RACE REPORT: IOWA CORN INDY 250 PRESENTED BY ETHANOL
 

NEWTON, Iowa June 24, 2007 - Darren Manning used his experience and a little bit of luck to notch his first top-five finish in A.J. Foyt’s ABC Supply Dallara/Honda Indy car at Iowa Speedway Sunday afternoon. The inaugural Iowa Corn Indy 250 presented by ethanol marked the debut of the IndyCar Series in Iowa.

Manning, who had strong practice runs the day before with fourth and 11th place showings, did not have as strong a qualifying run on Friday evening -- he qualified 15th. However, the team felt they had a good car for the race around the ultra-smooth 7/8 mile banked oval where speeds topped 182 mph in the 250-lapper IndyCar Series event.

In the race, it became a survival of the fittest as several cars spun by themselves initially but then collected innocent bystanders. Such was the case with Dan Wheldon’s spin claiming Tomas Scheckter on the opening lap and much later Tony Kanaan’s spin taking out hapless Jeff Simmons on lap 86. On the lap 100 restart, Danica Patrick also triggered a multi-car pile-up which claimed Patrick plus A.J. Foyt IV, Sam Hornish, Ed Carpenter (who restarted), Kosuke Matsuura and Helio Castroneves (who had done a solo spin exiting the pits earlier and managed to restart after this accident as well). Eight of the top ten drivers in points were involved in mishaps, either mechanical or accidental.

All of the accidents happened in front of Manning who did an excellent job avoiding the crashing cars and flying debris.

“There were a lot of close calls out there for me,” said Manning. “You just have to choose your line and anticipate. That’s where experience helps, and a little luck helps too. We had a little luck today but I feel our team earned it because there were a lot of races this year where we ran well but didn’t have any luck.”

Manning had advanced to tenth by his first pitstop on lap 73 when the yellow came out for Castroneves’ spin as Manning was getting serviced. The untimely caution cost him track position, putting him behind the top six cars who had pitted plus all of the cars who hadn’t but were able to pit under yellow.

However, he said afterwards, he had to be cautious on the restarts because his tires didn’t start working until about 20 laps into the run, a problem others seemed to have as well but didn’t heed.

In the final pitstop on lap 116, the ABC Supply team planned to do fuel only but they changed tires when the Firestone engineer strongly advised them to do so, a decision they later regretted.

“On our final stop we changed tires on Firestone’s advice and we shouldn’t have because the tires were so good. My car didn’t work well on new tires and I didn’t have the 20 laps I needed to work them in before that last yellow came out. [A debris caution came out on lap 227.] On that final restart; I knew it was going to be tough. I couldn’t hold the car down where I needed to and Buddy [Rice] got under me with five to go. I could have chopped down on him but I knew we were both going to get a good result if I didn’t. At least we were fast at the end of the stints so we’ll take the info for the next time.”

Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti won the race, his second of the season. Marco Andretti finished a close second while Scott Sharp placed third. Rice, who finished fourth, tied Manning in the points standings; they each have 150 points but because Rice has a higher finishing position for the season (fourth), he is in 12th and Manning is 13th.

This week the series moves to Richmond International Raceway, a three-quarter-mile banked tri-oval which is the shortest track on the IndyCar circuit. It will be televised live June 30th, Saturday night on ESPN starting at 7:30 pm eastern time.
 

Notes & Quotes: Iowa Corn Indy 250 presented by Ethanol at Iowa Speedway


• Darren Manning on Iowa Speedway: “I’ve never been to Iowa and I never knew where it was until now. I’ve heard that Iowa Speedway is a real nice track and that it’s like Richmond with nicer banking. By that I mean the transitions off the banking to the flats are better. Richmond is a bit tight coming off of turn 2. The overall feeling is that the racing will be quite good at Iowa.”


• A.J. Foyt will serve as grand marshal of the event in honor of his 50th anniversary in Indy car racing. Foyt never raced an Indy car in Iowa but he did race a stock car at Knoxville Raceway in Iowa in 1969. He drove Jack Bowsher’s car, winning the pole and finishing second in the 100 lap USAC event on the half-mile dirt oval.


• Manning on his approach to Iowa:“Normally when I go to a new track, I go around in a regular car to get a feel for the track. We’re fortunate to have an Open Test for half a day before the weekend. Usually it’s tough going to a new track because you’re limited on your tire allocation so you don’t want to waste your tires pounding around lap after lap. But everyone will get some extra sets of tires for Friday. The open test will allow us to get a baseline set-up on the car which we can then fine-tune for qualifying and the race.”


• Manning on adding new tracks to the IndyCar schedule: “I like to see new tracks added--it makes for a more level playing field because no team has a lot of data on the track. Many of the teams we’re competing against have worked together for years so they have the advantage on us now. However, when we go to a new track like Iowa, their advantage is diminished a bit so it plays into our hands. I know how much of an advantage it will be for us when we come back to all of these tracks next year because we’ll have a good starting point.”


• Manning took last weekend off…After testing last Wednesday at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (where he ran in the top 7 to 10 in the open test), Manning headed to Las Vegas with fellow IndyCar driver Buddy Rice for a long weekend. The two drivers did a little gambling (“Buddy taught me a few tricks so it wasn’t too painful.”) and took the opportunity to relax on their first weekend off since leaving for Japan in mid-April. Team owner A.J. Foyt headed west to his ranch in Del Rio where he relaxed by getting on his tractor and mowing acres of grass fields.


• ATB Construction Company of Port Byron, IL is this weekend’s winner of the ABC Supply Your Name Here Promotion for its customers. The company name will be put on the top of the sidepods of the No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda. Marty Hurry and Bev Wiley will receive selected merchandise, race tickets, hospitality and garage passes, plus a Meet and Greet and photo op with A.J. Foyt and Darren Manning. The “Your Name Here” promotion selected winners by random drawing from a pool of entries sent in by ABC Supply customers earlier this year.


• The Iowa Corn Indy 250 presented by Ethanol will be shown live at 1:00 p.m. eastern time Sunday, June 24 on ABC-TV.