Matos Captures Firestone Victory Ahead Of Antinucci At Glen
Jul 06, 2008
Ron McQueeney/IMS
Matos won Race 1 by 2.1290 seconds over Antinucci, passing pole sitter Franck Perera on Lap 3 and leading the final 26 laps.
Antinucci came back to win Race 2 after starting from the fifth position. He passed teammate Ana Beatriz on Lap 10 and led the final 20 laps.
The two podium finishes for Antinucci vaulted him into first place in the point standings, while Matos, who finished second in Race 2, moved into second. Dillon Battistini, who entered the weekend as the points leader, finished 17th and 20th and dropped to third in points.
CORNING DUELS RACE 1 POST-RACE QUOTES:
RAPHAEL MATOS (No. 27 Automatic Fire Sprinklers, Inc., first): “I knew I had to get by Franck (Perera) in the beginning of the race because he was running more downforce than me. That was definitely the most important pass. It worked out pretty well, and I was able to get by him. At the end of the race, my car was good enough that I could make a big enough gap so I was comfortable in the lead, and I could bring the AFS/Andretti Green Racing car to victory lane. ”
RICHARD ANTINUCCI (No. 7 Lucas Oil/Sam Schmidt Motorsports, second): “I like the challenge of a road course. It’s my background, and I love it. To be able to prove myself on left and right corners, not just left, is a great thing, it’s a nice break. We’re immediately back in the top two, so it kind of underlines that we’re pretty competitive on it. Matos, for most of the race was more competitive than us, and that’s about as good as we could have gotten. We almost got the lead up the hill in the first lap. So we really made our race in the first lap, knowing it was going to be tough to pass. And Simmons is a very good driver, he’s a professional and had pretty good speed. So we probably finished up where our speed reflected. I don’t know if we did the fastest lap of the race, but we were probably pretty close at the end there. ”
JEFF SIMMONS (No. 2 TMR-Xtreme Coil Drilling, third): “We were trying as hard as we could to win this race. Maybe the last lap or so we kind of backed off just a little bit to try to take care of the car. There was no reason to push it, we had a big gap where we were. I’m a little disappointed. I thought we’d be a little more competitive than that. I didn’t think I drove the best race, and the car was difficult to put in a consistent lap. But all in all, it’s a podium finish and we got some good points. Unfortunately, the two guys that finished ahead of us are already ahead of us in the points. Hopefully we’ll get a good chance in the second race, try to get the car a little better, and do a better job. ”
ANA BEATRIZ (No. 20 Healthy Choice/Sam Schmidt Motorsports, fourth): “It was a very good race, a crazy race in the beginning. Everybody was spinning, and people were just too anxious about it. We had a lot of yellow flags after that. I was cautious because the track doesn’t have the best grip, and it was hard to get a lot of good laps. I think I was a little bit faster than Simmons in the beginning, but I couldn’t overtake him, and after that he was just a little bit faster than me. But it was a fair race. There was a little gap between everybody, and we didn’t have much fight in the front. I think the second race will be more. ”
PABLO DONOSO (No. 22 TMR-Cristal-Xtreme Coil Drilling, fifth): “It’s good, it’s not bad. We’re improving. This is my second consecutive fifth-place, so it’s not bad. The team is working hard and the team is on the podium, so we’re happy. I think we have a good chance to finish on the podium (in the second race). We’re going to try to finish in the top five again and try to move up in the championship. I think we have a good car.”
