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Ana Beatriz Scores a Podium in Race Two; Controversy Surrounds Championship
With just a handful of laps remaining, Antinucci was running in fifth with Matos in sixth. Coming out of the esses, Antinucci took the inside line heading into the chicane with Matos going to the outside. Antinucci made it cleanly through the chicane while Matos drove through the dirt. This enabled him to stay close to Antinucci out of the exit, and heading into the final hairpin, his car ran into the back of Antinucci’s car. Antinucci’s rear tires came off the ground and sent him off line, but luckily, he managed to save the car and finish the race, even though he lost two positions.
After the race, no penalties were handed down to either driver. With that, Antinucci will trail Matos by three points heading into the season finale at the Chicagoland Speedway.
Besides Antinucci’s drama, new-comer Jonny Reid faced a bit of adversity himself. During the latter half of the race, he was in a tight battle with Robbie Pecorari. Pecorari ran into the back of Davison, and the ensuing damage actually removed the valve stem from Reid’s tire, forcing him to pit with a flat. The time it took to limp back to the pit and make the change cost him a lap, and he ended up finishing 19th in the race — not the result he was on pace to bring home considering he ran as high as ninth.
James Davison also saw a bit of action from his view in the field. Right at the start, he had to avoid a flipping Mitch Cunningham. As was the case with many others, track position basically determined his outcome in the race as passing proved to be difficult. His 13th-place result was not indicative of the pace he was showing compared to those running up front. The qualifying result he had handicapped him all weekend.
The quietest race came from the team’s highest finisher — Ana Beatriz. She was passed on the start by Logan Gomez but ran consistently in fourth through the whole race. Late in the event, third-place Daniel Herrington had a problem, allowing Beatriz to move past for the last spot on the podium. With her third-place result, she moved back into the third spot in the points standings.
The ESPN2 HD replay of the Infineon doubleheaders can be seen on Thursday, August 28th at 5 p.m. ET.
From here, the Firestone Indy Lights Series will have a weekend off before its season finale at the Chicagoland Speedway. Practice begins on September 6 with the race taking place on September 7 at 12:30 p.m. ET with live coverage on ESPN2.
QUOTES
#7 LUCAS OIL/Sam Schmidt Motorsports Driver Richard Antinucci
"All of the opposition is very difficult this year to pass. Everyone was stationary, and we're all having control gaps. There was a DNF car in the middle of Turn 8, and he was on line, so we all got a little bunched up. I chose my line from the beginning. In the backstraight, (Raphael) Matos went to the outside and cut the track, so he came out right behind by cutting the track. That's how he gained the advantage. I chose the inside from the beginning, knowing that he was right on my tail and I would get passed. I can't bank on having the race review that later on so I defended my position from the inside, and he choose the outside and then back inside and just lifted me in the air and pushed me off. I lost two places. I'm OK, a little bruised but I'm OK."
#11 LIFELOCK/Sam Schmidt Motorsports Driver James Davison
“Well, once again, I was caught up in an incident at the start with Mitch Cunningham flipping in front of me. I had to check up, and I got swarmed by four or five cars. From there onwards, it’s just impossible to pass. All throughout the field, it was just so difficult to pass. No one could move forward, really. Basically, it was another consequence from not starting up front. It’s not the result I wanted or needed, but I look forward to Chicago where I know I’ll be strong and get another strong result that the team deserves.”
#20 HEALTHY CHOICE/Sam Schmidt Motorsports Driver Ana Beatriz
"It was a good race. Unfortunately, during the restart I was a little bit stuck behind (Pablo) Donoso. It was so hard to pass, but when someone made a mistake you could pass, and we got another podium. It's fantastic. I'm really thankful for my Healthy Choice Sam Schmidt crew. They worked really hard this weekend. I don't know what happened behind us, but I hope we can still fight for the championship."
#77 LUCAS OIL/Sam Schmidt Motorsports Driver Jonny Reid
"We really improved the car from race one to race two. Every time we went out, we improved it a little bit. The conditions were changing a fair bit as well during the weekend with the different rubbers, going from morning to the afternoon. We were running well in race two. We were on the same pace as (Franck) Perera and those guys that qualified up further. The problem is, you just can’t pass. It was just so difficult with the lack of aero you have when following other cars. Unless someone made a mistake, it was pretty much sit in there. Some of the guys were a bit optimistic, the likes of Robbie Pecorari who sort of took me out. I was braking really late all the time during the race because the car was strong in braking areas. He just sort of ran up the back of me. His wing hit my right rear rim which broke the valve out which destroyed my race because I had to pit for a flat tire. We ended up finishing way down the order. The result wasn’t we were capable of, but it was definitely an experience, and one that I’ll learn from.”
