Friday, July 25, 2008
Rexall Edmonton Indy – City Centre Airport
Round 13 of 18 in the IndyCar Series

McDONALD’S DRIVER WILSON BRUSHED THE WALL IN QUALIFYING FOR THE REXALL EDMONTON INDY AND WILL START SIXTH; REXALL-OILERS DRIVER RAHAL EIGHTH

POLE: Ryan Briscoe 1:00.7311 / 116.955 mph
6th: Justin Wilson 1:01.1849 / tbd mph (from Round 2 time)
8th: Graham Rahal 1:01.4573 / 115.573 mph h



Justin Wilson, No. 02 McDonald’s Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I was trying to push too hard into Turn 6 when I lost the car, caught it once, but it got away from me again. The McDonald's team have done a great job this weekend and it’s really unfortunate that we weren’t able to go out in the Firestone Fast Six because I was looking forward to going after pole position. The car has been right on a knife edge all weekend and I’m just disappointed that my mistake came in qualifying rather than practice, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Still, we know that the car is pretty quick, so I'm hoping we’ll have a strong race.”

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: “It’s our highest qualifying on a road course this year so we are pretty happy about that but we definitely could have had a better run and definitely would have at the end. On the first run I couldn’t get a clear track and on the second run it went yellow and it killed us. When we got back out there on the new tires for our second run the car felt pretty darn good. I thought we could make up some time but it didn’t end up happening. After the yellow, I went back out and didn’t feel that I had all the grip so I was sliding around quite a lot. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough to keep it in the top-six. I didn’t think anybody was going to go any quicker because there was less than two minutes to go but a few of them did and dropped us out of the top-six. It’s going to be pretty tough and physical. It will be hot out and the track is bumpy so it will rattle you a lot. Two hours is going to be pretty difficult but we are going to work hard to get a good result for Rexall, the Oilers and all of the associate sponsors.”

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).