2008 Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing // Press Release

Saturday, July 12, 2008
Firestone Indy 200 – Nashville Superspeedway
Round 11 of 18 in the IndyCar Series

HOLE IN THE WALL CAMPS DRIVER RAHAL FINISHED 12TH IN THE RAIN SHORTENED FIRESTONE INDY 200; McDONALD’S® DRIVER WILSON SUFFERED A SOFTWARE-RELATED GEAR SHIFT PROBLEM AND FINISHED 18TH

McDonald’s driver Justin Wilson was hindered by a software-related gear shift problem in the Firestone Indy 200 at the 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway and finished 18th, 28 laps down to the leaders in a race slowed by light rain twice before it was concluded after 171 of the originally-scheduled 200 laps for the same reason. After Wilson started 13th, he maintained his run in 14th place while dealing with understeer. As the field neared the first round of stops, he reported that he had “no power” on Lap 52 and the team told him to switch to Map 1 on the fuel setting. The problem appeared to resolve itself and he moved up as high as 10th before he made his first stop on Lap 59. He was now one lap down and ran as high as 14th place before the problem reappeared and he dropped to 16th place and on Lap 65 informed the team that he had “lost drive” so he again switched fuel settings and later tried to reset the engine control unit (ECU). He moved into 15th place and ran there the majority of the stint. When the caution came out to remove the crashed car of Ryan Hunter-Reay on Lap 100 he reported that he had lost fifth gear. A short while later he reported that he had also lost fourth gear so when the race looked like it would restart soon the team asked him to pit so they could change the gear cluster. This change took many laps and by the time he returned to the track on Lead Lap 136 he was 28 laps down. A caution came out from Laps 139-151 for moisture and once another 15 laps were run it was brought out again for the same reason before it steadily increased and the race was called after 171 of 200 laps were run. He earned 12 points for his finish and maintained his 19th place rank in the IndyCar Series point standings with a total of 183. Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon of Target Ganassi Racing finished first and second respectively with the help of an alternate fuel strategy which proved successful when the race ended due to rain. Following are Wilson’s post race comments:

“I never felt the McDonald’s car was very strong in a straight line all race long,” said Wilson. “It was a little bit odd. The handling of the car was feeling good; we just sat there being patient trying not to do anything silly and trying to move forward step by step. At that point the plan was working but then I started to get what felt like a misfire or hitting the rev limited which was killing my straight line speed. After a while I suddenly lost fifth gear and fortunately a yellow came out but we managed to get back going again and it recovered for a while. We had tried every setting but it gave up finally and we had to come in and change the whole gear cluster. The guys did a good job of switching it over very quickly. We got back out there only for it to rain. It’s disappointing and frustrating but we’ve still got four wheels on the car and we’re going back to a road course.”

Hole in the Wall Camps driver Graham Rahal drove to a 12th place finish in the rain-shortened Firestone Indy 200 at the 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway after the race ended on Lap 171 of the originally-scheduled 200. Rahal started 10th and held his position for all but nine laps when he moved up to 9th during the first stint. As the field began making their first round of stops he moved up to seventh before he pitted on Lap 59. Once the stops were complete he held ninth place for two laps before Oriol Servia, who was on an alternate strategy returned to the track from a stop on Lap 69 immediately ahead of Rahal which allowed two cars to pass him and he settled into 11th place. He has able to stay on the lead lap until nearly the halfway point on Lap 98 before he pitted on Lead Lap 102. He returned to the track in 13th but dropped to 14th before he moved back into 13th and then 12th place by Lap 133. He pit on Lead Lap 148 and returned to the track in 12th place which he held through two caution periods from Laps 139-151 and Laps 166-171 for intermittent moisture. Once the rain steadily increased the red flag came out after 171 laps, and the race was subsequently ended. Rahal earned 18 points for 12th place and maintained his 16th place rank in the point standings with 201 after Round 11 of 18. Following are Rahal’s post race comments:

“I think we were making progress at the end of that second stint,” said Rahal. “The car started to come to me. It’s just hard to follow and I’m a little gun-shy about going high around anybody. I think (Ryan) Hunter-Reay proved that there was a reason to be. It’s tough to pass, it’s tough to follow. And unfortunately, a couple of times on the restart who ever was in front of me would kind of just bog me down and I would become a sitting duck. The guys have been working hard all weekend and we have to be pretty happy with how competitive we were here. It was a step up from how we have been on the other super speedways. We’ll just move forward and keep working from what we learned here. I think a lot of people were surprised by our pace and certainly we were too. It’s pretty exciting to be only 8/10ths of a mile an hour off the Ganassi boys in qualifying versus four or five miles so we’re pretty happy. ”

The Honda Indy Grand Prix, the fifth of six consecutive races, will take place next Sunday at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course near Graham Rahal’s hometown of New Albany, Ohio. Newman/Haas Racing won three races, six poles and earned 11 podium finishes at this course but have not competed here since 2003.