Newman/Haas Racing Returns to No. 2
NHR earned its second of eight series championships to date in 1991 when Michael Andretti matched a CART-record eight wins and poles competing in the No. 2, and was rewarded with the honorary No. 1 to use the next season. Following that, Mario Andretti (1992), Sebastien Bourdais (2003, 2004), Bruno Junqueira (2005, 2006), Oriol Servia (2005) and Graham Rahal (2007) competed in a No. 2 NHR car. In total, the team has earned 20 of its 107 wins and 24 of its 109 poles running the No. 2.
Servia, driver of the Telemundo entry for NHR, will run the No. 2 beginning with the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park, April 8-10.
Servia first came to the team in 2005 as the replacement for Junqueira, who had just claimed the Champ Car points lead but suffered a season-ending injury in the Indy 500 on May 29. Servia competed in 11 of the 13 races for the team that season, which included earning his first Indy car win (Montreal) and pole (Surfers Paradise, Australia) as well as a total of seven top-three, 11 top-five and 13 top-10 finishes – all while competing in the No. 2 car.
“I am very happy about driving with the No. 2 again," said Servia. “Not only does the number represent a lot of history for the team, I had the most successful Indy car season of my career while driving the No. 2 car for the team in 2005. In addition, our new sponsor Telemundo has a television channel, Mun2, and we can do some creative promotions together."
The Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, Round 2 of the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series (IICS) season, will take place April 8-10 at Barber Motorsports Park. NHR set the fifth and seventh fastest times at the open test at this track March 14-15 with Servia and Canadian James Hinchcliffe.