NOTES & QUOTES: Iowa Corn Indy 250 at Iowa Speedway

Takuma Sato and the ABC Supply/AJ Foyt Racing team are in their first season together. Sato is making his fourth start at Iowa Speedway. Following his 7th place finish (after starting 15th) at The Milwaukee Mile last weekend, he is fourth in the IZOD IndyCar Series standings.

• Takuma Sato On:

o Iowa Speedway: “It’s one of my favorite tracks. We didn’t have a good race there last year but I am looking forward to coming back. It is just 18 seconds per lap and has lots of cornering. With the current spec of less downforce, it’s getting more challenging. Hopefully we can get it right.”

o How tough physically Iowa Speedway is: “It's a very physical track, actually the most physical oval track I have known. Because you have high downforce aero, you get a lot of grip. With it being a high-banked track, there’s even more grip so the car runs very fast in the quite tight corner. It pulls over 5Gs during cornering which is very high. So it requires high stamina from the driver and is especially demanding because of the steering effort required.”

o The key setup for the race: “It’s pretty much the same as usual; the car needs good stability but we have to keep minimizing the scrub. We are using the road-course type of high downforce aero package with a traditional oval mechanical set-up, so it's kind of a combination of the two which we have to find a good balance from it.”

o Why Iowa Speedway is one of his favorite tracks: “Like any other short oval, the driver needs to drive so hard from wall to wall. I have really enjoyed this track from my first visit to it. I find the racing very exciting. It's a great, fun track.”

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Race Report: Milwaukee IndyFest

MILWAUKEE June 15, 2013—Oh what could have been!

Piloting the No. 14 ABC Supply Honda, Takuma Sato was the class of the field for most of the Milwaukee IndyFest but an untimely yellow flag cost him a chance at victory at The Milwaukee Mile Saturday afternoon.

Sato started 15th and dropped back at the start letting the engineers know that the car was loose or suffering from oversteer. When the yellow came out on lap 21 for Simona DeSilvestro’s contact with the Turn 4 wall, Sato pitted on lap 23 to make a wing adjustment and take on fresh tires. The adjustment worked because he began slicing through the IZOD IndyCar field, and by lap 69, he had taken the lead for the first time.

Sato drove away from the field and even after pitting on lap 91, he was in command again by lap 100 of the 250-lap race. He pulled away from all challengers and wasted no time regaining the lead after another stop on lap 157. He was dominating the competition running high or low, whatever he needed to do to get around traffic. The car appeared to be hooked up on rails.

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Qualifying Report: Milwaukee Indyfest

MILWAUKEE June 14, 2013--Takuma Sato will start 15th in the ABC Supply Honda/Dallara in tomorrow’s Milwaukee IndyFest at the Milwaukee Mile.

This is the best starting position for the No. 14 car since Darren Manning qualified 15th in 2007—but back then there were only 18 cars competing instead of the 24 that will be racing tomorrow. Sato posted a two-lap combined speed average of 168.0mph.

“Milwaukee is always an exciting track, you really drive hard from wall to wall and are absolutely on the limit and that’s what happened in qualifying today,” said Sato. “We had a reasonably good car in practice and made good progress and was able to clock my personal fastest lap in qualifying in lap one but unfortunately I had a little push on the last corner, got up in the grey and I had to lift off the throttle to save it which cost us a little bit. So where we are is a little bit disappointing but I think we have a good car in traffic. Let’s hope we have a strong race tomorrow.”

A.J. Foyt, who is not here this weekend due to problems with his leg (which he is getting checked out on Monday), watched the qualifying show from his home in Houston. He was impressed with ‘the save’ by Sato on his second lap, saying, “He did a good job to keep it off the wall, a real good job!”

Marco Andretti won the Verizon P-1 Pole Award with a speed average of 170.5mph in his Chevrolet-powered car. Rounding out the top five were James Hinchcliffe, Will Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay and E.J. Viso, all powered by Chevrolets.

The Milwaukee IndyFest will be televised live tomorrow starting at 4p.m. ET on the NBC Sports Channel.