Conway tire gamble pays off with victory in IndyCar race 2 in Toronto
IndyCar, IndyCar News/Releases, INDYCAR PR — By More Front Wing Staff on July 20, 2014 7:54 pm[Source: INDYCAR press releases]
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For full race results, reports, and post-race point standings, visit our 2014 Honda Indy Toronto Event Summary.
TORONTO (Sunday, July 20, 2014) – Mike Conway earned his second Verizon IndyCar Series victory of the season by holding off Tony Kanaan over a three-lap sprint to the finish in the second race of the Honda Indy Toronto doubleheader.
Conway, driving the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka car for Ed Carpenter Racing, won by 3.5418 seconds following a Lap 54 restart after a red flag with 4 minutes, 23 seconds left in the 80-minute race. INDYCAR Race Control called for the red flag to freeze the field on Lap 52 after a multiple-car incident in Turn 3.
Will Power finished third in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car and Charlie Kimball advanced 12 positions from his 16th-place starting position in the No. 83 Levemir FlexTouch Chip Ganassi Racing car to finish fourth. Takuma Sato rebounded from 23rd place in Race 1 to finish a season-high fifth in the No. 14 ABC Supply A.J. Foyt Racing entry.
Verizon IndyCar Series championship front-runner Helio Castroneves, the pole sitter as the race lineup for the standing start was determined by entrant points, sustained wing damage on the No. 3 PPG Team Penske car on the penultimate lap and dropped to 12th place. He holds a 13-point lead over Power through 14 of the season’s 18 races.
Conway was the second driver to switch from Firestone rain tires to alternate tires on Lap 43 as the 1.755-mile, 11-turn street circuit was drying following a light rain that started on Lap 12. He was running third after gaining one position on a Lap 49 restart and overtook Justin Wilson and Josef Newgarden – both still on rain tires – for the lead on Lap 50.
“The tire temperatures came in really fast and that’s what you need in those types of conditions, so I could just control it and not have to push too hard and enjoy those last few laps,” said Conway, who had not recorded a top-10 finish since his win at Long Beach on April 13.
Conway, earning his second victory of the season and the third of the season for Ed Carpenter Racing, won the 250th race for Firestone since its return to Indy car racing in 1995.
“Mike said he was ready for drys. This one is all Mike; he did a great job,” said team owner/driver Ed Carpenter, who won at Texas Motor Speedway in June.
Kanaan, who finished third in Race 1 and started ninth in Race 2, brought out a Lap 1 caution when the No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car nosed into the tire barrier in Turn 3. He fell to 23rd on the restart.
“I made a little mistake on the start. I got too excited and I had to make it up,” said Kanaan, who had podium finishes in the past three races. “You have to believe. You can’t give up. We’re here racing. I hate when I make mistakes, so I had to make it up.”
In Race 1, Sebastien Bourdais, driving the No. 11 Hydroxycut KVSH Racing car, claimed his 32nd Indy car career win. Bourdais broke a tie with Dario Franchitti and Paul Tracy for eighth on the all-time win list.
“It’s really sweet. We had to fight and wait for it for a long time but today was just kind of one of these days when the stars align,” said Bourdais, who led 58 of the 65 laps and won by 3.3 seconds over Castroneves. “I guess I was not expecting it because here I know how things can go. Last year we were second and third and it’s great to get this win.”
The Verizon IndyCar Series will have a weekend off before traveling to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the Honda Indy 200 on August 3rd. The race will be broadcast live on NBCSN and on the IMS Radio Network with coverage beginning at 3 p.m. ET.
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HONDA INDY TORONTO RACE #2 POST-RACE NOTES:
• This is Mike Conway’s second win of 2014 and the fourth win of his Indy car career. Conway also won at Long Beach earlier this year.
• This is the third win for Ed Carpenter Racing in 2014 and its fourth overall win. The team’s last win came with owner/driver Ed Carpenter at Texas.
• Tony Kanaan finished second, his season best finish. Kanaan finished today’s races with two podium finishes.
• Will Power finished third, his sixth podium finish of 2014.
• Charlie Kimball finished fourth, his fourth top-five finish of the season.
• Takuma Sato finished fifth, his best finish of the season.
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NEXT PAGE: Quotes from much of the field following race 2 at the 2014 Honda Indy Toronto
Tags: Ed Carpenter Racing, Mike Conway, Toronto
Both races in Toronto were great and so was the MFW coverage, as usual. Great story here on race 2! Excited for Mid-Ohio & more MFW coverage.
I agree!
I half do not like the fact that the 20 car is just a meaningless car that is just in the way of the drivers racing thier butts off for the championship. This car is taking points away from them and flushing them down the flusher. If you race in indycar you should posses the skills of all the disiplines not just oval or road. The other half of me is happy that one of if not the best road course driver in the world wants to race in Indycar so bad that he is willing to race just to race for no other reason then racing ageinst the most competitive and skilled drivers driving the fastest cars in the world! If nothing else that is flattering and speaks volumes through the racing world that if you want to experience the fastest and most competitive racing in the world? Indycar is the series to invest in!