Teammate Filippi Will Start 14th In First Long Beach Appearance

(LONG BEACH, Calif.) April 18, 2015 – Qualifying Notes

– Josef Newgarden will start the No. 67 Hartman Oil Chevrolet from the 6th position in tomorrow’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, held in the downtown streets of the California city.

– Luca Filippi will start 14th in the 80-lap event in the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet.

– Newgarden and Filippi were both in Round 1, Group 2 to begin qualifications. A red flag brought the 10 minute segment to an early end, prohibiting Filippi from completing a fast lap on his red Firestone Firehawk tires. The Italian ended the session with the seventh fastest time, while Newgarden managed to get a flying lap in prior to the red flag and advanced to the next round from the fourth position.

– Round 2 saw Newgarden post the second-fastest time, easily advancing to the Firestone Fast 6.

– Today was Newgarden’s sixth appearance in the Fast 6 and first since Sonoma Raceway in 2014. The Nashville, Tenn.-native completed the Firestone Fast 6 with the sixth fastest time and will start from Row 3 in tomorrow’s event.

– This will be Filippi’s first career start around the 1.968-mile, 12-turn street circuit.

– Newgarden started on the front row in Long Beach in only his third Verizon IndyCar Series race in 2012. He was taken out in an incident while leading last year’s event.

– CFH Racing is the defending race-winning team, having captured the victory in the 2014 event with Mike Conway in the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka car.

– The 2015 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach will be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network at 4 p.m. (ET) on Sunday, April 19. The green flag is scheduled for just after 4:30 p.m.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 67 HARTMAN OIL CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 6TH: “This was a good recovery from practice one when we were 20th and 21st after not rolling of the truck stellar. However, the CFH Racing team is so good at figuring things out and recovering, and that’s exactly what we did. I am happy and proud of my crew, they’re strong. Sixth is not as high up as we wanted to be, but we’re right in the thick of it. We’ve got a strong chance to challenge tomorrow, we’ve just got keep our nose clean for once around this place and we should definitely be primed for a good result.”

LUCA FILIPPI, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 14TH: “We had much more potential and the ability to get into Round 2. Unfortunately, we were caught in traffic and when we were just starting to push on the red Firestone Firehawks, the red flag came out. It’s a bit of a shame, but it’s important that Josef (Newgarden) proved our cards are fast and the team has done a good job. I’m very positive for tomorrow. Our potential is much better than where we started. We can really aim for a strong finish here at Long Beach.”