Race Report: Cafes do Brasil Indy 300
HOMESTEAD, FL Oct. 2—Teamwork. That’s what it took for hard
charger Vitor Meira and the ABC Supply team to post their second
best finish of the season in the final race of the IZOD IndyCar
Series at Homestead-Miami Speedway Saturday night.
From the pit strategy to the execution in the pits to Meira’s daring
drive on the track, Meira and his ABC Supply team turned a
disappointing qualifying run into a stirring race performance.
Starting 21st, Meira finished sixth in the Cafes do Brasil Indy 300
and moved up in the final IZOD IndyCar standings to finish 12th
overall.
“It’s nice to finish the year on an upbeat note for ABC Supply and
AJ Foyt Racing and myself,” said Meira afterwards. “The mechanics
did an awesome job in the pits. I think that was a race we did well
as a team. Everything was right, except the last set of tires were a
little on the iffy side. We lost a bunch there on the last stint so
I’m glad it was the last and the shortest. Everybody did a great
job—it’s good to have this feeling for the off season.”
It was the best finish for the Foyt team at Homestead-Miami Speedway
since 2001 when they finished third and for Meira since 2007 when he
finished fourth. In terms of points, it’s the best finish for the
Foyt team since finishing ninth in 2002 with another Brazilian
Airton Dare.
At the outset of the race, Meira began moving up through the field
picking off cars every several laps. When the first yellow came out
on lap 36, he’d advanced eight spots and was in 13th. During the
next stint, he complained that the car was loose in turns 1 and 2
and was pushing in turns 3 and 4. After dipping down to 16th, he
climbed back to 13th when he pitted on lap 95. The crew serviced him
in 7.08 seconds.
By lap 115, he moved into the top 10. Meira radioed in, “This set
of tires is much better so whatever we did, keep it.” Team owner A.J.
Foyt answered back, “We didn’t do anything. Firestone gave us a good
set of tires.”
The yellow came out again on lap 135 when points leader Will Power
brushed the wall which dashed his championship hopes. He finished
25th with a damaged suspension.
On lap 137, Meira came into the pits in ninth spot and came out in
seventh. While the field was still under caution, the team decided
to pit for a splash of fuel on lap 146.
Unfortunately, on that final stint, the tires on the No. 14 were not
the same as the previous set and Meira dropped back to ninth.
However, when a caution came out for debris on lap 166, Meira picked
up four spots when the leaders pitted for a splash of fuel. Because
the ABC Supply team had pitted Meira earlier, he had enough fuel to
go the distance. He gained track position over those who waited to
pit later which included pole winner Dario Franchitti.
Another yellow on lap 176 paid off for those who had gambled by not
pitting at all—Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves. Dixon won the race
over Danica Patrick, Tony Kanaan, Ryan Briscoe and Castroneves.
Had the finaI 34 laps remained green, Meira would have finished
third as only runner-up Danica Patrick and third place Tony Kanaan
were on his same fuel strategy and had the fuel to go the distance.
Franchitti, who had led 128 laps and dominated the race until he
pitted for his splash of fuel on lap 168, finished eighth. He lost
the race but won the IZOD IndyCar Series championship by not
gambling. Power trailed Franchitti by just five points. Rounding out
the top 12 in the Series were: Dixon, Castroneves, Ryan Briscoe,
Kanaan, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti, Dan Wheldon, Patrick,
Justin Wilson and Meira.
The average speed for the 200-lap race was 158.905 for winner Dixon
while Meira posted a 158.735 mph average.
The 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series begins March 27th in the Streets of St.
Petersburg.
Dario Franchitti Honored as AJ Foyt Oval Champion
HOMESTEAD, FL Oct. 1—A.J. Foyt didn’t make it to Japan to see
Dario Franchitti win the AJ Foyt Oval Championship last month. On
Friday, both Foyt and Franchitti met at the Winner’s Circle of
Homestead Miami Speedway for a formal presentation of the check and
trophy to Franchitti.
“The A.J. Foyt Trophy, I’m proud of that,” said Franchitti, who is
tied with Rodger Ward for 11th on the all-time victory list with 26.
“I'm a bit surprised. When I first came over here, I really
struggled on the ovals. So that's pretty cool. It's a great
accomplishment to share with my team.”
“He’s a super guy and a hard racer,” said Foyt, the all-time Indy
car racing winner with 67. “It’s great to see someone with his
talent win the deal because he deserved it.”
Franchitti won the Indy 500 and the race at Chicagoland and posted
four top-five finishes to clinch the inaugural title in Japan over
his teammate Scott Dixon.
