I could to keep the car on the track and make sure we got off for Richmond in one piece. That was the main goal. When Danica and I came together that hurt us pretty big. She tried to pass on the inside and I was going to let her go and she just never wanted to turn. I haven’t seen a replay but all I know is that I was pretty high already and I still got hit. I kept it off the fence but it was pretty hard. I’m glad I did, that’s for sure. After that it was just disappointing because you’re running around here in the heat just knowing that you aren’t going to win the thing and you might as well just do circles. We were lucky people were dropping like flies at the start and I thought it was going to continue that way and we might be looking at a top-10 finish but it never happened. It was a difficult race, probably the most difficult I have ever driven. When you run 125 straight laps straight like that with no yellow and the g-loads like they are, it wears you out pretty good. It requires some strength for sure. I think we should be better at Richmond. We tested there at the end of last year and the car felt really good. Hopefully we will go there and be even better.”

Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing driver Robert Doornbos started 14th but contact on the opening lap of the Iowa Corn Indy 250 at the banked 0.875-mile Iowa Speedway required a trip to the garage to repair the left front suspension and he was able to return to the track and gain three positions to finish 15th and stay in the hunt for Rookie of the Year honors. On the opening lap Doornbos struggled to control his race car and slid sideways and into the path of 17th place starter Ryan Hunter-Reay and the two were able to continue on to their respective pits for repair. EJ Viso was also involved in the caution after he brushed the Turn 4 wall with his right rear tire. The crew took Doornbos’ race car back to the garage to replace the front left suspension with the intention of making a decision on whether to return to the track once the work was complete. While the team was repairing the race car, rookie Raphael Matos made contact and retired from the race after 53 laps. Entering the event, Doornbos was only two points behind Matos in the Rookie of the Year standings and would be able to maintain a close proximity in the standings to him if he was able to return to the race and gain more points by completing more laps than Matos, who ultimately finished 16th. Around Lead Lap 150 of 250, Doornbos returned to the track and went on to complete a total of 57 laps to move from 18th place to 15th. He collected 15 points to maintain his 15th place rank in the standings with 119 to Matos’ 120. Dario Franchitti won the race while Ryan Briscoe finished second and 11th place starter Hideki Mutoh rounded out the podium in third. Following are Doornbos’ post race comments.

“I don’t know what was wrong, the car balance was really bad,” said Doornbos. ‘We had a lot of oversteer straight away. I tried to warm the tires as good as I could but it didn’t feel good and going into Turn 3 the car got sideways and I got collected by the ABC car. The guys did a good job to fix the left front suspension as quick as possible and we got back out there to complete more laps than (Raphael) Matos for Rookie of the Year. It hasn’t been a very good weekend for the 06 team. We’ll forget about it and work hard for next week.”

The series will travel to Richmond, Virginia for the SunTrust Indy Challenge. Rahal started third there last year but contact ended his race.