Gregg
Surprises All, Snaggs Pole at Pikes Peak
Sam
Schmidt Motorsports Starts 1, 3, 6 on Sunday
FOUNTAIN, Col. -
Earning his sixth career Menards Infiniti Pro Series and his
fifth of the 2005 season, Sam Schmidt Motorsports driver
Travis Gregg qualified late and took the top starting spot
at Pikes Peak International Raceway on a blustery afternoon.
Gregg ranked
third in the combined results from the day's practice
session and surprised his team owner and fellow competitors
with his late pole-winning run. With a lap time of 23.3418
seconds (154.230 miles per hour), Gregg put the #7 Lucas Oil
Special Sam Schmidt Motorsports entry first on the
qualifying grid. Jaime Camara, a 24-year-old Brazilian
native living in Miami, qualified third with a time of
23.4025 (153.830 MPH). Atlanta, Ga., native Chris Festa
qualified the #19 SpacePak/CareCentric Sam Schmidt
Motorsports entry sixth with a lap time of 23.7347 (151.677
MPH).
"It was awesome.
Starting on the pole - you can't get any better than that,"
smiled Gregg. "I just ran it really hard in qualifying. I
knew if I had a chance I had to pretty much run it flat all
the way around the track, so that was the difference from
practice to qualifying, I just let it all hang out on the
first lap and backed off a little on the second. The winds
from the storm front didn't make the car impossible to
drive, but they affected the car enough so that something
could happen if I wasn't smart. Tomorrow is going to be
tough. Jeff Simmons is on the outside pole, and he's going
to want to race really hard for the lead, probably on the
first or second lap. I just won't let it get to me if I
drop back to second early in the race because I think in 100
laps of racing there will be plenty of opportunities to
pass."
Jaime Camara was
in a familiar position, qualifying early in the session and
waiting to see what his teammate Gregg would do late in the
time trials. This time, however, Camara was waiting to see
if he'd start outside the front row, or in third.
"I thought my
qualifying run was OK but the wind really affected my car.
I had a moment in turn four - I even told my crew on the
radio 'I just had a big moment' - it was coming to the green
and I had to make some adjustments to the car. I did my
best lap on my second lap, that's how long it took to
recover from the moment before the green flag. I think my
lap was alright, but then Travis and Simmons were faster.
It's OK, tomorrow we look for a tough race, and I know that
I will have to have patience. It's going to be a long race,
the tires are going to wear out and I just have to be
constant on the lap times and be patient," said Camara.
Festa, the
19-year-old driver who'll enter his second year at Florida
State University this fall, picked up a lot of speed between
practice and qualifying.
"Other than the
wind making the car a little unsteady, the car handled a lot
better than it did in practice. I'm sure my engineer and I
will still come up with changes to make the car better for
the race. We adjusted the car going into last week's race
and the car was really strong. I'm looking for a lot of
tight competition tomorrow. It will be hard to make passes
here, so the challenge will be in setting up the guy in
front of you and making a clean pass," explained Festa.
Owner Sam
Schmidt admitted he was at totally surprised with today's
results.
"That's a total
surprise," smiled Schmidt. "Travis really knows how to hang
it out there for qualifying. Jaime ran a great lap, and for
him and for Chris the game tomorrow will be about patience
in working their way forward. Passes take some time to set
up here, but we've got 100 laps. Travis may have some heavy
challenges in the beginning with Simmons, but he's had some
practice driving under pressure this season, if he can keep
his cool, we'll be able to give the Lucas Oil car a good run
tomorrow."
Sunday's 100-lap
race begins at 1:45 p.m. (EDT), and will be televised on a
tape-delayed basis at 3 p.m. (EDT), on Thursday, August 23
on ESPN2.
FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION: Williams Company of America, Inc. (704)
660-0796