Meira Disappointed; Starts 21st
HOMESTEAD, FL Oct 1—A disappointed Vitor Meira climbed out of
the cockpit of his ABC Supply Dallara/Honda after his qualifying run
this afternoon at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
He had expected so much more and with good reason. In the first
practice, Meira was ninth quick with a speed of 211.217mph, and he
was in the top seven for much of the hour. Going into qualifying, he
had expected to be in the top 10. Although he was the fifth driver
to qualify, Meira knew the run was not what he thought it would be.
He posted an average speed of 210.017 mph which put him 21st on the
grid for the final race of the season.
“A lot is about expectation, and we weren’t expecting this,” Meira
said after qualifying. “We unloaded fast and we kept going fast in
practice, all of a sudden we get to qualifying and the speed’s not
there. The car didn’t change, it’s good. We were on the bottom, on
the white line, I really can’t say much about that. We’ll see what
the set-down is and go from there. We have to focus on the race. The
race can be very tricky. It’s a very mechanical track, the tires go
away, a lot of people will fade—that’s what’s going to happen. If
the speed’s not there we have to be smarter and take advantage by
being consistent.”
Dario Franchitti won the pole with a speed of 213.187mph. With the
pole, Franchitti gained a point on IZOD IndyCar Series points leader
Will Power, narrowing the gap to 11. Rounding out the top five in
qualifying were: Scott Dixon, Power, Ryan Briscoe and Dan Wheldon.
The teams will have a final half-hour practice this evening to sort
out their race set-ups for tomorrow evening’s race. The Cafes do
Brasil Indy 300 will be televised on Versus starting at 6pm ET.
NOTES & QUOTES: Cafes do Brasil Indy 300
• Vitor Meira on Homestead-Miami Speedway: “Of all the 1.5
mile ovals, Homestead is definitely the toughest one. Mechanically,
the car has to be really sorted in the corners. The track is not
like the other 1.5 mile ovals which are tri-ovals, this track is
shaped like a paper clip. The corners are much more severe and
longer and that makes a big difference. Not only that, it has
progressive banking too. To run on the bottom where it’s faster, you
have less banking so it takes a lot of car so it’s a very tricky,
track. You need the car to turn, it’s not all about having the car
freed up and fast, it demands a lot of mechanical setup which is
grip without adding drag. Every driver is going to tell you it’s the
toughest 1.5 mile oval. From my experience, turn 3 and 4 is where
it’s at. Even if the car’s not so good in 1 and 2, it’s really not
good in 3 and 4. Always 3 and 4 are where it gets complicated. I
don’t know why, it seems like the asphalt there has much less grip.”
• Meira on testing at Homestead-Miami Speedway this past Monday:
“The test went fine. We found out the ABC Supply car handles really
well. We have to go after a little more speed. We’re going to change
engines and give the car some love. We’ll go faster because we’re
pretty well sorted mechanically.”
• Meira on last race of season: “I’m looking forward to this
race. We have some positions to gain –we’re very close to Alex
Tagliani but also the people behind us are very close to us, so
coming here to test was a huge help to finish the season well. “
• Looking forward to the off season? “Not really, luckily,
thank God I do what I love. If it was up to me, I‘d be doing it 12
months a year but I know it’s rough on everybody else. It’s rough on
me too, so a little time off would be good but not much, not much
time off at all hopefully.”
• ABC Supply roofing customer Ametco, Inc. of Lake Worth,
FL won the ‘Your Name Here’ contest for the Cafes do Brasil Indy
300. The company name will be atop the sidepods of the No. 14 ABC
Supply Dallara/Honda. Glenn Rimpela will receive selected
merchandise, race tickets, hospitality and garage passes, plus Meet
and Greets with Vitor Meira and A.J. Foyt. The “Your Name Here”
promotion selected winners by random drawing from a pool of entries
sent in by ABC Supply customers earlier this year.
• The IZOD IndyCar Series autograph session will be held
Thursday, Sept. 30th at Macy’s in the Dadeland Mall. The drivers
will be signing from 6 to 7 pm inside the Men’s Department of the
store.
• Past performance at Homestead: In four starts, Meira has
two top five finishes (2nd in 2005 and 4th in 2007) and one 10th
place finish. In 10 starts, the Foyt team (fielding two cars in
2002) has five top-10s, two of which are top-fives. Eliseo Salazar
posted the best finish for the team in 2001 with his third place
finish.
• The Cafes do Brasil Indy 300 will be shown live Saturday,
Oct. 2 on Versus starting at 6 p.m. ET.
• For more information on the Foyt Racing program, please
check: www.ajfoytracing.com.
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