Guerrieri beats Newgarden in 1st Edmonton Lights race
Guerrieri, driving the No. 7 Lucas Oil car, completed 36 of the scheduled 40 laps (race was on a 60-minute limit) because of three caution periods that totaled 25 minutes. Newgarden, the pole sitter and Firestone Indy Lights championship points leader by 26 over Guerrieri, finished 0.6524 of a second behind for his fifth top five of the season.
Guerrieri overtook Newgarden in Turn 5 of the first lap on the 2.24-mile, 13-turn circuit and was in command through the three restarts.
POST-RACE QUOTES:
ESTEBAN GUERRIERI (No. 7 Lucas Oil/Sam Schmidt Motorsports): "Starting from the pole has been good, but not good enough for the wins. It's not that I didn't want to win the pole today. Josef (Newgarden) was just a bit a quicker. We were both off to a very good pace from the beginning. The changes we made between practice and qualifying were done in a very short time. I saw my car 10 minutes before qualifying and it was in three pieces, so big thanks to the guys. They did a great job under pressure. Today was very much a team effort, finishing 1-2 with Josef. It was a good race today but there's another race tomorrow so we'll do the best we can."
JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 11 Copart/Score Big/Robo-Pong/SSM, finished second): "We had a really strong race, it just wasn't quite enough at the end. We have been saying points, points, points all along, so I think that is going to be the key for us to win the Championship. We came off a disappointing result in Toronto and we didn't want to see that result happen again. So coming into this weekend we had a very positive attitude still, but we are definitely focusing on points and what it takes to build those. It is definitely finishing in the top three and looking for wins along the way. I think you have to be really conservative and today we had a lot on Esteban but not quite enough to get by him. With Esteban you have to have more than a little bit to get by him. He did a good job and congratulations to him and the team. It is difficult not to have Victor up on the podium with him because he was running a really strong race but it sounds like he had a bit of a tough time with Peter (Dempsey) so that was unfortunate to see for a teammate. It would have been nice to have all three Sam Schmidt Motorsports drivers on the podium, but tomorrow is another day and hopefully we can do it then."
OLIVER WEBB (No. 12 Jensen MotorSport): "This has been a crazy week for me. We did a test at the beginning of the week and went from Munster to Atlanta to Indianapolis and Vegas then ended up here all in five days so it has been tight but I think I am learning a lot. The race was long so it gave me a change to overtake some cars and gain some positions that I needed after a bad qualifying. I qualified tenth today and I am starting fifth in tomorrow's race so that will help. The Firestone Indy Lights cars are very different from the World Series so I am still getting used to it."
Results Saturday of the Edmonton Twin 100s #1 Firestone Indy Lights Series event on the 2.224 mile Edmonton Airport Circuit, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, laps completed and reason out (if any):
1. (2) Esteban Guerrieri, 36, Running
2. (1) Josef Newgarden, 36, Running
3. (10) Oliver Webb, 36, Running
4. (12) Stefan Wilson, 36, Running
5. (16) Gustavo Yacaman, 36, Running
6. (9) Bruno Andrade, 36, Running
7. (14) Jorge Goncalvez, 36, Running
8. (11) Duarte Ferreira, 36, Running
9. (8) Daniel Herrington, 35, Running
10. (15) Stefan Rzadzinski, 34, Running
11. (4) Victor Carbone, 28, Contact
12. (3) Peter Dempsey, 27, Contact
13. (5) Anders Krohn, 25, Running
14. (6) David Ostella, 0, Contact
15. (7) Daniel Morad, 0, Contact
16. (13) Tyler Dueck, 0, Contact
Race Statistics
Winners average speed: 78.499
Time of Race: 01:01:11.7536
Margin of victory: .6425 of a second
Cautions: 3 for 9 laps
Lead changes: 0
Lap Leaders: Guerrieri 1 – 36
Point Standings: Newgarden 308, Guerrieri 280, Wilson 253, Yacaman 216, Goncalvez 207, Victor Garcia 199, Krohn 182, Dempsey 177, Ostella 176, Ferreira 175.