Viso Scores His Best Izod Indycar Series Finish With Thid Place Sunday

[Mark H]

NEWTON, Iowa (June 20, 2010) — E.J. Viso turned in the best performance in his three-year IZOD IndyCar Series career Sunday with a third place finish in the 250-lap Iowa Corn Indy 250 at the Iowa Speedway.

        

Viso, driver of the No. 8 PDVSA — KV Racing Technology Honda/Dallara/Firestone machine, came from 19th starting position on the .875-mile high-banked oval west of Des Moines to a valiant third spot and celebrated on the victory podium with winner Tony Kanaan and second place Helio Castroneves.  Viso worked his way through some wild action on the tightest oval track in the 17-race series, as he drove past the likes of polesitter Will Power, Ryan Briscoe, Scott Dixon and Ryan Hunter-Reay to race for the lead with Kanaan and Castroneves.

 

Viso’s previous best finish in the IndyCar Series was fourth at St. Petersburg in 2008.  The third place tied the best finish for a KV Racing Technology driver since the Indianapolis-based joined the series in 2008.  Mario Moraes finished third last year at the Chicagoland Speedway.

        

Viso’s stellar performance Sunday in Iowa was almost upstaged by the tremendous rookie performance of Takuma Sato in the No. 5 Lotus—KVRT Honda/Dallara/Firestone entry.  Sato, who qualified an oval track best seventh on Saturday, had the Iowa fans on their feet with a sensational drive into the Top Three by lap 169 when he passed Hunter-Reay and Dixon on consecutive laps.  Sato then closed on leaders Tony Kanaan and Dario Franchitti before a turn four mishap sidelined the popular Japanese driver for the day.

        

Sato attempted to lap a back marker in the fourth turn when the Lotus car slid up the banking and made contact with outside wall.  It was a disappointing finish to a spectacular drive for the former Formula One star in just his fourth oval race.

        

Mario Moraes  his No. 32 KV Racing Technology Honda/Dallara/Firestone car, was eliminated from action early in the 250-lap event when Justin Wilson spun his mount in the fourth turn, taking himself and the KVRT driver out of the race.

        

After four consecutive oval track races, Viso, Moraes and Sato move back to the road courses with upcoming events at Watkins Glen (July 4), Toronto (July 18), Edmonton (July 25) and Mid-Ohio (August 8). The Watkins Glen contest will be televised live on ABC-TV beginning at 3:30 p.m. EDT.

DRIVER QUOTES:

 

E.J. VISO, #5  PDVSA - KV RACING TECHNOLOGY HONDA/DALLARA/FIRESTONE, Finished 3rd (High best career finish): “There are not many words to describe my feeling right now.  The PDVSA - KV Racing Technology car felt great today.  It has been a very tough year for KV Racing Technology.  The team has a lot of great people and drivers and we deserve to be higher in points than where we really are.  Today just showed that we can run and compete with the top teams.  This is my first podium in the IZOD IndyCar Series and I want to thank my engineer Bill Pappas and my crew for giving me such a good car.  I want to dedicate today to my father for Father's Day.  I hope now our luck has changed and hopefully this won't be the last podium this year.”    

 

TAKUMA SATO, #5  LOTUS - KV RACING TECHNOLOGY HONDA/DALLARA/FIRESTONE, Finished 19th: “I’m extremely disappointed and feel very sorry for the Lotus- KV Racing Technology team.  They did a tremendous job over the weekend.  I was lapping traffic when I looked inside and a car came down on me causing me to loose my air and putting me in the wall. We worked on the car during every stop, trying different set ups to match the environment we had today, which I was happy with.  Once again I’m so disappointed not to finish the race today but I have at least come away with many positives.”

 

MARIO MORAES, #32 KV RACINGTECHNOLOGY HONDA/DALLARA/FIRESTONE,  Finished 25th: ”The car was pretty good.  It felt solid.  I feel so sorry for my KV Racing Technology team.  This is the second time this has happened to us.  It happened last year at Iowa with (Raphael) Matos spinning in front of me.  I tried to avoid him but he got me.  This year it was the same with Justin (Wilson).”

 

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