Newman/Haas Racing
MoveThatBlock.com Indy 225 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
QUALIFYING NOTES/QUOTES – Saturday, August 13, 2011
TELEMUNDO DRIVER SERVIA AND SPROTT DRIVER HINCHCLIFFE EARNED THEIR BEST SERIES STARTS FOR THE MOVETHATBLOCK.COM INDY 225 WITH SECOND AND FOURTH PLACE RESPECTIVELY
POLE: Dario Franchitti 2-lap avg. speed of 170.843 mph (L1: 21.6008, L2: 21.5968)
2nd: Oriol Servia 2-lap avg. speed of 169.831 mph (L1: 21.7374, L2: 21.7175)
4th: James Hinchcliffe 2-lap avg. speed of 169.590 mph (L1: 21.7476, L2: 21.7692)
Oriol Servia, No. 2 Telemundo Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Oh man, it feels awesome for the whole Telemundo team. We have been working hard. We have the best car when it counts and I had the best car of the weekend in my two qualifying laps. All morning we were working on the car and it felt good. James showed we had the pace in practice and it was a good qualifying run for all of Newman/Haas Racing. We had a great first half of the season and then in the middle we had some races where we were taken out and that slows down your momentum so I am very, very happy to come back strong here. The car felt great and we did a great job to prepare for this track. Now it is all up to tomorrow which is what we like. We like to shine in qualifying and race day. Tomorrow should be an exciting race because although it’s a wide track, the lane we can use is very narrow. When you go off line it is very, very slippery. When the leader catches the lapped cars, its going to be very difficult to pass and its going to create some sort of accordion effect.”
FAST FACTS: Earned his top starting position in the IndyCar Series with second place today and his second front row start in 2011 (3rd at Indy 500). His top start in Champ Car was pole in Australia in 2005… Will be his FIRST open wheel race here…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: “It’s a good effort by the whole Newman/Haas team with Oriol on the front row and us on the second row. Both cars have been super-strong since we got here so it’s a good effort by everybody. Obviously I would have liked to have been a tiny bit quicker. I think it had a little bit more in it but the track conditions changed a bit. It got quite a bit hotter. It’s definitely going to be a track-position race so it’s good to start up front. To have rolled in here on Thursday not having seen the place and had this result is great. It’s a fast track and it’s very difficult to get the setup right and go flat around here. But the team gave us good cars and we’re sitting all right now.”
FAST FACTS: Earned his career best start in Indy car with fourth place today… This will be his FIRST Indy car race here…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 (222) after eight of nine events so far this season (missed St. Pete).
1 WIN, 1 POLE, 3 PODIUMS IN FOUR NEW HAMPSHIRE EVENTS: Newman/Haas Racing competed in CART-sanctioned events here from 1992-1995. The team has earned ONE WIN (Nigel Mansell 1993), ONE POLE (Mansell 1993), THREE FRONT ROW STARTS (2nd – Michael Andretti 1992; Oriol Servia 2011) and THREE PODIUMS (2nd – Mi. Andretti 1992, 1995).
Tune In… The race will be broadcast live on ABC on Sunday, August 14 at 3:30 p.m. EDT. The radio broadcast also will be carried on www.indycar.com. As always, fans can follow the action from every on-track session via the official website of the IZOD IndyCar Series, www.indycar.com.
