Newgarden wins crash marred Freedom 100
Josef Newgarden led a Sam Schmidt Motorsports 1-2 finish in the Firestone Freedom 100 beating his teammate Esteban Guerrieri.
The victory for Newgarden, driving the No. 11 Copart/Score Big/Robo-Pong/Sam Schmidt Motorsports car, gave team owner Sam Schmidt his sixth win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in nine Firestone Freedom 100 starts.
Newgarden was the first American winner of the Freedom 100 since Ed Carpenter won the inaugural race in 2003 and leads Guerrieri in the point standings by 26 points (151-125). Victor Garcia finished third in the No. 22 TMR-Xtreme Coil Drilling car.
Results
|
Pos |
Car | Driver | Diff. | Gap | Comment |
| 1 | 11 | Josef Newgarden | –.—- | –.—- | Running |
| 2 | 7 | Esteban Guerrieri | 0.4443 | 0.4443 | Running |
| 3 | 22 | Victor Garcia | 0.8010 | 0.3567 | Running |
| 4 | 5 | Stefan Wilson | 1.3053 | 0.5043 | Running |
| 5 | 77 | Bryan Clauson | 2.0770 | 0.7717 | Running |
| 6 | 36 | Peter Dempsey | 3.1123 | 1.0353 | Running |
| 7 | 17 | Rusty Mitchell | 4.4603 | 1.3480 | Running |
| 8 | 16 | David Ostella | 5.3442 | 0.8839 | Running |
| 9 | 75 | Chase Austin | 6.1744 | 0.8302 | Running |
| 10 | 63 | Mikael Grenier | 7.4065 | 1.2321 | Running |
| 11 | 4 | Jorge Goncalvez | 6 LAPS | 6 LAPS | Contact |
| 12 | 9 | Anders Krohn | 0.0205 | 0.0205 | Contact |
| 13 | 28 | Duarte Ferreira | 11 LAPS | 5 LAPS | Contact |
| 14 | 32 | Brandon Wagner | 12 LAPS | 1 LAP | Contact |
| 15 | 2 | Gustavo Yacaman | 20 LAPS | 8 LAPS | Contact |
| 16 | 12 | Juan Pablo Garcia | 1.9981 | 1.9981 | Contact |
| 17 | 26 | James Winslow | 2.7306 | 0.7325 | Contact |
| 18 | 3 | Victor Carbone | 33 LAPS | 13 LAPS | Contact |
Race Statistics
Winner's Average Speed: 107.817
Time of Race: 55:38.9881
Margin of victory: Under caution
Cautions: 4 for 22 laps
Lead changes: 6 among 4 drivers
Lap Leaders: Newgarden 1-2, Wilson 3, Newgarden 4, Krohn 5-11, Newgarden 12, Guerrieri 13-14, Newgarden 15-40.
Point Standings: Newgarden 149, Guerrieri 125, V. Garcia 121, Wilson 121, Dempsey 111, Conor Daly 109, Grenier 102, Ostella 95, Krohn 94, Goncalvez 90.
POST-RACE QUOTES:
JUAN PABLO GARCIA (No. 12 Freightliner Team Jensen): "I saw a car spinning, braked and somebody hit me in the rear. Then I spun and hit Yacaman."
JAMES WINSLOW (No. 26 Andretti Autosport): "I came through Turn 1 and somebody had spun, I think Gustavo, perhaps five places in front of me. As I came through the corner, there was just a wall of blue smoke, so I couldn't see where to go. I tried to slow down as much as I could."
