Race Report: Iowa Corn Indy 250


NEWTON, IA June 21, 2009—The Iowa Corn Indy 250 ended before it really got started for the No.14 ABC Supply car. Ryan Hunter-Reay was the victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time when rookie Robert Doornbos spun on the first lap and collected the No.14.


Hunter-Reay’s debut with A.J. Foyt’s team was proceeding smoothly up till then as the team transitioned to its fourth different driver of the season. With just a day of practice, the team was 13th in speed heading into the qualification rounds.


With a couple tweaks to the ABC car, they were confident, thinking that Hunter-Reay might even break into the top 10 in qualifying. Then problems with the track’s surface—weeper holes leaking water in turn four—forced the IRL Officials to cancel qualifying. According to the rules, the grid would be set according to the entrants’ points which meant that the No. 14, 18th in points, would start 17th because the 10th place No. 21 car (Hunter-Reay’s former car) was no longer competing in the Series.


On the first lap E.J. Viso drifted high between turns three and four and hit the outside wall hard. Doornbos also got loose there and did a quarter spin to the inside directly into Hunter-Reay, who was trying to squeeze by underneath him. Doornbos clipped the No. 14’s right front wheel and knocked out the right side front suspension and wing.

“We had a decent start,” said Hunter-Reay. “We were a little loose to begin with but nothing we couldn’t have worked with. I started moving up a little bit and was passing Doornbos in turn four, got underneath him and he just lost the car and got into us.


“Unfortunately, we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s a product of starting back there. If qualifying hadn’t been cancelled, we wouldn’t have been back there. We were looking forward to a really good day for ABC Supply and I think we were really going to have a good day.


“We had a good weekend going. The best practice times and the best speed I’ve had all year turning left on an oval has been with this team, it’s been fun. I’ve had a good time this weekend. It’s a bummer to be out on the first lap. I feel bad for all the guys ‘cause they worked real hard. We’ll just have to get them at Richmond.”


Dario Franchitti won the event which was slowed for accidents four times involving seven cars. Second through fifth were Ryan Briscoe, Hideki Mutoh, Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon.


The next race for the IndyCar Series is this coming Saturday night under the lights at the ¾ mile Richmond International Raceway. The race will be televised on VERSUS starting at 8pm ET.
 

Qualifying Cancelled for Iowa Corn Indy 250

NEWTON, IA June 20, 2009--Qualifying for the Iowa Corn Indy 250 was cancelled today due to moisture problems with the track's surface in turn four. Weeper holes allowed ground water to rise to the track's surface causing an unsafe condition. The grid will be set according to entrants' points. Ryan Hunter-Reay will start 17th in the ABC Supply Honda/Dallara/Firestone car. He will be the third different driver in the No. 14 since Vitor Meira was injured at Indy.

Notes & Quotes: Iowa Corn Indy 250


• Ryan Hunter-Reay on Iowa: “The key to Iowa Speedway is getting your car balanced so that it works in both the low and high grooves. The track is only 7/8 of a mile but it races like a 1.5 mile track because of the banking; so in that sense you approach it the same as you would a 1.5 mile track only with more downforce [because of the larger wings]. The traffic situation at Iowa can be pretty straightforward as long as you can run both grooves. But if you can only run one groove then you’re at the mercy of the other driver’s line—so how well you can handle it depends on the balance that you get in your car.”


• Vitor Meira Update: Vitor Meira is continuing to recover in his Key Biscayne, FL home. He has not used pain medication since June 4th and an x-ray taken on Wednesday, June 10th revealed his healing is progressing as his doctors anticipated. Meira: “All I’m trying to do now is to get better soon, so my day and tasks are built all around my getting better. This means a lot of light workout and rest... it’s not very exciting but it is the fastest way to get back to the car!” Currently Meira spends 20 minutes in the morning on his bike followed by time on his steering machine to maintain his arm strength. After a light lunch, he will spend another 20 minutes on the bike followed by a 30 minute walk, usually with his Mini-Schnauzer ‘Quattro.’ And to exercise his mind? He finished a 2000-piece Ravensburger puzzle entitled New Wonders of the World. Meira: “I have a lot of free time!”


• Hunter-Reay on joining a new team: “I’ve definitely become accustomed to joining new operations so I’m getting good at it. I hope to bring some stability to the ABC Supply/Foyt program until Vitor returns as well as do some on-track development and hopefully get the next breakthrough performance.” [Challenges?] “The biggest challenge is to establish the communication. You’re starting fresh with a new engineer and crew chief and that usually takes a couple days but we have to do it more quickly because it’s a race weekend. But we’ve all [meaning himself and the Foyt team] worked with new situations before so I think we can make the most of it. We’ll be building the communication over the weekend so with every lap and every session, it’ll get better and better. We just have to take it one step at a time.”
 

• ABC Supply roofing customer, Nelson & Son Siding of LeClaire, IA won the ‘Your Name Here’ contest for the Iowa Corn Indy 250. The company name will be atop the sidepods of the No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda. Ryan Nelson will receive selected merchandise, race tickets, hospitality and garage passes, plus a Meet and Greet with Ryan Hunter-Reay. The “Your Name Here” promotion selected winners by random drawing from a pool of entries sent in by ABC Supply customers earlier this year.


• ABC Supply will entertain over 300 guests in their hospitality tent this weekend.


• Iowa Connections: Housby, an associate sponsor of the No. 14, is based in nearby Des Moines. Since 1969, Housby has been known for the quality of the new and used trucks they sell as well as their excellent customer service. Founder Jack Housby, a former NASCAR driver and team owner, started out Housby as a Mack Truck dealership and with the help of his sons Kevin and Kelly, has grown it into a business conglomerate offering multiple services to its customers.


• The Iowa Corn Indy 250 will be shown live at 1:00 p.m. ET Sunday, June 21 on ABC-TV.


• For more information on the Foyt Racing program, please check our web site: www.ajfoytracing.com.