Newman/Haas Racing
94th Indianapolis 500 – Indianapolis Motor Speedway
“CARB DAY” NOTES/QUOTES – May 28, 2010

FORMULA DREAM/PANASONIC DRIVER MUTOH COMPLETED PREPERATION FOR INDY 500 TODAY; TEAM FINISHED SECOND IN THE PIT STOP CHALLENGE

OVERALL: Mutoh matched his best qualifying at Indianapolis and will start on the outside of Row 3 in ninth place. In the final practice on Carb Day his best lap time was 221.571 on his eighth of 35 laps. Approx. 25 minutes into the one-hour session he experienced a gear issue so the team pitted to check the situation. Once he returned to the track with 15 minutes to go, he ran in limited traffic.

Mutoh and his pit crew beat the drivers/crews of Dan Wheldon, Ryan Briscoe and Justin Wilson to advance to the final round of the pit stop contest and finished second to Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves to earn $15,000 for second place.

Hideki Mutoh, No. 06 Formula Dream/Panasonic Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I couldn’t run the whole session because I had a gearbox problem so I am concerned about this; I don’t want to have the problem on race day but at least we had today to shake down the car. I just wanted to run behind a lot of traffic but I was only able to run behind one or two cars at a time before we had the problem. The car feels really good behind one or two cars but we’re not totally sure how it will be behind a big group of cars. The car was very good in cooler conditions but last Sunday I think we lost some balance in the hot, hot conditions but now I think it came back. If we can have a trouble-free race I think we will run well.”

FAST FACTS: Will be his third event here and first Indy 500 with NHR after having driven for Andretti Green Racing, co-owned by former NHR driver Michael Andretti, for the past two seasons. In 2008 he was the Fastest Rookie after he qualified ninth. He finished seventh. In 2009 he started 16th and finished 10th here…He will start ninth in 2010…His highest IZOD IndyCar Series start is THIRD at Nashville Speedway (oval) and best overall series finish is SECOND (Iowa 2008).

5 WINS & 6 POLES IN 500 MILE RACES: The team has won five 500-mile races. The most recent 500-mile wins came in 2000 (Christian Fittipaldi, $1 million purse) and 2001 (Cristiano da Matta, $1 million purse) at California Speedway. The team also won the 500-mile events at Michigan International Speedway in 1984 (Mario Andretti), 1989 (Michael Andretti) and in 1993 (Mansell). The team won poles for 500-mile races at Indianapolis (1987; Mario Andretti), Michigan (1984 – Mario Andretti, 1992 – Mario Andretti, 1993 – Mario Andretti, 1994 – Mansell) and Pocono (1987 – Mario Andretti).

1 POLE (1987) & TWO SECONDS AT INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY (IMS) for NHR: The 2010 entry will mark the 18th year for the team in the event and the fifth since 1995. Prior to 2010, the team prepared a total of 27 entries for drivers such as Mario and Michael Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Paul Tracy, Bruno Junqueira, Sebastien Bourdais, Justin Wilson, Graham Rahal and Robert Doornbos. Hideki Mutoh, the fastest rookie Indy 500 qualifier in 2008 competes for the team in 2010 and will bring the total to 28. NHR’s highest finish in the Indy 500 is second place with Mario Andretti in 1985 and Michael Andretti in 1991 although team drivers have led many laps here. Mario Andretti also brought the team its highest start in the event when he won the pole position in 1987. NHR’s 2004 entry of Junqueira marked the first time for the team to compete here since 1995 and they returned in 2005 with Junqueira and IMS rookie Bourdais. In 2008 they ran Wilson and Rahal here during a transition season in the series and ran Rahal and Robert Doornbos in 2009. They have earned Rookie of the Year once, with Mansell in 1993 when he finished third.

TUNE IN: The 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series Indianapolis 500 will be televised live on ABC at 12:00 p.m. EDT Sunday, May 30. The 94th Indy 500 will be televised live on ABC on May 30 at 12:00 p.m. Live timing & scoring and streaming video can be seen free of charge on www.indycar.com.