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Watkins Glen: Dale Coyne IRL IndyCar Race Recap - Junqueira, Moraes Top Tens
Both Dale Coyne Racing drivers Bruno Junqueira and Mario Moraes capped off a very successful weekend with sixth and seventh place finishes in the 60-lap Camping World IndyCar Grand Prix on the 3.37-mile, 11-turn Watkins Glen International circuit Sunday afternoon.
Junqueira, driving in his first race at Watkins Glen International, spent the entire race running in the top-10 and ran as high as third.
On the re-start on lap 50 Junqueira was running in fourth place, but he short-shifted coming down the front stretch allowing Marco Andretti and Buddy Rice to pass him going into turn one.
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"I'm very happy with a sixth place finish today," said an excited Junqueira. "We could have had a top-three finish today as we were running up there all race, but I short-shifted on the re-start and lost two positions. Because of all the cautions towards the end, I did not have enough time to overtake Marco for fifth."
This was Junqueira's first top-10 finish this season. The 31-year-old Brazilian has been in the top-10 in all the practice sessions this weekend and was fifth fastest in the half-hour warm-up session Sunday morning.
"The #18 Z-Line Designs car was great all weekend long," Junqueira said. "The team did a fantastic job! I love this track, as it is a great course for a driver to race on."
Moraes followed up his best starting position so far this season with his best finish of the year as the 19-year-old rookie overtook the No.
27 car of Hideki Mutoh on Lap 55 to score a seventh place finish in first trip to Watkins Glen International. His previous best IndyCar® Series finish was a 16th place at St. Petersburg earlier this season.
"It was a great day for the #19 Sonny's Bar-B-Q car," said a smiling Moraes. "I am happy we finished seventh today, but I think we could have finished even higher."
Moraes wowed fans when he overtook six cars, jumping from 13th to seventh position on the first lap of the race.
"We had a strong car today and it showed as I was able to overtake six cars at the start of the race," Moraes said. "We ran up in the top five at times, but we lost a couple spots during a pit-stop which I think kept us from a higher finish. The car was fast all weekend and the team deserves credit for that. Hopefully we can get more top-10 finishes with four of the last seven races being on road or street courses."
This is the 11th time Dale Coyne Racing has placed two cars in the top-10 during a race. The last time was back in April of 2007 in Long Beach when Junqueira finished sixth and Katherine Legge placed tenth.
The IndyCar Series next heads to the Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday, July 12 in Nashville, TN for the running of the Firestone Indy 250 on the 1.33-mile concrete track. The race can be seen live on ESPN starting at 8 p.m. (EDT).
PaddockTalk Perspective
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Also in IndyCar Weekend Team Reports: |
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