BRYAN CLAUSON (No. 77 Mazda Road to Indy/CURB Records/Sam Schmidt Motorsports): "I fell back early there and really didn't really do my job there at the beginning. I had a hard time figuring it out for a little while. I didn't have enough green flag laps to make up for those mistakes early on. All the guys on the car did a great job; I had a great race car. I made a lot of moves on the high line, but it just wasn't enough. It was a whole new ball game, a lot different than anything I've ever done. I could have done a little bit better, but all in all it was a great day." (About race-ending accident on Lap 35): "We got a big run behind the draft. It looked like the 9 car got low. Everybody just ran out of room. We were going for it." (About debut): "This is huge (finishing fifth). It's a whole new experience for me, from the starts to the restarts, to the draft, shifting in the middle of a race – that's unheard of for me. It was a lot wilder than I expected, but it was a lot of fun." (About advice from Dario Franchitti before the race): "I've been talking to Dario ever since we did the stock car stuff together with each other (with Ganassi Racing in 2008). We have a very good relationship. He told me he would come out and give me a hard time on the straightaway, and he made it happen."
CHASE AUSTIN (No. 75 Willy T. Ribbs/Starting Grid Inc./BAR): "It was pretty cool. We had little issues. The gearing was a little off, so I couldn't really pass anybody by myself. The only way I'd get to pass anybody is when they'd check up in the corner. I just kind of had to be more ballsy than they were, which worked out for the most part. The car started going away a little bit in the end before we took that right rear tire. And just the cautions hurt us a lot on the restarts. But besides that, I have to thank American Honda, because without them we wouldn't be here; Chris Miles and Willy T. for putting me in the car." (On the competition and racing): "You could kind of tell a lot of the guys who haven't run ovals that much from some that have just by how comfortable they were in race situations. Some of them were great by themselves, but as soon as you got outside or inside of them, that's when they tended to lift or something like that. I really capitalized on that, my experience from doing stuff his compared to what they have." (On his partnership with Willy T. Ribbs this week): "It's been good. It's been fun doing interviews with him. I'm just glad he gave me the opportunity."
RUSTY MITCHELL (No. 17 Motorola/Petro Comm/Skip Barber): "Well, since the league decided not to qualify, I had to start in the back. Really, I got to see the whole show. It was all right in front of me. I wish I would have had a camera on my car so everyone could have enjoyed it. You know, at one point, who would have thought at Indy you could hit the wall, you could hit a car and still make up like 10 positions. It was wild, that's for sure. Everybody was really going for it on all the restarts. It cost them, and we were able to make up some spots. If we were able to qualify, we would have been in the top three, no question."
STEFAN WILSON (No. 5 Andretti Autosport): "I'm pretty disappointed, really. I can't believe that they had us driving around under the caution for so many laps. They (Anders Krohn and Jorge Goncalvez) were in bad shape. It looked like a really bad accident. There was debris everywhere. In my opinion, they should have red-flagged it and taken time to clean the track. Instead, we just drove around wasting time. The fans didn't come out here to watch a parade of cars go around on the yellow flag. They wanted to see a race, and we never got to do it. Traditionally, this race has been won in the last 10 laps. I was biding my time, looking after my tires, and mine were looking the best of anyone out here. It was shaping up to be a good finish. If we had had a clear race and we weren't just driving around under caution, we might have won it."
PETER DEMPSEY (No. 36 Pulse/O2 Racing): "It was crazy. I got a great start, and I was up to fourth or fifth the first few laps. I was just trying to keep the car underneath me. Unfortunately, went the wrong way with the rear bar. I had too much push, and it dropped me back to 13th. Under the first yellow, I realized what I had done. After that, the car was really good. I was coming back up the field. I made a mistake under the safety car and spun and was back to the back. Then I got probably got back to sixth. This car was good. The rear tires are great but a little bit too late. There was too much safety cars for me."
DAVID OSTELLA (No. 16 Global Precast Team Jensen): "That was awesome. It was a great experience to be out there. A lot of stuff happened. I was kind of worried more about the weather because a little spit was coming down, but a big thing was tires. Tires were a huge factor for this race. We pitted for the right rear and went back out there, and I kind of got screwed with all of the yellows coming out. It happens. I think a lot of those spins and crashes were from the tires. But it was just awesome. It was a great experience out there, and I want to thank my engineer, Remi Lanteigne, for all of the work he did on that car. The car was awesome. It handled incredibly well on the high line and the low line. My crew chief, Mike Le Gallic, him and the rest of the crew did an awesome job this weekend. I had a little mishap in practice this morning, and they were able to put that car back together for the race."
