Thursday, July 24, 2008 Rexall Edmonton Indy – City Centre Airport Round 13 of 18 in the IndyCar Series
McDONALD’S DRIVER WILSON FIFTH FASTEST IN PRACTICE FOR THE REXALL EDMONTON INDY; REXALL-OILERS DRIVER RAHAL NINTH
FASTEST: Will Power 1:02.3404 / 113.936 mph
5th: Justin Wilson 1:02.6220 / 113.423 mph
9th Graham Rahal 1:02.7528 / 113.187 mph
Justin Wilson, No. 02 McDonald’s Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I think the McDonald’s team is reasonably okay in terms of setup. It’s difficult to know when other people ran old tires versus new ones. We know when we have and haven’t and we feel like we are reasonably competitive but I would like to feel a bit more confidence from the car. It’s not where I think we can be. We have a little work to do but we’re on old tires running fifth so I’m reasonably happy with it. This car bounces around a lot more than the Champ Car did and there doesn’t seem to be as much grip on the track so it’s very difficult to drive. I think everyone is seeing that based on how many cars are spinning off. It’s making life tough but we’re going to have to try to make the most of it. I think the race is going to be interesting.”
FAST FACTS: Will be his fourth race here and first in an Indy car here. He started second, led four laps and finished fourth in 2005; started third, led 28 laps and won in 2006; started third, led one lap and finished second in 2007. It will be only the THIRD track this year that he has raced on prior to this season…Is ranked 18th in the point standings with 202…Finished runner up in the Champ Car championship to the driver he recently replaced, four-time champion Sebastien Bourdais, in 2006 and 2007. Was a title contender until the conclusion of the penultimate race of each season…Highest start this season is pole on the streets of Long Beach and his highest finish is seventh on the one-mile oval in Milwaukee and ¾ mile track in Richmond.
Graham Rahal, No. 06 Rexall-Oilers Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “The start of the day was all right but I think we were a little too far off in terms of setup. We were close enough though that we decided to make this afternoon’s session a little bit of a test session. We went out on a limb and tried some things and now we’re are a heck of a lot closer than we were at the start of the day. We’re pretty happy with that but of course we still need to find a little more speed. We’re competitive at least. We’re right there with the top guys. We still need to work on some stability issues but we have tonight to think about it. Then we’ll try to shoot for pole tomorrow or at least try to make it through all the rounds because I can’t seem to make it through to the second round this year even if we are quick. This is such a different car than we are used to here. We showed up and the car was bottoming like crazy. It was like getting punched in the face 10 times a lap and it hurts. We made some improvement. This car isn’t nearly as nice over the bumps or curbing as a Champ Car. It’s more of an oval car. Obviously we had to work on that quite a lot. To be fast here quite frankly you have to be aggressive. The bumps are obviously the most important part of this because it is such a bumpy circuit. We made a lot of improvements but there is still a ways to go.”
FAST FACTS: Will be his second major open wheel race here and third overall. He started third and finished second in the
Atlantic race here in 2006 and started fourth and finished third in the 2007 Champ Car race...Was his fourth this season on a road/street course after he won in St. Pete (April 6), finishing 13th in Long Beach, eighth in Watkins Glen, 16th in Mid-Ohio…In his IndyCar Series debut on a road/street course he became the youngest winner in major open-wheel racing in North America after winning in St. Pete on 4-6-08 at 19 years, 93 days old…He is ranked 16th in series points with 215 points…His highest start this season is second on the one-mile oval in Milwaukee where he narrowly lost becoming the youngest pole winner in series history to Marco Andretti. His highest oval finish is 10th place on the .894 mile oval at Iowa Speedway.
NHR/NHLR AT EDMONTON: The team has TWO wins, ONE pole and FIVE podiums in three races in Edmonton. NHR won the inaugural race here in 2005 when Bourdais drove to victory from a 10th place start. Bourdais won again last season and Rahal finished third. The only other driver to have won in Edmonton – Justin Wilson – was hired to replace Bourdais at the team. The team has earned TWO wins, ONE pole (Bourdais 2006) and FIVE podium finishes (2nd – Bourdais 2006; 3rd – Servia 2005, Rahal 2007)….NHR/NHLR IN CANADA: The team has earned 15 wins and 33 podiums in Canada (see Fact Sheet for specifics)
