Newman/Haas Racing
Milwaukee 225 – The Legendary Milwaukee Mile
PRACTICE NOTES/QUOTES – Friday, June 17, 2010
TELEMUNDO DRIVER SERVIA FIFTH FAST IN PRACTICE FOR THE MILWAUKEE 225; SPROTT DRIVER HINCHCLIFE TURNS HIS FIRST LAPS IN AN INDY CAR HERE AND IS 19TH
1st: Will Power 21.7957 / 167.648 mph
5th: Oriol Servia 21.8774 / 167.022 mph
19th: James Hinchcliffe 22.4156 / 163.011 mph
Oriol Servia, No. 2 Telemundo Dallara/Honda/Firestone: "It seems that we are right where we thought we would be after the test. We just seem to be a little bit behind the front, front guys like Mr. (Will) Power and the Ganassi cars but we are very close and just need to make a couple of good decisions. If that happens we have a chance to put the blue Telemundo car up with them. It's great to have the amount of practice we have here. It good to come to an oval where we can actually try different things on the car and have real practice time and not just half-an-hour, then qualify and race. It's good for us since we haven't done a ton of testing. Tomorrow the plan is to try to get closer to those guys."
FAST FACTS: Will compete in his EIGHTH race here. In seven events, he has three top-five finishes including 2nd (2003 w/Patrick), 3rd (2005 w/NHR) and 5th (2006 w/PKV). The 2005 event was his debut with NHR after Bruno Junqueira suffered a season-ending injury at the Indy 500 IRL event (one-off event for the team). His finish solidified his position with the team and he went on to earn one win, seven podiums and one pole in 11 of the 13 races with NHR that season...At Milwaukee, Servia finished in the top-10 five of his seven races here and started in the top-10 four times. His highest start is seventh (2003, 2006) and his highest finish is second (2003)...Servia, a native of Catalonia, Spain, has made 19 starts for NHR which include his first Indy car win (Montreal 2005) and pole (Surfers Paradise, Australia 2005) as well as a total of seven top-three finishes. In 2005, Servia replaced NHR driver Bruno Junqueira, who suffered a season-ending injury at the Indy 500 on May 29, and then went on to finish second to teammate Sebastien Bourdais in the point standings after 11/13 events with the team. Servia returned to NHR in 2009 for four races with a season-best finish of fourth at Twin Ring Motegi... Is fourth in the series point standings with 163.
James Hinchcliffe, No. 06 Sprott Dallara/Honda/Firestone: "The session was good. Obviously I haven't been here since Indy Lights in 2009 and have never been here in an Indy car. I was one of three drivers who didn't test here. We just spent time getting up to speed on this track. We had a couple of little issues that held us back a little bit in the middle part there but we got the car sorted in the end. Oriol's pace shows what we're capable of as a team. I know there is two-tenths (of a second) by just going to bed tonight and sleeping on it and getting up tomorrow with some information to go off of. Considering we didn't run here in the test, I am really happy with the car and really happy with where we are. We will just chip away at it and hopefully we will put the Sprott car up there in qualifying. When you look at the schedule at Texas compared to the schedule here, if I was going to miss a test at one track based on the schedule, this is the one to do it at based on the amount of practice time here. We're taking full advantage of that. These short ovals are a tricky thing to get used to. Obviously running around by yourself is one thing and running around in traffic is something completely different and it takes some getting used to. We're going to have to do that at some point and get a feel for the racing. The first order is qualifying and to get the car in a good place for the start on Sunday."
FAST FACTS: The event will be his THIRD Indy car race on an oval (Indy , Texas). He competed at the Mile in the Indy Lights Series in 2009 where he started 10th and finished seventh in his rookie season in the series... Earned a season-high start of eighth place in his debut at Barber and a season-high finish of fourth in Long Beach to date...Toronto native Hinchcliffe, 24, finished second in the 2010 Firestone Indy Lights season standings after three wins and four poles. In total he earned eight podium finishes in 13 races... Is ranked 18th with a total of 92 points and is 33 behind Rookie of the Year leader Hildebrand (125) after five of six events so far this season.
NHR IN MILWAUKEE: NHR has won SEVEN races at this track (Sebastien Bourdais – 2006; Michael Andretti 1996, 1992, 1991; Paul Tracy 1995; Nigel Mansell 1993; Mario Andretti 1985) and TWO poles (Bourdais – 2006; Ma. Andretti 1985). They have earned a total of 13 podium finishes (2nd – Mi. Andretti 2000, 1997, 1989; 3rd – Oriol Servia 2005, Mi. Andretti 1995, Ma. Andretti 1991). The team is tied with Team Penske for most wins here at seven.