MIKAEL GRENIER (No. 63 Cell Safety/O2 Racing): "In the beginning, we were good. We were headed to the front. We decided to pit and change a tire, but we mistimed it and only changed the rear right tire. I couldn't turn after that. My right front went away, and that was that. It ended up being kind of a yellow flag race. It was a bit disappointing because we had a car to get to the front. We'll just have to take it this time and do better in Milwaukee." (On racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway): "It's pretty cool. It's a pretty tough race. This is a pretty special year, and there are a lot of people here today. I think the racing here is great. I hope I can get back here next year."
ESTEBAN GUERRIERI (No. 7 Lucas Oil/Sam Schmidt Motorsports): "It was fun for a while and a bit slow the rest of the race. It was a lot of yellows, we didn't expect so many, but I'm happy to win second, of course. I had a flat tire in the end, so my last race car wasn't so aggressive. But what we we're trying to do to make a teamwork with my teammate, Josef, we try to pull away and make the gap toward the third, so then we could finish the race like me and him to race against each other. But unfortunately it wasn't like this. All the guys crashed with Josef and he was fine, and thanks to my sponsors it was a big first race in Indianapolis, and I'm really happy. Thanks to the team to Lucas Oil and all my sponsors and let's go for the next one." (About his chances if the race resumed): "Well, as I said, I was trying to pull the gap with him and then fight with him in the last lap, but I didn't see my car and my right rear tire was flat. It just lost a lot of grip in the last restart and then I when I parked I see the rear that was no grip in anymore with the flat tire. I was a bit lucky to have the safety flag there to finish the race because I don't know if I would have been able to finish if it was green all the way long."
VICTOR GARCIA (No. 22 TMR-Xtreme Coil Drilling): "I'm pretty happy to all my crew, and I have to thank all of them because although we haven't had a normal weekend, it has been really good and we finished third. I think we could have won because we had what it takes to win, but we didn't have the laps to do it. So yeah, I'm really happy."
ANDERS KROHN (No. 9 Liberty Engineering Racing Special): "It was one of those races where absolutely everything happened. We were so fast, and we took the lead. It was so easy running it up there. Then a caution came out, and I just went to go to power and the rear slide around on me. After that point, we really didn't have the speed because our tires were flat-spotted. Luckily another caution came out and we pitted for new tires, and then we were super, super quick. I think by the time our big crash happened we were up to fourth. It would have been the easiest thing to at least be on the podium or potentially win the race. I'm so disappointed for the guys at Belardi Auto Racing because we really had the fastest car today. We could run up, down low; it didn't matter. We were so fast. It's just a shame for the guys at Liberty Engineering and Logitrans that we couldn't bring it home today. At the same time, I think we've shown people where our speed is, so hopefully we can come back next year and dominate this race."
JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 11 Copart/Score Big/Robo-Pong/SSM): "This is unbelievable. Look at how fired up my team is because they have worked so hard the past two weeks on getting this car ready. This is a wonderful achievement for my team, and it means so much to me and Sam Schmidt. This race means a lot to Sam, and I am grateful to give him the victory. I think we are going to have a good shot with the Indy 500, as well. I have to thank Esteban Guerrieri for helping me the whole race. He is a great teammate to work with. The team was able to make me quick, and I got up to speed right away. It is unfortunate for my other teammates that weren't able to be up here with us, but this is just a showcase as to what this team can do and how powerful they are. This is the biggest win I think I have ever had. To win the Firestone Freedom 100 in front of this crowd at this famous racetrack is incredible. This has been a really fun experience trying to come in and absorb all of the information that my team has to offer. This has been a huge effort by everybody, and this is a win for the entire team."
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