Camara
Dominates Nashville
Schmidt Motorsports wins, but has up and down race
LEBANON, Tenn. -
Sam Schmidt Motorsports' Brazilian driver Jaime Camara
collected his second victory of the season in dominating
fashion, leading every lap of the Menards Infiniti Pro
Series Cleanevent 100 at Nashville Superspeedway.
The race began
with a familiar front row, teammates Camara and Travis Gregg
were together again on the front row for the fourth time
this season with Camara on the pole and Gregg starting
second. Chris Festa, 19, of Atlanta, Ga., started eighth in
the #19 SpacePak/CareCentric Sam Schmidt Motorsports entry.
In the opening
laps of the race, Gregg, 27, of Camden, Ohio, fell back
through the field. Gregg's car was getting better lap by
lap, and a caution flew at lap 50 for debris that pulled him
within striking distance of the leaders. Festa, too, fell
back during the early stages of the race, but worked his way
up to his finish position of seventh. Festa maintains
fourth in the points race with 204 points.
|
CLEANEVENT 100 RACE MENARDS
INFINITI PRO SERIES RESULTS |
| Pos |
No |
Driver
Name |
Best Time |
Best Speed |
Best Lap |
Total Laps |
| 1 |
1 |
Jaime
Camara |
26.9503 |
173.653 |
6 |
77 |
| 2 |
24 |
Jeff
Simmons |
27.0877 |
172.772 |
4 |
77 |
| 3 |
20 |
Jay
Drake |
26.9791 |
173.468 |
17 |
77 |
| 4 |
33 |
Wade
Cunningham |
26.7590 |
174.894 |
75 |
77 |
| 5 |
9 |
Nick
Bussell |
26.9681 |
173.538 |
9 |
77 |
| 6 |
6 |
Jon Herb |
27.0145 |
173.240 |
5 |
77 |
| 7 |
19 |
Chris
Festa |
27.4525 |
170.476 |
5 |
77 |
| 8 |
3 |
Arie
Luyendyk Jr. |
26.7546 |
174.923 |
26 |
77 |
| 9 |
91 |
Jerry
Coons Jr. |
27.1157 |
172.594 |
4 |
76 |
| 10 |
7 |
Travis
Gregg |
27.1650 |
172.281 |
9 |
62 |
| 11 |
4 |
Marty
Roth |
28.0626 |
166.770 |
14 |
24 |
| 12 |
42 |
Tom Wood |
27.9779 |
167.275 |
12 |
21 |
While Jaime
Camara, 25, a resident of Miami, Fla., kept the #1 CELG/Goias,
Sam Schmidt race car ahead of tough challenges from Arie
Luyendyk, Jr. and Jeff Simmons, Gregg's day came to a
crashing halt on lap 62. In a move to avoid a slow car
during the restart following the second caution period of
the race, Gregg's #7 Lucas Oil Special, Sam Schmidt
Motorsports race car spun through the infield grass and made
contact with the inside retaining wall. The wreck ended
Gregg's day. He finished 10th, and holds onto
second in the points chase with 237 points, just three
points ahead of teammate Camara.
Camara's win is
his second of the season. He heads to Milwaukee third in
the standings with 234 points.
"Yeah! This is
great!" shouted Camara following his win. "This was the
toughest race this year. It was a very physical race. I'm
so excited to win. There were many challenges today, but my
engineer gave me a good car and he kept giving me good
advice during the race, so I knew we could win if we could
stay in front. We had a little contact in the race with the
second-place car, but it didn't hurt either car, we both
finished in the same places, first and second. I don't play
guitar, but I'm very happy with the Gibson guitar I got for
a trophy. I have a wall that will be perfect for it."
Festa, a student
at Florida State University, had a tough day fighting an
ill-handling race car, but his spirits are high heading into
Milwaukee.
"It was a long
day, we had to work with the chassis throughout the race,
but we were able to keep the car out of trouble and maintain
our position in the points. We tested at Milwaukee, so we
are all looking forward to a better race there," said Festa.
"I had a lot of family and friends here at the track today,
and of course I wanted to get a better finish for them.
We're all just happy the car is in good shape and ready to
go next weekend."
Gregg, who lost
12 points to the leader in the championship standings this
week, had a car that came alive after halfway in the race,
but ended up in the garage before the race was over.
"I had to fall
back at the beginning of the race, I didn't want to get into
an aggressive battle for the lead that early in the race,"
said Gregg. "The car wasn't very fast at the beginning, but
as the laps rolled by, the car got a lot quicker. When I
worked back into fourth position, I was pretty confident I
could at least get to second place, but one of the cars in
front of me had trouble getting up to speed following the
restart on lap 61. I tried to slow down and work my way
around him, but I ended up getting in the grass and the
inside wall just after turn one. I'm glad we're still
second in the championship standings, but I know those 12
points will be hard to get back."
Sam Schmidt had
mixed emotions discussing his team's performance.
"Jaime drove a
strong race today. He did a good job of working with his
bar and weight jacker and listening to his engineer to stay
in front and dominate today," said Schmidt. "We didn't test
here, and that probably hurt us overall. We tested at
Milwaukee, so I look for Chris and Travis to have a lot
stronger runs there and with any luck, we'll catch a
positive break in the points chase. One out of three isn't
bad, but I'm a racer, I want all my guys to win - since they
can't do that all at once, then I'd really like to see a
1-2-3 finish before the season's over."
Saturday's
Cleanevent 100 will be televised by ESPN2 on Thursday, July
21st at 3 p.m. Eastern.
The next Menards
Infiniti Pro Series race is Sunday, July 24th at The
Milwaukee Mile, a flat one-mile oval boasting more than 100
years of racing history.
-30-
FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION: Williams Company of America, Inc. (704)
660-0796
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