RICHARD ANTINUCCI WILL START TOMORROW'S REXALL EDMONTON INDY ON THE INSIDE OF ROW 10

Setup woes take toll on Italian-American driver's qualifying performance

Saturday, July 25, 2009

SATURDAY'S NOTES
After the promising development work carried out throughout the three practices at the Canadian venue, Richard Antinucci was poised to make it to the Top 12 for the first time in his third IndyCar qualifying attempt. As it turned out this time the gap to be bridged was only 6 tenths of a second,but Antinucci had to settle for 10th in his group. His fastest lap at 1:02.8364 (113.036 mph/181.093kph) granted him a spot on the inside of row 10 for tomorrow's race.
The day started well for Antinucci, thanks to some fine-tuning on the car which allowed him to put in a solid run in the morning session. The San Diego-based driver put in his best run after Lap 15, and steadily improved each lap, shaving three tenths of a second off his previous fastest lap: the 1:02.6396 (113.392mph/182,483kph) clocked on Lap 22 was good enough for 13rd place overall.

RICHARD'S TAKE
"Our grid position is easy to explain: our set up was too soft for Edmonton's searing heat and consistently improving track conditions. We paid the price. For longer stints, such as tomorrow's race this may be a good approach. At a venue like this airfield, the grip level is constantly changing, and with all the rubber that was left on the surface today, especially after the Firestone Indy Lights race, our overall settings made us struggle in Q1. When I put on the red tires I was able to improve my pace, but not nearly enough: It took too long to drop the times and by the time my tires were working it was too late to make an impression. I put in my quickest lap just before the checker, but we still needed 2 more laps at that rate of progression to make it into Q2. I'm disappointed not to have made the cut, given our improved competitiveness, but we have learned a lot today on how to work the tires. No doubt we'll be stronger next time we have have a qualifying session.
For now though we're preparing our best for tomorrow's race. We have all the cards to move forward."