Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Callum Ilott in the No.77 Chevrolet and his rookie teammate Agustin Canapino had a fantastic Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.
Ilott finished the chaotic opening oval race of the season, the PPG375 inside the top ten in ninth place and speaking following the action he said:
P9 gives us another top-10 finish in two races. In a lot of ways, we did a good job with some amazing restarts.
“We had a good car during the first half of each stint, but then really struggled on the older tyres which was a bit strange and we need to figure that out.
“I think we can do some more work to make our pit stops a little stronger but we managed to keep fighting. There’s some things to work on, but overall it’s good to capitalize on these kind of results and get them when we can.
I’m now looking forward to Long Beach where we’ll come back fighting again.”
The result leaves Ilott in seventh place in the drivers standings.
Agustin Canapino in the No.78 Chevrolet had another strong race in his rookie season in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES as he finished in 12th place on his oval race debut.
Speaking following the action he said:
We finished P12 again like we did in St. Pete so I’m really, really happy with that and my overall weekend racing on an oval for the first time.
“I think we did a great job with our pace, especially on the used tyres in the middle of the race, and that meant I could finish in a strong position.
“I’m very happy to finish in P12 and I’m very grateful to the whole team for the outstanding job they continue to do.
“Now we have a couple of weeks away to prepare for Long Beach which will be another new test for me as I continue my INDYCAR journey.”
Juncos Hollinger Racing Team Principal and co-owner Ricardo Juncos said:
We knew we’d have a better race car than in quali and I think we showed today we had the pace.
“I’m very happy with the outcome. Callum once again showed everyone how good he is as a driver and Agustín really surprised me.
“As a rookie who’s never raced on ovals, he did an amazing job fighting side-by-side with more experienced drivers and beating some of them. Overall, it’s good and I’m pleased with everyone in our team.
“Big thanks to our partners at Visit Argentina, MindMaze and Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo for their support. Without them, we wouldn’t be here.”