Newgarden Takes The Victory, Filippi Finishes Second

(TORONTO) June 14, 2015 – Race Notes

– CFH Racing finished first and second in today’s Honda Indy Toronto with Josef Newgarden taking the victory and Luca Filippi finishing in second.

– Despite a single-file start in wet conditions, the race began cleanly for all competitors. Filippi started 6th in the event, while Newgarden started 11th. Filippi benefited from Juan Pablo Montoya missing Turn 3 and was able to gain a position, moving into 5th.

– The No. 67 Hartman Oil crew set up for Newgarden’s stop first, but elected to go with sticker red Firestone Firehawks instead of scuffed reds and chose to leave him out one more lap. Filippi came in first on Lap 10, switched from rain tires to sticker reds. Newgarden followed on Lap later on Lap 11, also moving to sticker reds. They would cycle out of their pit stops in 5th (Filippi) and 10th (Newgarden).

– Luck was on Newgarden’s side when he came into the pits on Lap 28. Just as he was leaving with sticker black tires, a full course caution came out. He moved up to 2nd when the majority of the field made their stops, including Filippi. Filippi entered the pits from the 5th position and came out in 9th, due to cars that did not come in under the caution.
When Helio Castroneves made his pit stop under the caution flag on Lap 43, Newgarden inherited the lead. He stayed in control of the field on the Lap 46 restart, quickly building a gap over second place Carlos Munoz. Filippi was able to get past Simon Pagenaud for the 6th position.

– On Lap 58, Newgarden relinquished his lead to make what would end up being his final pit stop for fuel and sticker black tires. When Newgarden came in, he gave the lead to Filippi in his No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet. Filippi would lead 2 laps, the first of his IndyCar career.

– Filippi made his final stop on Lap 60, also choosing sticker black tires. After their stops, the CFH drivers were running 4th and 5th on track behind three cars on a different strategy.

– Their biggest challenge came on Lap 66 when Castroneves made his final stop. Despite the gap Castroneves had built, both Newgarden and Filippi were able to beat him as he exited the pit lane. The CFH drivers were caught behind a slower car, but once he made his pit stop, they were able to build their lead.

– While Castroneves closed on Filippi, he was never able to get near enough to make the pass. Newgarden stayed in control of the field, taking the checkered flag 1.4485 seconds ahead of his teammate.

– This was the first one-two finish for CFH Racing and the seventh win for the team. Their most recent victory came in April with Newgarden at Barber Motorsports Park, the first of his career.

– Today’s second place for Filippi is the best finish of his Verizon IndyCar Series career. His previous best finish was 9th, where he finished in the Streets of St. Petersburg and Race 1 of the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit earlier this year.

– CFH Racing came into the Honda Indy Toronto as one of the defending race winning teams. Last year’s event featured a doubleheader with two races on the same day, the second of which was won by Mike Conway driving the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet.

– The team will head back to their Speedway, Ind.-based race shop and will enjoy their first weekend off in 10 weeks next weekend. After that, the team will head to Fontana, Calif. for a 500-mile race at Auto Club Speedway. Team co-owner Ed Carpenter will step back into the No. 20 car.

– The MAVTV 500 will be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network at 4 PM ET on Saturday, June 27.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 67 HARTMAN OIL CHEVROLET, FINISHED 1ST: “I’m so happy we were able to get a win, but a 1-2 it just amazing because Luca (Filippi) is such a star. I’m super happy for the whole group. Just an amazing team effort – I can’t believe we had a 1-2. It got a little close there with Luca but we were really just trying to keep up after we got into the final stint. I got a little bit of lapped traffic, but I couldn’t do anything with the lapped traffic, but they wanted me to because of everyone that was coming. It’s close racing and, for sure, I got a little lucky, too, on that yellow. But you can’t discount that because it was an amazing effort by this crew at CFH Racing – they gave me amazing pit stops and a car to win. I’m definitely excited because this is Toronto and this is an INDYCAR town.”

LUCA FILIPPI, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND: “We had a goal to be on the podium and we both achieved it with both cars, so it’s nice when you set the goal and you achieve it. The team did everything perfectly to give us the opportunity to be up front. But we had a fast car and we knew we needed to be kind of in the clean air up in front and this is what we did — just kept pushing. We were faster and we ended up in front. I’m very happy. Very happy. The team did a great job. I thank the Fuzzy’s Vodka team because they believe in me and they gave me the opportunity to race INDYCAR properly and my first podium. Many more to come.”