Chip Ganassi Racing had a great opening race of the Hy-Vee Home Front 250 on Saturday inside the top nine. Marcus Ericsson in the No.8 Huski Iced Spritz ended the race in fourth place and speaking following the race he commented saying:
“It was a tough race, as it always is here, with a lot of overtaking and defending. There are just a lot of things happening in these types of races. I think all of us on the No. 8 Huski Ice Spritz Honda team did a really good job. I think we had a solid day and this always takes a team effort between pit stop strategy and balance, and we did well with all of that. P4 was a good result. We want a bit more, of course, but the good thing is we’ll get another chance tomorrow.”
Ericsson starts the second race on Sunday in tenth place. Scott Dixon in the No.9 PNC Bank Honda started Saturday’s opening race in fourth place but suffered a host of oversteer in the opening stint of the race but was able to recover and finished the event in sixth place and has moved to third in the championship
The Iceman will start race two from ninth place and speaking following the action he said:
“On that first stint, we just had a lot of oversteer and it got worse very quickly. From that point on, we were okay and caught the leaders on the second stint. But by that point, we were a lap down. We stayed with them and kept going long, while others went short. We were maybe a top-five car, so it’s a little frustrating because we had hoped for more. I think if we can get the consistency down on stint two we’ll be okay for tomorrow. Starting a little bit further back in tomorrow’s race, but that shouldn’t matter too much.”
Alex Palou ended the race in eighth place and starts race two from 12th and following the race in Iowa on Saturday, he Spaniard has seen his lead in the championship go from 117 to 98 points and speaking following the action he commented saying:
“Pretty happy with P8. It could have been a little bit better, but it’s an improvement from last year. We’ve made some progress, so I am looking forward to the debrief here to make some adjustments for tomorrow. We’ll have another shot at the PeopleReady Force for Good Challenge where we can help The American Legion save more veterans’ lives.”
Takuma Sato in the No.11 Deloitte Honda ended the race in ninth place and speaking following the race he commented saying:
“It was a tough race. I thought the car was working well for the first half of the stint, but as soon as we hit degradation, we were struggling a bit. We’ll look at the balance, but all in all, the team worked very well and the pit stops were great. P9 is a bit of a pity, but we learned a lot and we can come back even stronger tomorrow.”