DREYER & REINBOLD RACING QUALIFIED FOR THE FIRESTONE INDY 300
Homestead, Florida (October 9, 2009)- Dreyer & Reinbold Racing qualified
for the Firestone Indy 300 in Homestead, Florida today. The team's
drivers Tomas Scheckter (No. 43 MonaVie), ,Milka Duno (No. 23 CITGO),
and Mike Conway (No. 24 Roll Coater), qualified 12th, 17th, and 20th
respectively.
Working to find the right speed for today's session, Tomas Scheckter
qualified 12th for tomorrow's race. This weekend marks his ninth start
for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and his sixth time to compete at
Homestead-Miami Speedway. He has had much success at the 1.5 mile oval,
in 2005 he started on pole driving for Panther Racing and his best
finish was fifth in 2004. He has started and finished no worse than 11th
in five starts at the track. He has had eight career pole positions, all
of which were on ovals (2002-Texas 1,Kansas, Michigan; 2003-Texas 1,
Michigan; 2005-Homestead, Texas, Nashville). He has also won twice, both
on ovals (Michigan, 2002; Texas, 2005). His best result this season was
sixth at Iowa. He also finished an eighth place at Chicagoland Speedway
making it his second top-10 finish this season.
Today marks Englishman, Mike Conway's first time to qualify at
Homestead-Miami Speedway. The rookie will start 20th on the grid
tomorrow. To date he has made it into the fast six twice on road courses
(Watkins Glen and Toronto) and his best qualifying position on an oval
has been 11th (Milwaukee and Richmond). Conway's best results on a road
course were sixth and third (Watkins Glen and Sonoma) and on an oval was
eighth in Iowa. Conway continues to gain confidence and looks forward to
the final race of the season tomorrow.
Milka Duno has shown a lot of speed and improvement. Today was a matter
of finding the right balance and getting the setup correct and they did
just that. She will start 17th on the grid for tomorrow's race. Duno
will be making her second appearance at Homestead-Miami Speedway. She
finished 20th in her first start at the track in 2008.
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing will be on track for the Firestone Indy 300 at
Homestead-Miami Speedway on October 10th. The race will be telecast live
in HD at 4 p.m. (ET) October 10th by VERSUS. The race will air live on
the IMS Radio Network, XM channel 145 and Sirius channel 211. The radio
broadcast also will be carried on www.indycar.com.
What they had to say--
Mike Conway, No. 24 Roll Coater: "Qualifying wasn't that good for us.
We struggled a little bit in practice today and we weren't sure what to
expect. We just need to work hard during the race. With it being the
last race of the season we need to give it all we've got, work hard
tonight and bring the car home with a good result tomorrow."
Milka Duno, No. 23 CITGO: "The car was good and I think we had a pretty
good qualifying. We also learned a lot today and the team gave me a
great car, so it was a good combination. I drove the car and they gave
me the car and I put it together.
Tomas Scheckter, No. 43 MonaVie: "The car was good and I think we could
have done just a little bit better, but I think we got the maximum out
of it. My MonaVie crew did a great job again. We have a ton of people
coming tomorrow and I'm really excited about that. The race is a whole
other story for us and we just need to work on it tonight."
-credit: drr
