Pocono INDYCAR 400 Fueled by Sunoco – Pocono Raceway
IZOD IndyCar Series
RACE NOTES/QUOTES – July 7, 2013
JAKES FINISHED 12TH IN THE POCONO INDYCAR 400 FUELED BY SUNOCO AND RAHAL FINISHED 18TH
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Midas / Big O Tires Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I’m very disappointed. There were times today when I thought our car was very competitive and really good and unfortunately we just never had the speed to make the most of that. It seemed like we were down on a little power and to be honest we were having to take a little more extreme measures with the downforce levels to try to make up for it. At the end we trimmed enough to where the rear tires were going off on me. We also got unlucky too with the first yellow. When the first yellow came out, the leaders had just pitted in front of us as we did so everybody else, in effect, got an entire lap lead on us and we weren’t going to make up 50 seconds no matter what. We reached our mileage minimum on the motor and will have a fresh one when we go to Toronto.”
JAMES JAKES, No. 16 Acorn Stairlifts Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “To be honest, it (the car) was better than I expected. We made some great improvements overnight. There is still work to do but considering how much we struggled generally, the car was good and we were able to trim out during the race. It’s a shame we are not starting the weekend now but we’ll move on. I’m looking forward to Toronto. Obviously we had a good result in Detroit, the last street race, so we’re excited to get to Toronto.”
RLL RACING AT POCONO RACEWAY: This will be the first event for RLL at Pocono Raceway but team co-owner Bobby Rahal competed at Pocono Raceway eight times between 1982-1989 and earned one win (1988), three podiums (3rd – 1982, 1984) and six top-five’s in addition to leading 131 laps.
NEXT UP: The series will return to action next weekend for the Honda Indy Toronto. The team has competed in Toronto 13 times in Indy car competition as well as two Atlantic Series races (2003 and 2004). The team earned a total of four second place finishes (Rahal 1992, 1994, 1995; Michel Jourdain Jr. 2003) and best start was pole in 1992 by Bobby Rahal. The team has earned five podiums (3rd – Rahal 1996), 9 top-five’s and 17 top-10 finishes at the track. Sato started and finished ninth in Toronto last year after running as high as fourth with RLL.
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