During the closing stages of Friday’s Brickyard Grand Prix, Joao Barbosa kept radioing into his team asking whether or not his Corvette DP had enough fuel to finish the race.
As he watched as most of his competitors dive for pit road, doubt started creeping into his mind that a race that his team had dominated at the world’s most renowned race courses would slip away due to poor fuel mileage.
“I was saving fuel the whole time,” Barbosa said. “The end was kind of easy, but to get there was so, so hard. It was unbelievable. … I kept asking the team, ‘How are we doing on fuel? “And they said, ‘Don’t worry. Just keep doing what you’re doing. We should be fine.’”
The team was right and had calculated the fuel mileage perfectly. Barbosa, along with his Action Express Racing teammate Christian Fittipaldi, stretched the fuel just enough to claim the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Brickyard Grand Prix for the team’s second overall win of the season on the Prototype class.
Fittipaldi had a quick start to get the No. 5 Corvette into the lead after starting in fourth place. From there, he and Barbosa were able to control the pace of the race enough where the car was able to save enough fuel while never being threatened to be overtaken.
The team cruised to a nearly 50 second victory over the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates entry of Scott Pruett and Saga Karam.
The 19-year-old Karam, who normally raced for Ganassi in the IndyCar series, was a fill-in driver for the injured Memo Rojas. His run was rather impressive when considering that he found out that he would be driving the Prototype entry just four days before the race.
For Pruett, the runner-up position at Indianapolis continued the trend of heartbreakingly close attempts at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In the three years of the series running at the Brickyard, Pruett has finished second all three times.
“At least we’re consistent,” Pruett said. “We haven’t quite figured out the recipe to get on top. Hopefully next year we can do that. But couldn’t be happier to be on the podium, especially here in Indianapolis.”
In the Prototype Challenge division, IndyCar regular Jack Hawksworth was able to catch an dpass his teammate Bruno Junqueria for the class victory with only five minutes to put himself and co-driver Chris Cumming in victory lane.
Hawksworth had never previously driven a sports car race before, but was filling in for the suspended Alex Tagliani. The win served as a bit of redemption for the English driver who had seen a potential win in the IndyCar Grand Prix at Indianapolis slip away this past May.
“It was a lot of fun,” Hawksworth said. “Those last 45 minutes were some of the most fun I’ve had in a race car…To finally get a win here feels awesome. We had a great car. “
Jonathan Bomarito and Kuno Wittmer claimed first victory of the season for Dodge Viper SRT in the GT Le Mans class. Alessandro Balzan and Jeff Westphal took the GT Daytona class, beating Christopher Haase and Bryce Miller to the finish line by more than a lap in what was a dominating effort.
But the day belonged to overall race winners Fittipaldi and Barbosa who now own the lead of the championship points heading into the next race at Elkhart Lake’s Road America on August 10.
“The series is very, very competitive and really one mistake you pay with a lot of positions,” Barbosa said. “We needed everything to be perfect and that’s what we did today. We had a great race.”
Kenseth off to quick start
Matt Kenseth paced the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series field during a relatively uneventful opening practice on Friday with a lap speed of 186.285 mph.
Kenseth was one of just three drivers to run 10 consecutive laps on track in the opening session. There were a number of various strategies throughout the garage with some teams opting to run mock qualifying runs while others worked on race trim.
Kenseth said he wanted to get a hot lap in early in case of rain on Saturday in order to get a good qualifying spot if the lineup became subject to the first practice speeds.
“I feel like we’re closer than we’ve been in a long time in balance and speed,” Kenseth said after practice. “So, you know, still got a lot of work to do tomorrow, but I felt pretty good about today.”
Forty-six drivers took to the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but only 11 drivers ran 20 laps or more on the track.
The top six drivers on the speed chart represented six different teams. Clint Bowyer was second quick followed by Brad Keslowski, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Larson and Kurt Busch rounding out the top six.
Defending race winner and Purdue graduate Ryan Newman timed in at 12th fastest. Danica Patrick was 16th. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was 24th and IndyCar Series regular Juan Pablo Montoya was 28th quickest racing for Roger Penske in only his second NASCAR race this season.
