LAKE, Wis. – As he crossed the line with 10 laps remaining at Road America, Simon Pagenaud thought he had the Kohler Grand Prix under control. It just amazed me how many people are here, and how much fun they are having.
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Those extra “push-to-pass” fuel boosts that Power had saved came in handy late in the race.
“You have to choose where you want your vehicle to be good because you’re not going to have it good in every corner”, Kanaan said. “I feel pretty silly for doing it, but that happens sometimes”, Newgarden said after qualifying.
“Good day for us”, Rahal said.
“You know, I know they probably exaggerated numbers in the early days, but I talked to a couple of my board of directors, and this is likely the largest event ever hosted by Road America, so that’s really something”, Bruggenthies said. “It’s not your program, so you’re just trying to bring your experience. and be a benefactor”. “But overall I think it’s close”.
“So it’s very satisfying because I’m back where I was, and that’s a good feeling for me”.
The IndyCar drivers will have a practice session August 27 earlier in the day and an autograph session before completing the race. It’s a two-turn twist in the middle of the 4-plus mile road course that leads cars into another slight bend called the “Kink”. I wasn’t going to let it go on the restart. I think we have some more work over the weekend trying to get the performance where we need to from a auto standpoint.
Medical personnel evaluated Newgarden after the first practice run on Friday at Road America. “We closed the gap any time we needed to, but he just had that little advantage every time because he was in the lead”.
“I loved it”, Kanaan said in his post-race interview. We were on used reds and we were getting incredible fuel mileage, and it was looking like it was going to be a real good fight. If you don’t go there, you’re never going to experience, and this place didn’t let us down.
“It’s a real bummer; the vehicle was so fast”. “It is what it is and we still came out of here third”. “There could be a 100-point swing in the final race”. In 2006 there was an 11th hour revival of the race just as the season began, and the race continued until it was one of the races dropped during the Champ Car/IRL reunification. I showed up here on Thursday and this place was packed. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted make sure I was able to race here”. Takuma Sato, Alexander Rossi, Max Chilton, Sebastien Bourdais (the only active driver to have a win at the track), and Juan Montoya.
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Not enough, apparently, to keep the right-handed Newgarden from an autograph session in between practice runs to sign copies of a new children’s book, “Josef, the Indy Car Driver”.
