Carpenter Claims First Top 10 Finish Of The Season At The Milwaukee Mile

(WEST ALLIS, Wis.) July 12, 2015 – Race Notes

– CFH Racing placed one car in the Top Five and one car in the Top 10 today at the Milwaukee Mile. Josef Newgarden, who started from the pole position, brought home the No. 67 Direct Supply Chevrolet in 5th. Teammate and team co-owner Ed Carpenter started the race from the 22nd position but was able to drive the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet up to a 10th place finish.

– Newgarden claimed his first career pole position earlier in the day, setting the two fastest laps during single-car qualifying for the ABC Supply Wisconsin 250. The 24-year-old had been the car to beat all weekend, leading both practice sessions with the quickest lap times as well.

– Newgarden commanded the race from the start, building a three second lead over the rest of the field. He caught traffic on the one-mile oval as early as Lap 12 and put teammate Carpenter one lap down on Lap 33.

– After a spirited battle for the lead with Ryan Briscoe, Newgarden made his first stop of the race on Lap 55. Briscoe had an issue on his stop, easily allowing the Direct Supply crew to get Newgarden out of the pit lane first. By Lap 60, Newgarden regained the lead after the field had cycled through their stops. Meanwhile, Carpenter had worked his way up to 14th by his first stop on Lap 57.

– Newgarden continued to lead until Lap 101 when he made his second pit stop. The first caution of the race appeared on Lap 114, giving Newgarden the opportunity to make a stop under yellow. That same yellow flag gave Carpenter his lap back, but caught him out as he had to come in for a splash of fuel before fully servicing the car when the pits opened the next lap.

– Meanwhile, in the Direct Supply pit, Newgarden made a pit stop from 2nd place. He dropped all the way back to 11th when he had to wait for Carlos Munoz to enter his pit box directly ahead. However, he made quick work of the cars in front of him when the race went back green for one lap. The spinning car of Briscoe collected Will Power, bring the yellow back out, but Newgarden had gained four positions by the time he made it back around the circuit. Carpenter repeatedly entered the pit lane to top off the fuel in the No. 20 car, losing no track position as he was the last car on the lead lap.

– Newgarden showed the speed that earned him the pole position when he passed five cars in three laps after the next restart on Lap 141. He moved into second and set his sights on leader Sebastien Bourdais, who had elected not to stop under the caution. When Bourdais made his stop on Lap 171, Newgarden moved back into the lead.

– Carpenter, after topping off his fuel multiple times under the cautions, steadily made his way up through the field. He entered the Top 10 for the first time on Lap 186, one lap after Newgarden made what was planned to be his last stop of the race.

– On Lap 206, Newgarden brushed the wall coming out of Turn 4, but only lost one position. A caution flew again on Lap 222, setting up a shoot out finish when almost all of the field, including Newgarden, made a stop for fresh tires. Carpenter elected to stay out and vaulted all the way up to the 3rd position.

– As he was on tires that were almost 30 laps older than the cars behind him, Carpenter fell back several positions on the Lap 232 restart. Newgarden restarted from 8th and was up to 5th the following lap. Newgarden traded positions with Scott Dixon and took the checkered flag in 5th. Carpenter held on to finish his first oval race of the year with a Top 10 result. Bourdais, on a different strategy than the rest of the field, claimed the victory in today’s 250 lap race.

– Newgarden led 109 laps today, a career-best. The Hendersonville, Tenn.-native had led 97 total laps prior to today’s race.

– CFH Racing will return to it’s Speedway, Ind.-based workshop tomorrow to prepare Newgarden and Carpenter’s cars for next weekend’s Iowa Corn 300. The 300 lap race under the lights at Iowa Speedway will take place Saturday, July 18th. The race will be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network beginning at 8 p.m. ET.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 67 DIRECT SUPPLY CHEVROLET, FINISHED 5TH: “We just had to do too much work later in the race to try and get by people. I could only get so many spots, but our car was fast. It’s been fast all weekend, the Direct Supply guys really put an amazing car together for us. It’s just that I needed clean air, probably more so than other guys. To get that was difficult. When we had it in the beginning, I think we were the fastest car in the field for sure. It was all about track position today, we lost out on that a little bit but it was still a great effort and a great weekend for CFH Racing.”

ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA CHEVROLET, FINISHED 10TH: “Our finish was a good recovery from where we started. It was a long, tough day. We had a decent shot with the way the pit stops cycled through. We were running third on the last restart, but we were the last car in line on old tires. It was really tough in dirty air in today, we needed to be better in those conditions but I think even the best cars struggled in traffic on old tires. At the end of the day, from what happened in qualifying to get a Top 10 and finally finish a race, I’ll take it as a positive. To have one top five and one top ten today, with Josef’s first pole, all in all it was a good weekend for the entire team.”