IRL parks Milka Duno
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| Comical Ali surfaces again. Ok….so we had to have a little fun with this |
Handling issues forced an early end to IndyCar driver Milka Duno's competition in Sunday's Iowa Corn Indy 250 at Iowa Speedway. By lap 31 of the 250-lap race it was obvious that the car was just not performing as well as it had in the practice sessions leading up to the race.
In the first practice session for the race Duno was 20th quickest and she picked up four more positions in the second practice session by finishing 16th. In her warm-up qualifying lap Duno was delivering the same pace as the ultimate pole winner when the bump in turn 2 spun the car and sent Duno hard into the wall.
The team worked hard on Saturday night and Sunday morning to get Duno's car back into shape after Saturday's contact with the wall during qualifying. Late in the night a crack in the bell housing was discovered and the team fitted a new one. Without a warm-up or on track systems check on Sunday before the race, a problem with the left rear brake caliper would cause Duno's car to pull to the left. Eventually the brake failed and the handling associated with it would end what was another highly competitive weekend for Duno and the number 18 car.
"A big thanks to the crew for working so hard to repair the car in time for today's race," said Duno. "We had a really good car and it's a huge disappointment that it went hard into the wall yesterday. I can tell you that it was a very hard hit and the car was just not the same after that. I feel bad for the team because we had a good car and high hopes and its a shame that we leave here disappointed. We'll get it all sorted out and we'll be ready for Watkins Glen July 4!"
"Milka once again showed her skills at Iowa," commented team owner Dale Coyne. "Running 16th in the field of 25 in the practice session and then having the same out-lap in qualifying as pole winner Will Power showed she can really get around this place competitively."
Duno drives the #18 CITGO/CANTV car with Dale Coyne Racing Milka Duno PR
06/21/10 On Sunday at Iowa, Milka Duno was so much of a moving chicane that the IndyCar Series had no choice but to remove her from the race.
Duno crashed in qualifying and didn't post a speed and started dead last, in 25th. The 25 cars were the most cars ever entered in an IndyCar race at Iowa Speedway, a 7/8th mile track just north of Des Moines.
Pole winner Will Power's qualifying speed was just north of 181 MPH, so that meant that the field was running roughly 17 second laps, and IndyCar president of racing and competition Brian Barnhart told the field that any driver more than a second off the pace could be parked.
Duno was quickly lapped after the first caution of the day happened on lap 1, but at that point was within that barrier. However, Duno was lapped just nine laps later, meaning that in that span she was more than two seconds off the speeds that the leader was running, something incredibly dangerous for a track that size.
And to compound problems, the first time she was lapped, Duno almost wrecked the leaders. Marco Andretti was chasing down Power for the lead as they approached Duno. Duno was in the higher line, and chopped off Andretti, forcing him to slow and fall all the way back to fourth. However, as Power tried to sneak underneath, she and he touched wheels, and somehow, both drivers saved it. The second time she was lapped, Dario Franchitti had to take evasive action coming off of turn two because of how slowly Duno was running. Yahoo Sports
[Editor's Note: Milka should hang up the gloves and take the CITGO sponsorship money and become a team co-owner with Dale Coyne.]