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RLR/Andersen's Herrington Qualifies Ninth;
Hildebrand to Start 13th
Saturday Night at Kentucky Speedway
SPARTA, Ky., Aug. 8 - RLR/Andersen Racing's Dallaras will both be on the
inside for the start of the 67-lap Firestone Indy Lights race Saturday night at
Kentucky Speedway. Daniel Herrington of Winston-Salem, N.C. qualified the
Andersen Racing No. 5 in ninth place Friday afternoon at the 1.5-mile trioval,
while J.R. Hildebrand of Sausalito, Calif., ended up 13th with the Palmetto,
Fla.-based team's Allied Building Products No. 25.
Herrington, who is making his first start with the team, will be on the
inside of Row 5 for the start, beside Richard Antinucci. Hildebrand, who is fourth
in the point standings going into this event, race 13 of 16 to be run this
year, will be on the inside of Row 7 beside Mike Potekhen.
The combined time of each driver's two qualifying laps counted for his or her
qualifying results. Herrington ended up with a combined time of 56.4021 for
an average speed of 188.929 miles per hour. Hildebrand's two laps took 56.5793
for an average speed of 188.337 mph.
The Firestone Indy Lights race follows the Meijer Indy 300 IndyCar event
tomorrow night. All 66,089 grandstand seats have been sold for the doubleheader.
The 24-car Firestone Indy Lights race is tentatively scheduled to begin at
9:15 p.m. Eastern time.
Following tomorrow night's race, the Firestone Indy Lights circuit moves to
Hildebrand's home track, Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., for a doubleheader
Aug. 23-24. The season finale is at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., on
Sept. 7.
The Kentucky Firestone Indy Lights race will be shown on ESPN2 on Thursday,
Aug. 14 at 2 p.m. Eastern time.
RLR/Andersen Racing is sponsored by Allied Building Products Corp. The team
is the official development team of Hilliard, Ohio's Rahal Letterman Racing.
The team's Web sites are at andersenracingteam.com and andersenracepark.com.
More information on the Firestone Indy Lights series is available at
indycar.com/lights.
Post-qualifying quotes follow:
Daniel Herrington: "It was my first time qualifying a Firestone Indy Lights
car on an oval, but it went pretty well. We learned a few things. I don't
know if I was faster on the first lap than the second or not, but it wouldn't
surprise me. On the first lap you can set it up for a good run coming out of the
last corner, so the first laps are sometimes artificially faster.
"The Andersen Racing No. 5 was a little loose on the first corner after the
green, but then it was better the rest of the way.
"The set-up for qualifying isn't even applicable for the race set-up tomorrow
since we qualified in the afternoon and tomorrow's race is at night. You need
to do pretty well in qualifying so you can run with the fastest cars during
the race, but we've been working hardest on our race set-up today. If you
don't start too far at the back, hopefully you can pass a couple cars during the
race and it'll work out. That's our plan; hopefully it will pay off tomorrow
night."
J.R. Hildebrand: "We were faster in practice; we have to figure out what
happened. The Allied Building Products car handled fine; it was just slow for
some reason in qualifying. We'll have to go over the data and see if we can find
a reason and then fix it for tomorrow."
Saturday's stats:
First Practice (10 a.m. to 11 a.m.):
1. Arie Luyendyk Jr., 27.6165, 192.928 mph
8. J.R. Hildebrand, 27.8930, 191.016 mph
15. Daniel Herrington, 28.1018, 189.596 mph
Second Practice (1:15 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.):
1. Raphael Matos, 27.8841, 191.077 mph
7. Daniel Herrington, 28.2141, 188.842 mph
20. J.R. Hildebrand, 28.3977, 187.621 mph
Qualifying (5 p.m.; total time of 2 laps counted):
1. Raphael Matos, first lap in 27.9605 (190.555 mph), second lap in 27.9460,
190.653 mph for combined time of 55.9064, 190.604 mph.
9. Daniel Herrington, first lap in 28.1565 (189.228 mph), second lap in
28.2456 (188.631 mph) for combined time of 56.4021, 188.929 mph.
13. J.R. Hildebrand, first lap in 28.2826 (188.384 mph), second lap in
28.2967 (188.291 mph) for combined time of 56.5793, 188.337 mph.
About Allied Building Products Corp.:
Allied Building Products Corp., headquartered in East Rutherford, N.J., is
one of the largest roofing and siding distributors in the United States. Founded
in 1950 with five employees and two trucks, today it is a $1.8 billion
building material distribution company with over 3,500 employees, more than 200
branches in 30 states, well over one million square feet of office and warehouse
space, and an inventory of approximately 85,000 products, from residential
roofing and siding to doors, windows, waterproofing, manufactured stone, interior
products and commercial roofing systems. For more information see
alliedbuilding.com.
About Andersen Racing:
Andersen Racing strives to provide the best and most comprehensive training
possible for future open-wheel superstars while giving its marketing partners
media exposure and hospitality opportunities at some of the most prestigious
events in North America. It provides a unique, three-step program utilizing
multiple entries in three different series: the F2000 Championship (webcast), Star
Mazda (televised on SPEED) and Firestone Indy Lights (televised on ESPN2). In
2008 it will field multiple entries in 42 races in 19 states and provinces at
some of the best facilities on the continent, including the famed
Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Andersen Racing's principals, brother Dan and John Andersen, have extensive
experience in series administration as well as team management. They've worked
with many of today's top open-wheel stars, including several Indy 500 winners.
Andersen Racing is sponsored by Allied Building Products Corp. It is the
official development team of Rahal Letterman Racing, which competes in the IndyCar
Series. In addition, its F2000 team is also the official factory team of Van
Diemen. The team is headquartered at Andersen RacePark, an 18-acre facility
in Palmetto, Fla. that includes a 1-mile test track. For more information see
andersenracingteam.com and andersenracepark.com.