Newgarden Qualifies 2nd; Ed Carpenter Will Start 7th in The Iowa Corn Indy 300

NEWTON, Iowa (July 7, 2016) – Qualifying Notes

– By earning the second place starting position for the Iowa Corn Indy 300, Josef Newgarden is continuing toward his goal of reaching the top step of the podium after finishing second the past two years. Teammate and team owner Ed Carpenter will start just behind Newgarden when he rolls off 7th at Iowa Speedway’s .875-mile oval.

– The weekend started off well for Carpenter and Newgarden. After a 75 minute practice session this morning, both cars were solidly in the Top 10. Newgarden turned a lap in 17.2490 seconds (186.585 miles per hour), good enough for 3rd overall. Carpenter’s 17.4020-second lap (184.944 mph) had him sitting 8th on the time sheets.

– Newgarden was 16th out of 22 cars to take to the track for qualifying. His first lap instantly sent him to second place on the pylon. His two lap average of 185.639 mph was good enough to keep the No. 21 Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka Chevrolet on the front row, matching his best starting position of the year. He also started second in this year’s Indianapolis 500.

– Carpenter was 19th in the qualifying line. His two-lap average of 184.339 mph in his No. 20 Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka Chevrolet landed him on the inside of the 4th row. In his last four starts at Iowa Speedway, Carpenter has finished no lower than 8th. He finished 6th in the 2015 event.

– Newgarden was at the front of the pack for over a third of last year’s race, leading 111 of 300 laps. In both 2014 and 2015, Ryan Hunter-Reay beat Newgarden to the line by just over a half of a second.

– Newgarden will be driving with a surgically-repaired clavicle and a broken bone in his hand after being injured in an accident during the suspended Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway less than one month ago. Two weeks ago at Road America, Newgarden qualified 20th, but drove all the way up an 8th place finishing position.

– ECR participated in a test at Iowa Speedway last week, immediately following Road America. J.R. Hildebrand drove the No. 21 to give Newgarden a bit more time to rest before taking on the oval dubbed the “Fastest Short Track on the Planet.” Carpenter tested his own car.

– Newgarden sits 5th in the Verizon IndyCar Series point standings, just 18 points out of second place.

– One more practice session at Iowa Speedway will follow this evening, beginning at 7:15 p.m. ET. NBC Sports Network’s live broadcast of the 300-lap race begins at tomorrow at 5 p.m. ET.\

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 21 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 2ND: “You always wish you had a little more when you’re sitting second! That’s the beauty of hindsight. We did everything we could with our information. It was tough because I didn’t get to test, but J.R.(Hildebrand) did such a great job for us last week at the test. He got the car in an awesome place, we just missed it by a whisker there. We have a great racecar and we really have an opportunity to make something happen. We’ve had two good races here over the past couple of years, I think we’ve got another shot to get a win this time.”

ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 7TH: “I’m a little disappointed, to be honest! I thought we were going to be a little bit better than that. We had a little too much balance in there. I was hoping for a Top 5 starting spot, but we’ve just had a rough year. We had a great car this morning in our long runs, which is really good. I just came out here thinking we were going to be a little better than 7th.”