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[/media-credit]FORT WORTH, Texas (June 9, 2012) – Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing (SCCGR) driver Graham Rahal’s second-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) was a career best in five starts at the track which also marked the best finish of his 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series season to date. The result comes in his 84th IndyCar Series careerstart. His previous best finish on the 1.5-mile oval occurred in last season’s Firestone Twin 275 double-header, where he finished ninth.
Going into Saturday’s race, Rahal showed strength early on by posting the third-quickest time in the qualifying session on Friday night. Running at the front of the pack for the majority of the race, he ran among the top-five for 153 laps. Rahal nabbed the lead on with only 28 laps remaining and led the second most laps (27 of 228). With just two laps remaining, the No. 38 Service Central Honda made contact with the wall coming out of turn four while Rahal battled understeer. He managed to keep the car going to finish second.
Rahal’s previous best finish of the season was fourth at Barber Motorsports Park in the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. The result also marked Honda’s third consecutive 1-2 result this season (Dario Franchitti/Scott Dixon; Indianapolis 500 and Dixon/Franchitti; Belle Isle Detroit Grand Prix.)
With the result, Rahal moves from 15th position to 11th in the IZOD IndyCar Series point standings with 149 markers, -107 points out of the top spot.
Up next, Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing will compete in the Milwaukee IndyFest presented by XYQ, in West Allis, Wisconsin at the Milwaukee Mile on Saturday, June 16 (1:00pm ET on ABC).
SCCGR Quoteboard
Graham Rahal: “I just made a mistake. The car was pushing through the center of turns three and four pretty well the last stint, and it would kind of grip up for me late in the corner and I kind of stayed with it because they told me Justin [Wilson] was coming. So, I was trying to pick up the pace a little bit, and honestly it just never gripped up and I didn’t give myself enough of a margin for error. I own up to it and we’ll come back and we’ll win one here, and I certainly feel like it should have been today. Obviously, for the entire NTB/Service Central crew, this is going to bother us, but we know we can run with these guys, we know we can win and hopefully we’ll do it next week in Milwaukee.”
About Chip Ganassi Racing Teams, Inc.
Chip Ganassi has been a fixture in the auto racing industry for over 25 years and is considered one of the most successful as well as innovative owners the sport has anywhere in the world. Today his teams include four in the IZOD IndyCar Series, two cars in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and one Daytona Prototype in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series. Overall his teams have 14 championships and 147 victories, including four Indianapolis 500s, a Daytona 500, a Brickyard 400 and four Rolex 24 At Daytonas. Ganassi boasts state-of-the-art race shop facilities in Indianapolis and Brownsburg, Ind. and Concord, N.C., with a corporate office in Pittsburgh, Penn.
For more information log onto chipganassiracing.com
