Moraes Survives Tough Infineon Action

SONOMA, August 23, 2010: Young Mario Moraes survived a variety of on-track mishaps Sunday and drove from 20th on the starting grid to finish 11th in the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma at Infineon Raceway.

Moraes, the 21-year-old Brazilian, was knocked around on the first lap of the 75-lap main event and managed to bring home his No. 32 KV Racing Technology Honda/Dallara/Firestone car despite three other incidents that made his mount look worse for wear at the checkered flag. Will Power won the Sonoma event Sunday to extend his point lead.

Moraes employed a superb fuel strategy to move up the field in the first portion of the race as he ran as high as seventh. However, he was struck from behind by Alex Tagliani and Marco Andretti in two separate incidents. In the final five laps of the event, Moraes charged past six drivers for a strong finish and improved his ranking in the current IZOD IndyCar Series point standings. Moraes is now 29 points out of the top-ten with four races remaining on the 17-event campaign.

Moraes’ KV Racing Technology teammates, Takuma Sato and E. J. Viso, recorded 18th and 19th place finishes respectively in the rugged contest on the 2.303-mile, 12-turn picturesque circuit in the Napa win country.

Sato, in his first Infineon Raceway competition, had his No. 5 Lotus—KVRT Honda/Dallara/Firestone car consistently in the top-ten after starting 17th Sunday. The Formula One veteran made some impressive passing maneuvers throughout the race, but had to make a late pit stop due to a flat tire.

Viso, driving the No. PDVSA—KVRT Honda/Dallara/Firestone machine, and his crew made an early race strategy move by pitting on lap six and seeking racing room to attempt a chance at challenging the leaders. However, some mid-race issues put the Venezuela driver a lap behind and he could not make up the needed ground in the second half of the feature event. Viso turned in some sensational lap times in his charge towards the front of the field.

The KV Racing Technology team now moves to the 1.5-mile oval at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., this Saturday night for the 14th stop on the IZOD IndyCar Series.

DRIVER QUOTES:

MARIO MORAES, #32 KV RACINGTECHNOLOGY HONDA/DALLARA/FIRESTONE, Finished 11th:

“It was a very hard race today. The whole weekend we didn’t have the car we wanted. My KV Racing crew worked really hard this weekend and, in the end, we nearly had a Top 10. We tried to gamble with an early pit stop. But the yellow flag came a little too late for us. I was trying to get some incredible fuel mileage today. So I was about three seconds a lap slower to save as much fuel as possible. Finally, I had a enough fuel to go to the end and I could push. With that, I was able to overtake six cars in the final five laps. I was hit several times today and I was glad we could finish 11th. Now, we go to the oval tracks again next week at Chicago. I finished third there last year. So I am ready to go.”

TAKUMA SATO, #5 LOTUS - KV RACING TECHNOLOGY HONDA/DALLARA/FIRESTONE, Finished 18th:

“It was a difficult weekend for our team as we couldn't find the speed we wanted. However, in the race, we were able to start getting things together. I had many exciting side-by-side moments and with 15 laps to go I was running 10th. However on the final restart, it looked like we had a mechanical problem causing me to lose over two seconds a lap. I had to run wide and tangled with Danica causing me to do a quick pit stop. It was a shame we had to end like this, but overall we can take some positives with us from this race.” E.J. VISO, #8 PDVSA - KV RACING TECHNOLOGY HONDA/DALLARA/FIRESTONE, Finished 19th: “It was one of these races where too many things can go wrong. At the start of the race, we changed our strategy from the rest. We wanted to get some open track and push hard to gain time. But we has some issues that hurt our chances to make a charge today. The black tires were not as fast as the reds and we lost a lap. That really hurt any kind of chance we had. The track was pretty consistent today but we didn’t have a good day overall. We learned a lot this weekend.””