Patrick Carpentier led the Red Bull Cheever Racing team to a 13th place
finish in the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan, while an early race
spin resulted in a 19th place finish for Alex Barron
source:
Red Bull
Cheever Racing
Starting 14th, Carpentier drove an error-free 200 laps on the 1.52-mile oval to
take the checkered flag 13th, behind race winner Dan Wheldon.
"It was a difficult day," Carpentier said. "We had a problem with tire pressures
making the car difficult to drive. We fixed the problem on the last pit stop,
but it was too late to move up the field as we were a few laps down from the
leaders by then.
"At least the car is in one piece and we can push as hard as we can for
Indianapolis," Carpentier continued. "Indy is a big race and we will put all our
efforts into doing well at that event."
For Alex Barron and the No. 51 car crew it was a busy day, with Alex spinning
during a race restart on lap 12.
"I spun the car on cold tires," Barron said. "I was being aggressive and trying
to take advantage of cars that didn't get a good launch off turn four. The car
rotated, spun around and tapped the wall. The incident was entirely my fault."
The Delphi safety team towed the car back to the garage area and the No. 51 crew
quickly repaired the damage to the nose cone and right front suspension. Barron
returned to track on leader's lap 90. Moving up to 19th place, team manager Max
Jones decided to call Barron in for the day on lap 136 once there were no
further positions to gain. Barron finished 19th, completing 57 laps. It was the
first race this season where both Red Bull Cheever Racing cars did not finish.
"The No. 51 crew hustled to get us back on track to get more laps in and the
most number of championship points as possible," Barron said. "It is a real
shame. We made some changes for the race and I think we were heading in the
right direction. We just didn't have a chance to show what we had."
Round five of the 17-race 2005 IRL IndyCar Series takes place May 29 with the
89th running of the Indianapolis 500.