Justin Wilson, No. 02 McDonald’s Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I think it was a very eventful race. To be out there racing in a pack of cars was fun. We had a lot of overtaking to do today. It was good. We ran in the top-10 and we were good there. When it came down to the last stint I think everyone picked up the pace and we couldn’t hang on. I’m reasonably happy with an 11th place finish. It’s been a good year for the McDonald’s team considering all of the challenges we had. (On Bombardier Rookie of the Year battle: ) I needed to finish in the top-eight based on where Mutoh was running late in the race and I was going into Turn 3 on the last restart and had gotten a good run and thought I could pass a few cars and get it but the guy in front of me (Mutoh’s teammate Marco Andretti) suddenly checked up and I was close to crashing so that let a couple more guys by me and we lost the Rookie of the Year championship because of it.”
· FAST FACTS: Was his first race here and 14th on a new track this season of 17. He tested here on Aug. 12…After being competitive on all road/street races this season, Wilson broke through to win in Detroit and became the ninth different driver to win in 2008. The mark tied the series record set in 1996/97, 2002, 2003 and 2005. Rahal (St. Pete) and Wilson are the only two “transition” drivers to have won in 2008…His highest start on an oval overall is third in Milwaukee ‘05 and highest start this season is 13th in Nashville. Highest finish on an oval overall is second in Milwaukee ‘06 and highest finish on an oval this season is seventh in Milwaukee and Richmond…Finished the 2008 season ranked 11th in series points with 340 points (-6 to Mutoh for the Bombardier Rookie of the Year honor.
Graham Rahal, No. 06 Hole in the Wall Camps Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I thought we had a very competitive car and were looking at a top-10 finish if not top-five. It was a shame things went wrong after we ran as high as fifth. At that point we had restart we were tenth and worked our way up to fifth. The car was really good and I was having a lot of fun running up front. It’s a shame it didn’t stay that way. In the end it came back to haunt us because we had problem after problem. By the time I knew Buddy (Rice) was on my outside leaving the pit box, we had already made contact. After that we were told to come in to replace the right mirror that had gotten hit earlier and had been off for a while. I was just hoping for a straightforward race and I thought that for once I might get it but I didn’t. I could run with Helio. He passed me and then I could pass him back. I could run with those guys. I think it shows we have made progress. We still need to find more speed on our own but I was pretty happy with it.”
· FAST FACTS: Was his first race here and 13th on a new track this season of 17. This is his first season to compete on an oval. His highest start this season is second on the one-mile oval in Milwaukee where he narrowly lost becoming the youngest pole winner in series history to Marco Andretti. His highest oval finish is 10th place on the. 894 mile oval at Iowa Speedway.
…In his IndyCar Series debut on a road/street course he became the youngest winner in major open-wheel racing in North America after winning in St. Pete on 4-6-08 at 19 years, 93 days old…He is ranked 17th in series points with 288 points.
· NHLR AT CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY: This was the team’s FIRST event at this track but they competed at the 1.029-mile Chicago Motor Speedway oval in Cicero from 1999-2002 with ONE win (da Matta 2002) and TWO podiums (2nd – Mi. Andretti 2000)…NHLR won their 107th event at Detroit (Wilson, 8-31-08) and their 107th pole in Long Beach at the Champ Car finale (Wilson, 4-19-08)…This is a “Home Event” for the Lincolnshire, Ill. -based team as well as for their sponsor McDonald’s that is based in Oak Brook, Ill.
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