Neither is Simon Pagenaud, who qualified fourth. Graham Rahal, who trails Montoya by 34 points, will start sixth. It was an electric feeling for everyone.
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As a result, Dixon will start ninth and Castroneves 15th, a big setback for their title chances.
Dixon had a fast auto, but couldn’t put together a clean qualifying lap.
“We were riding bikes last week when we saw this, and he was inspired by it and he wanted to draw something and bring it here and just sort of show some respects and say some final goodbyes”, added Jeff Lund. Keep doing your thing, enjoy it, love it. I think racers all feel like that universally.
Letterman is part owner of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and the team goes into Sunday’s season finale at Sonoma Raceway thick in the championship hunt.
But the mourning has continued, and there was a poignant moment earlier Saturday when Roger Penske was inducted to the Sonoma Raceway Wall of Fame.
The family requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Wilson Children’s Fund, care of IndyCar.
Asked whether he felt he made a difference in helping the family, the team and the community moved forward, Servia said this weekend was a necessary first step. “We lose a great friend and a competitor, and we need to honor him also”.
The Fast Six included four of the six eligible championship contenders.
Sunday’s race is worth double points, so Montoya’s 34-point lead over Graham Rahal isn’t exactly secure. “We finish third, fourth, fifth (in the race), it becomes obviously a bit more hard because you’re banking on Juan finishing 12th or worse”.
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While cars are on the track, red LEDs indicate the position in the race. He was never scheduled to race Sunday for Chip Ganassi Racing. A text exchange with Stefan Wilson on Thursday also boosted his spirits. A study by the raceway found that 85 percent of motorists traveling those two highways during peak race entry and exit times were not attending the event. “But because of the serious nature of what we’re trying to do here, my vote would be for Justin because he represents the drivers the best”. “At the same time, everybody is out here to compete”. When I received a text message later saying that Justin’s arms were on his head and everything, I thought, He’s gonna be OK. When he came to Nashville in late July, gear problems sent him to the garage and he finished 18th out of 24 drivers in a race shortened by 39 laps due to rain. Tribute t-shirts and decals featuring his helmet and the hashtag #BADASSWILSON will also be available at Sonoma this weekend and online at http://shop.ims.com/indycar/drivers/justinwilson. “I just knew what Josef’s time was and needed to beat that”. I’m not going to pay much attention to what’s going on with my fellow contenders, which include two of my teammates: Juan Pablo and Will Power, who is just ahead of me in third place.
