 Race
Report: Nashville
LEBANON, Tenn. July 12, 2008—“Darren, you drove the
best race on an oval track that I’ve seen you drive in the
last two years,” said ABC Supply team owner A.J. Foyt to
Darren Manning after the Firestone Indy 200 was halted at
171 laps due to rain at Nashville Superspeedway.
Manning finished ninth for his second top-10 finish in a
row.
“The ABC car was good from the first lap because I could
overtake cars on the start and get pretty close to the top
10,” said Manning. “Track position was everything. The
backmarkers were racing us all night, which hurt us but our
car was racy. On our last stop, the guys did a great job
with the quickjack when the airjack failed. We only lost to
Buddy (Rice). We thought about staying out but if we had, it
probably wouldn't have rained. We'll take this top 10.”
However, a top-10 finish seemed remote at the start when the
airjack failed as the team was doing a pre-race check in the
pitbox about 30 minutes before the start. The crew
determined that the return spring had broken, preventing the
jack to return when the airjack was released. There wasn’t
enough time to do a proper repair, so the crew jury-rigged a
fix with a bungee cord and a couple of pins. Hoping that it
would hold, they were nevertheless prepared to use the
manual jack if they had to.
Manning had qualified 18th in the 24-car field but he was on
the charge right from the start, quickly moving into 14th. A
crash on lap three when Marco Andretti spun and collected a
hapless Ryan Briscoe, moved Manning to 12th. He was still in
12th when he pitted on lap 59. The pitstop under green saw
Manning leave in 7.89 seconds—the “fix” had worked.
Manning worked his way into 10th by lap 71 and was never out
of the top 10 afterwards. The second stop, conducted under
yellow (brought out by Ryan Hunter-Reay hitting the wall),
was 8.15 seconds and Manning went in and emerged in eighth
place.
He was running eighth when he attempted to lap some
backmarkers but passing on the one groove track was very
difficult and he lost time when the backmarkers blocked his
attempts to pass several times.
Rain brought out a caution yellow on lap 139 which lasted 12
laps. The team debated about pitting but decided to do so
when nearly all of the leaders pitted. The decision proved
fateful as it was on this stop that the airjack failed,
causing the crew to do it manually. The long stop dropped
Manning from eighth to ninth. Had they stayed out, they
might have had another top-five finish because the rain came
again on lap 166 and the race was red-flagged after 171
laps.
“I was tempted to gamble and have him stay out,” said Foyt
afterwards. “But the way our luck runs, the rain wouldn’t
have come until after we had pitted. We played it safe but
we came away with another top-10 so I can’t complain. It
could have been a lot worse.”
The gamble paid off for race winner Scott Dixon and teammate
Dan Wheldon who finished second by not pitting. Third
through fifth were Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan (who was
leading when he pitted) and Danica Patrick.
Manning is still 14th in the points but he is only 11 points
outside of the top 10.
The IndyCar Series heads to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course this
week for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio which will be
televised live on ABC-TV starting at 1:30 pm.
Notes & Quotes: Firestone Indy 200 at Nashville
Superspeedway
Darren Manning: No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda
· Darren Manning on momentum going into Nashville:
“Finishing second last week certainly gives our team
momentum going into Nashville. But coming back to tracks
that we raced on last year where we had good cars in the
race—like at Nashville—gives us a lot of confidence too. We
have a great starting point for this track. We’re always
learning though--we learned things at Watkins Glen that
might relate to Nashville. It bodes well for the future but
we want it to happen faster. We’re getting better on the
ovals but we haven’t had the results to prove it yet.”
· Manning on racing at Nashville: “Nashville is a
tough track to get handling on so knowledge of the track is
invaluable. I think that will work to our advantage this
weekend. We have to be aware of the guys who are struggling
and steer clear of them. Like at Richmond, some of these
guys don’t think about getting to the last pitstop and
racing hard from there, consequently, they never make it to
the last pitstop. That way of racing is completely alien to
me. You need to have patience.”
· Watkins Glen performance: Darren Manning posted a
career-best performance when he finished second in the
Camping World Grand Prix at the Glen after starting eighth.
It was also the best performance for the ABC Supply team on
the Glen’s 3.3-mile circuit. “This strong finish doesn’t
surprise me because we’ve proved it to ourselves every now
and then but it’s nice to validate it on a weekend like this
to everyone else,” said Manning. A.J. Foyt said, “I think
Darren drove one of his best races since he started driving
for me last year. He and my team did a great job. I’m proud
of all of them.”
· Mecklenburg Roofing Co. of Ft. Mill, S.C. is this
weekend’s winner of the ABC Supply Your Name Here Promotion
for its customers. The company name will be put on the top
of the sidepods of the No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda.
Myron Ray and a guest will receive selected merchandise,
race tickets, hospitality and garage passes, plus a Meet and
Greet with A.J. Foyt and 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.
· Past performances at Nashville: The Foyt team’s
best finish at Nashville to date is the ninth place finish
Darren Manning garnered last year. Their best start is 10th
with Donnie Beechler in 2001. The Foyt team had a
particularly rough year in 2002 when all three of its
cars—driven by Airton Dare, Greg Ray and Eliseo Salazar—were
eliminated due to accidents.
Darren Manning finished fourth at Nashville in 2004 and was
eliminated in 2005 in an accident with Tony Kanaan who was
trying to put a lap on Manning. Manning placed 20th after
starting ninth.
The No. 14 ABC Supply car will carry an in-car camera during
the Firestone Indy 200, which will be shown live at 8:00
p.m. eastern time Saturday evening, July 12th on ESPN.
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