|
Race Report: RoadRunner Turbo Indy 300
KANSAS CITY, KS April 27, 2008—Coming off a strong
performance in Japan, Darren Manning and the ABC Supply team
were primed for a good run at Kansas Speedway this weekend.
It was not to be.
The team never found its stride as they attempted to dial in a
set-up for the No. 14 Dallara/Honda around the 1.5 mile
high-banked superspeedway. Manning qualified the car 16th out of
27 cars.
At the drop of the green flag, he got a good run and picked up
two spots but a car spun at the tail end of the field bringing
out the yellow flag. When the race went green on lap eight,
Manning dropped back a couple positions and as the stint wore
on, the car’s handling became looser exiting the turns.
He pitted during the second caution period brought out by Will
Power’s accident on lap 23. On the lap 26 stop, the crew made
adjustments to the front wings and put on new tires with
adjusted air pressures but Manning radioed in that the car
didn’t feel much better. Three more pitstops under green with
more changes didn’t fix the car and the team decided to park it
after 77 laps. He was credited with 24th place.
“We have to look the car over pretty carefully to see if
something broke,” said team owner A.J. Foyt afterwards. “Nothing
we did made any difference so we’ll have to find out why when we
get it back to the shop.”
Outside pole sitter Dan Wheldon won the race. He was followed by
Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves and Marco Andretti.
The team heads to Indianapolis next Sunday to load in for the
month of May. Practice begins on Tuesday, May 6th with
qualifying set to start on Saturday, May 10th. The 92nd Running
of the Indianapolis 500 is set for Sunday, May 25th and will be
televised by ABC-TV, with the pre-race show starting at 12 noon.
NOTES & QUOTES: RoadRunner Turbo Indy 300
Darren Manning: ABC Supply No. 14 Dallara/Honda/Firestone
Darren Manning on Kansas: “Kansas Speedway is one of the
superspeedway tracks that I call big pack racing. Qualifying
doesn’t matter as much here because you can drop to the back and
come to the front because of the help you get in the draft. It’s
important to have a comfortable car in the race. I feel pretty
good about our car because we came away from this race last year
with a good race set-up. And after last weekend in Japan, we
learned some things that will help us here. I think you’ll see
improvement from us with every race we run this year.”
Best Finishes at Kansas: Darren Manning’s best finish at
Kansas is seventh (after starting fifth) in 2005 driving for
Ganassi. A.J. Foyt Racing’s best finish at Kansas was their
victory in 2002 with Airton Dare. Earlier that day, A.J. Foyt IV
won the inaugural Infiniti Pro Series race there.
ABC Supply roofing customer Joe Davis Roofing of Bucklin,
KS won the ‘Your Name Here’ contest for the RoadRunner Turbo
Indy 300. The company name will be atop the sidepods of the No.
14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda. The contractor will receive
selected merchandise, race tickets, hospitality and garage
passes, plus a Meet and Greet with Darren Manning. The “Your
Name Here” promotion selected winners by random drawing from a
pool of entries sent in by ABC Supply customers earlier this
year.
Last race: In the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi,
Manning started 12th and finished 8th after he had to duck into
the pits for a splash of fuel with eight laps to go. The ABC
Supply crew flew back to Indy on Monday and stayed there this
week to prepare the car for Kansas.
The RoadRunner Turbo Indy 300 will be shown live at 4:00 p.m.
eastern time Sunday, April 27th on ESPN2.
|
