Festa
Takes Third in Firestone 100 at Texas Motor Speedway
FORT
WORTH,
Tex.
- Things are big in
Texas
but nothing was bigger than the way Sam Schmidt Motorsports
dominated the Firestone 100 Menards Infiniti Pro Series race
at Texas Motor Speedway Saturday.
Travis
Gregg, the 27-year-old from
Camden
,
Ohio
, led all but one lap from the pole and captured his second
race victory of the season. In the meantime, he retook the
lead in the Infiniti Pro Series standings. That led to
standing backflips in victory lane, a Gregg trademark the
series first saw with his win in the season-opening event at
Miami in the #7 Lucas Oil Special.
Chris
Festa of
Atlanta
,
Ga.
, Gregg's 19-year-old teammate and outside pole winner,
brought home a strong third-place finish in his #19 Western
Union/CareCentric entry and maintained fifth in the series
standings, though moving well within shot of third. Jaime
Camara, the 24-year-old Brazilian native living in
Miami
, drove his #1 CELG/Goias entry to a ninth-place finish and
is in third in the IPS standings. P.J. Abbott, who drove
Schmidt's fourth entry, finished 11th, retiring
after 50 laps.
"It
was totally awesome to qualify
1-2-3
," exclaimed Schmidt.
"The crew works extremely hard on these
superspeedway setups and qualifying
1-2-3
is a testament to that.
It's great that Travis could collect all the points
available, 53 - it'll really help us in the points chase.
It was disappointing that Chris couldn't come in at
least second, but that's what this is all about.
Last year, Travis ran behind Thiago (Medeiros, 2004
MIPS Champion) all 67 laps and finished about a foot behind
him and I think Chris learned a lot hear today and I think
it won't be long before Chris wins a race.
"Obviously
I'm disappointed with Jaime's day.
We must have just missed the setup there, he was not
happy in traffic. That
happens sometimes. Hopefully
it happens a lot less than more.
I'm not really sure what happened with P.J.
(Abbott), it looks like he might have gotten down on the
transition and lost the back end of the car.
I've been there at this place and it's not a
pleasant place to be. All
in all, it was a good day for us, and we'll pack up three
complete race cars and head back to Indy."
Gregg
was obviously excited with his new points lead and his
second race victory of the year.
"I
knew starting from the pole that I had a good shot at the
win. I kept
clean and smooth, and I knew it would be hard for guys to
get around me on the high side if I stayed down low,
that's just the way this track is at this track," smiled
Gregg. "We
had a good race and got Lucas Oil a lot of air time watching
the storm of cars behind us.
I'm sure Chris wanted to get around me, he actually
led a lap just before the last caution - he'll get his win
soon!"
With
race winner Gregg doing back-flips in victory lane behind
him, teenager Chris Festa, a student at
Florida
State
University
, talked to the media about his third place finish.
"I'm
pretty happy with today, it worked out well.
I was calm and collected while the guys behind me
were trying to pull around me on the high side, I just
stayed in my line and knew they couldn't get around me if
I didn't make a mistake," Festa said. "We
got some very good, valuable points which we needed.
I'm really excited to take this performance to
Indy's road course - a place where I feel like I can
really run well.
"Basically,
our plan was at the beginning of the race to fall in behind
Travis and draft him and I together for the whole race and
build out a little bit of a gap," Festa said.
"Unfortunately, Wade (Cunningham, who finished second) and
Jay (Drake, whom Festa beat out for third) had good cars as
well, so they were able to keep with us and really dice with
us. So that didn't really work out for us the way we
planned.
"We got to the end of the
race, about two laps to go is when the crew came on the
radio and said, 'All right, we go two to go, got to make a
move, now is the time.' That's when I started trying to
get around Travis. I just didn't time it quite right. Wade
was able to get underneath me and take second place away
from us. But it was a good race. We gave the crowd a very
good race today. At least we can feel good about that."
Camara's
dominance last race in his #1 CELG - Goias - Sam Schmidt
Motorsports race car at
Indianapolis
made this weekend's ninth-place finish harder to take.
"I
didn't find the best line on the track today and my car
wasn't very good in the draft.
I did what I could do with what I had.
The car was a good car, it was kind of neutral when I
was by myself - I could run very fast, but when I was in
traffic, it just wouldn't work.
I learned a lot for the next oval-track race," said
Camara, obviously disappointed with the finish coming off
such a dominating performance at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
just two weeks ago.
The
#11 Tan Rio - Millenium Aire entry driven by Texan Abbott
retired from the race after completing 50 laps.
Abbott was making his second start for Sam Schmidt
Motorsports and had many local fans, business and family
members trackside to watch the Firestone 100.
ESPN-2's
television broadcast of the Firestone 100 is scheduled for
3 p.m.
(Eastern) June 16. The next race for the Infiniti Pro Series
is Saturday, June 18, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
road course. That will be televised Thursday, June 21, on
ESPN2 at
5:00 p.m.
Eastern.
FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION: Williams
Company of America, Inc. (704) 660-0796
;
