Graham Rahal, No. 02 McDonald’s Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I just don’t think that oval racing can get any more exciting than that. The McDonald’s car was really good tonight. And if people aren’t impressed with that race I don’t know what will impress them. Chicago will be better because you can run three wide but the amount that we ran three wide in the last two stints of this race I think I passed more guys – both ways, forward and back – than I have in my whole oval racing career so I think that says a lot. The cars were very comfortable to run side by side so I think they’ve done a very good job with the technical changes. People can say what they want about Push to Pass but I was on it the last 10 laps and I came from a second back of those guys to get past the Ganassi guys so I would have to say that it works somewhat. They were dicing it out up front but certainly the McDonald’s car was very good tonight and when we were on the button we were catching up so it works.”
· FAST FACTS: Was his second race here. He started 20th and ran as high as 12th in the opening laps before gearbox failure ended his race after 28/200 laps and he retired in 25th…Highest start this season is two poles (St. Pete/street & Kansas/oval) and highest finish is third place at Richmond…Is ranked 9th in series points with 265.
Robert Doornbos, No. 06 Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I had a great start; I was on it. Then my teammate cut me off going into Turn 1 and I had to check up and a couple of cars passed me. I fought my way back to the front and the car was getting better and better throughout the race and then we had a pit problem with the right rear tire that managed to take 10 laps and that was it.”
· FAST FACTS: Was his second race here. He started 20th and ran as high as 12th in the opening laps before gearbox failure ended his race after 28/200 laps and he retired in 25th…Highest start this season is second at his oval debut in Kansas and highest finish is 9th in Long Beach, Richmond, Watkins Glen and Edmonton… Is ranked 15th with 209 points and leads the Rookie of the Year standings by one over Matos (209-208).
