J.R. Hildebrand from Sausalito is anxious to get on the track again after a difficult weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. He and his team struggled a bit in the twin Firestone 275’s, finishing 23rd and 18th. We expect to see J.R. and the National Guard car moving to the front this weekend in Milwaukee.
WEST ALLIS, WI. – (June 17, 2011) – An electrical gremlin caused the National Guard Panther Racing team to sit and watch IZOD IndyCar Series practice for over an hour Friday at the Milwaukee Mile, but driver JR Hildebrand hopped into the seat and quickly posted the 20th overall time on the day in a limited number of laps.
In just 30 laps on the challenging one-mile oval, Hildebrand posted a quick time of 22.4248 second, which is an average lap speed of 162.945 mph. Team Penske driver Will Power was quickest on the day with a top speed of 167.648 mph and was followed on the speed chart by fellow IZOD IndyCar Series championship contender Dario Franchitti, who was second-quick with a top lap speed of 167.462 mph.
There will be two more practice sessions tomorrow in addition to qualifications that will set the grid for Sunday’s 225-lap event.
The Milwaukee 225 will be broadcast live on ABC starting at 3:30 pm (ET) with additional coverage provided by the IMS RadioNetwork, XM channel 94 and Sirius channel 212.
JR Hildebrand, No. 4 National Guard Dallara Honda:
“The National Guard guys worked really hard to just to get the car back out on the racetrack. So it was good to be able to get back out on track and we had a pretty decent first run and then decided to cut our losses with the lack of time on track and just go out and do some heavy fuel runs. Our time isn’t very representative of how quick we can go although we felt OK about it considering we didn’t run at all. We’ll take what we did today and compare it to what we did at the test and try to make it a little bit better for tomorrow.”
www.JRHildebrandRacing.com – www.pantherracing.com – www.NationalGuard.com
– Panther Racing, Press Release