Graham Rahal, No. 02 McDonald’s Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “At the start I saw Moraes coming and I said ‘Forget it, I’m just going to let him go around rather than get hit.’ He and his teammate collected each other anyway so that helped. I really just wanted to make it through the first lap so I thought losing a position or two was better than getting taken out again. I saw Moraes really early pull to the inside, and he wasn’t on me but I didn’t want to see last year happen again. Then after that I was just conserving fuel and I felt like we were one of the guys that went the longest. And then we pitted a little bit early on the second stop to try and get out from behind Wheldon. Then we put the black’s on at the end and the car felt diabolical for the first 15 or 20 laps. We started to get it cured a little bit by using my bars and with the tires wearing it helped out a little bit but I just never quite had the pace that I did on the reds. I wish I had the reds there at the end to try and challenge PT (Paul Tracy) because he didn’t look too strong at the end either.”
· FAST FACTS: Rahal has earned two podium finishes in four Edmonton events. Was his third major open wheel race here and fourth 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 for NHLR. In 2008 he started eighth and was hit on the opening lap by Moraes which damaged his right rear pushrod and forced multiple stops. On Lap 61, he was hit by Viso, who had to serve a drive through penalty for avoidable contact. Retired in 26th place…Highest start this season is two poles (St. Pete/street & Kansas/oval) and highest finish is third place at Richmond…Is ranked 10th in series points with 235.
Robert Doornbos, No. 06 Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We had a good start. Coming out of the chicane I had good momentum building up and I was in the middle of a sandwich between PT and Matos, I think, and I managed to outbreak two cars so that was good and I just slotted in line and had a good first lap. So I was following Graham and saving fuel and trying to think of some strategy, hoping for some yellows but nothing happened so we just started running on higher fuel maps and pushing to try to keep the position. We had a good first stint and we were pushing with both cars and at the pit stop everything went well and I got out I got held up a bit and that’s when I lost track position with the train of cars in front of me. There wasn’t much action going on because there was no one for me to race nearby. It was fun, it was a hard race for P9 but we brought both cars back home in the top-10 which is good for now. We’ll just work harder to close the gap to the top teams. Near the end I had to let Power by but it was good to see the Penske pace and to see that we could follow them and drive the same lap times and that was quite positive.”
· FAST FACTS: Was his second race here and only third track so far this season that he has raced on previously. He entered the 2007 Edmonton race weekend as the CCWS points leader. Started 11th and was in 9th place when contact with Tagliani on Lap 69 in Turn 1 dropped him one lap down. Finished 11th…Highest start this season is second at his oval debut in Kansas and highest finish is 9th in Long Beach, Richmond and Watkins Glen… Is ranked 12th with 197 points and regained the lead in the Rookie of the Year standings to Matos (197-194).
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