Newman/Haas Racing
Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio
RACE NOTES/QUOTES – Sunday, August 7, 2011
TELEMUNDO DRIVER SERVIA FINISHED EIGHTH IN THE HONDA INDY 200; SPROTT DRIVER HINCHCLIFFE LED 26 LAPS BUT FINISHED 20TH AFTER DRIVING OFF COURSE
Oriol Servia, No. 2 Telemundo Dallara/Honda/Firestone: "It was a weekend where I didn't have the pace that I thought I was going to. It's usually a place where I have always been quick and we had a good test but I couldn't put it together in qualifying. Starting 20th really makes it hard to pull off any miracles. Finishing eighth is not too bad but it's not really what we came here to do. I guess we salvaged the situation; it could have been worse. Back to the ovals now and we were very strong at the last two so I am looking forward to it."
FAST FACTS: Was his SEVENTH major open wheel race here and first since 2009 with NHR. He has competed in four CART/Champ Car races (2000-2003) and two IndyCar Series events (2008 & 2009) here to date. In 2009, he started 14th and finished 11th in his return to NHR in only his second Indy car race that season and first road course in almost a year. In 2008 he started eighth and finished fifth for KV Racing. In his rookie CART season in 2000, he started 17th and finished 10th; started 26th and finished ninth in 2001; started 12th and finished 10th in 2002 and started eighth and finished 18th in 2003 after contact with NHR driver Junqueira...Servia, a native of Catalonia, Spain, has made 23 starts for NHR which include his first Indy car win (Montreal 2005) and pole (Surfers Paradise, Australia 2005) as well as a total of eight 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 FIFTH in series point standings with 268.
James Hinchcliffe, No. 06 Sprott Dallara/Honda/Firestone: "We started from our best road course starting spot and on the first lap Tag (Tagliani) decided I didn't deserve enough race track to stay on the race track and I got pushed off in Turn 5 so we fell right to the back. I thought I may have bent something on the car so we sat around the back (of the field) for a bit. We decided to take the early pit window and go for the lucky yellow and it worked out just perfectly. We got around Danica on that restart and managed to keep Scott and Dario at bay while making the fuel mileage that we needed because obviously we were stretching it a little bit. We came in for our second stop and it looked like we were going to cycle out about third and then that caution came out and that's what really threw us for a loop because we opted for the black tires that last stint because I had run so well on them in the middle stint but we knew from warm-up that they took a little longer to come up to temperature. When it came up to that restart I got passed by a couple of the KV cars and was going into the keyhole trying to keep TK (Kanaan) behind me and made a rookie mistake. It's one of the tough things about being a rookie is that when you make those mistakes it's usually very public. And after the day we had its unfortunate because the guys did such a good job. The car was obviously phenomenal. I can deal with failures, I can deal with being taken out but my own personal mistakes are the toughest thing to deal with."
FAST FACTS: Dropped from seventh to the back of the field on the opening lap when Tagliani pushed him off course. Moved back to the front and led 26 laps for the first time in his IICS career. Went off course again on Lap 62/85 while fifth. This was his fourth race here and FIRST in the headline Indy car race. Started and finished second in the 2009 Indy Lights race. Started second, set the fastest race lap and finished seventh in the 2010 Indy Lights race. Competed in the 2005 Star Mazda event where he qualified 11th and finished seventh...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 17th with a total of 185 points and is 37 behind Rookie of the Year leader Hildebrand (193) after eight of nine events so far this season (missed St. Pete).
NEXT UP... The series will reconvene at New Hampshire Motor Speedway next weekend for the MoveThatBlock.com Indy 225. The team won the 1993 with Nigel Mansell.
