Festa
Drives Blind, Gets Hard Charger for Third
Schmidt Motorsports teams third, fifth, seventh at Indy
INDIANAPOLIS,
Ind. - Sam Schmidt Motorsports' youngest racer drove through
nearly blinded conditions and lots of slick oil to win the
FedEx Hard Charger Award and finish third in Saturday's
Menards Infiniti Pro Series Liberty Challenge at
Indianapolis Motor Speedway - the second road course race of
the season.
A hair-raising
start to the 25-lap road course race presented the only
challenge for race leader and eventual winner Marco Andretti.
Jeff Simmons drove past Andretti heading into the first turn
on the first lap, but missed the corner. The pass let
Andretti pull away to a sizeable lead that just kept growing
− Andretti won by nearly a 13-second margin.
Chris Festa, 19,
of Atlanta, Ga., masterfully negotiated his way through the
opening-lap chaos, pulling around teammate Jaime Camara and
up to fifth in the field. Festa continued exercising his
road racing experience, staying tight with the leaders. He
drove
around Nick Bussell for fourth, then soldiered through the
oil from Simmons' expired motor, bringing the #19 Western
Union/CareCentric, Sam Schmidt Motorsports entry around to
the checkers in third. Festa's third top-three finish of the
season moved him to fourth in the standings with 178 points.
Jaime Camara
kept the #1 CELG/Goias, Sam Schmidt race car in the top
five, which kept him in third in the series championship
chase with 181 points. Travis Gregg pulled his #7 Lucas Oil
Special, Sam Schmidt Motorsports race car around Marty Roth
in the early stages of the race, and finished seventh.
Gregg is now second in the title race with 217 points.
"We changed
about all we could change on the car before
the start of the
race and it was really good for us," smiled Festa, who had
been concerned about his car's performance in yesterday's
qualifying sessions. "I had a faster car at the start and I
was able to use it to grab a couple of positions when
Simmons went off track. I ended up racing really hard with
Wade [Cunningham], which was great. I'm not really sure how
I made it through the last half of the race because I was
out of visor tear-offs when Simmons's engine let go. My
helmet was totally covered in oil and dirt. I knew it was
hard to see, but it was a lot worse when I got out of the
car and could see the oil everywhere."
Gregg's finish
cost him the points lead, and sort of felt like a "call"
from the oval tracks for him to hurry "home."
"We started out
ninth and finished seventh, so we moved up two positions.
The car started off pretty good, but it fell off a little
bit and developed quite a push that kept me from getting
around Arie [Luyenduk, Jr.]. It was a good, clean race for
us and we're ready for a few weeks off, then we'll be back
on the ovals. Nashville is next for us and I'm hoping we
can get back up front and make up some of the points we lost
today (in the championship battle),"said Gregg.
Camara was very
excited about the chance to race on the road course, but
like any racer who isn't in victory lane, wanted a better
finish.
"I was really
conservative in the start because I needed a good finish so
I wanted to save the car for the rest of the race. My start
let Marty Roth and Chris Festa get by me, then I was kind of
held back for a while by Roth which opened up a gap between
me and the front cars. My car was fast, but I never could
make up the ground-I kind of raced by myself a few seconds
behind the leaders. It wasn't a fun day, but it was a solid
day for the points race," said Camara
Sam Schmidt
smiled as he pondered his team's performance.
"Obviously, it's
not bad when you can be disappointed with finishes of third,
fifth and seventh," said Schmidt. "We've still got room for
improvement in our road course program, but we've got some
time to think about it. Nashville is next and we hope we
can get the points lead back in our hands when we leave
there."
Saturday's
Liberty Challenge will be televised by ESPN-2 on Tuesday,
June 21st at 5 p.m. Eastern.
The next Menards
Infiniti Pro Series race is on the concrete oval, Nashville
Superspeedway, on Saturday, July 16th.
FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION: Williams Company of America, Inc. (704)
660-0796
;
