USAC Release #104 - DRAKE, CARTER MAKE UP FREEDOM 100 SECOND ROW

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 26, 2005
Contact: MICHAEL HARKER/DICK JORDAN
05-104

DRAKE, CARTER MAKE UP FREEDOM 100 SECOND ROW

Jay Drake of Val Verde, Calif. and Cole Carter of Brownsburg, Ind. will have
the opportunity of a lifetime Friday when they roll their cars around the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The two USAC standouts make up Row 2 of tomorrow’s Futaba “Freedom 100” IRL
Menards Infiniti Pro Series event at the 2.5-mile track in search of winning
the top race on the IPS schedule.

Drake will drive the No. 20 Vision Racing Dallara/Infiniti, while Carter
will pilot the No. 77 American Revolution Racing Dallara/Infiniti, both
equipped with Firestone tires.

Drake already has racing experience at the track. The 2004 USAC Valvoline
National Sprint Car Series champion drove a steady race to finish fourth in
last year’s edition, and tested an Indycar at the track a few years before.
The Californian has teamed with Larry Curry – his sprint car team manager in
2004 – for a full slate in the Infiniti Pro Series race in 2005.

Drake said he wished he could have secured the pole but is content
nonetheless.

“We keep getting better every time we go on the track, as it has been all
year,” Drake said. “Every time we are on the track it’s better than before,
and that’s promising. Honestly, we wanted to be on the pole and win every
race so anything less than that is a little disappointing but being here at
the Speedway and having a great starting spot so it can make for a great
race.”

Carter will be making his Infiniti Pro Series debut. He placed a series
career best third in a USAC National Midget Car Series event May 7 at Beaver
Dam, Wis. The Brownsburg, Ind. native is the youngest son of USAC “Triple
Crown” winner and 1985 Indianapolis 500 polesitter Pancho Carter. Other
members of his family to compete were Carl Forsberg, Duane Carter and Johnny
Parsons.

“I’ve been staying pretty calm,” Carter said. “I’m just trying to take it
all in, and I’m just doing what I can out there. We’re just going to try to
stay out of trouble and stay at the front tomorrow.”

Carter hopes the Indianapolis experience isn’t his only racing adventure of
the weekend. He is entered to drive a midget Saturday at Indianapolis
Raceway Park.

Drake is pre-entered for Friday’s “Hoosier Hundred” Weld Racing Silver Crown
Series at the Indianapolis State Fairgrounds and Sunday’s National Sprint
Car event at the Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.

“It’s a lot of late nights and early mornings, and you forget to sleep
sometimes, and that’s the hardest part,” Drake said. “But getting back and
forth in the racecars, well, that’s what I love to do. If I could spend
every moment I was awake in a racecar, I would do it. This is the closest
time of the year that I get to do that.”