Newman/Haas Racing
Firestone 550k – Texas Motor Speedway
QUALIFYING NOTES/QUOTES – Friday, June 4, 2010

FORMULA DREAM/PANASONIC DRIVER MUTOH TO START SEVENTH IN THE FIRESTONE 550K AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

POLE: Ryan Briscoe 4-lap avg. speed of 215.273 mph (L1: 215.525, L2: 215.418, L3: 215.125, L4: 215.025)
7th: Hideki Mutoh 4-lap avg. speed of 214.380 mph (L1: 214.209, L2: 214.420, L3: 214.490, L4: 214.399)

Hideki Mutoh, No. 06 Formula Dream/Panasonic Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I’m very happy with the performance of the Formula Dream / Panasonic team in qualifying. We worked mostly on race setup in practice and we didn’t do a qualifying simulation so to start seventh is not too bad. We had a difficult weekend last weekend so we just need a very strong finish here. On my own it is a pretty easy track but with aerodynamic change it’s going to be huge pack-racing tomorrow night so It’s going to be a very, very tough race but a good one for the fans to watch.”

FAST FACTS: Will be his third event here and third oval race 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 started fourth and ran an alternate fuel strategy that meant he didn’t have to make a final stop as those in front of him would but a late race caution limited his finish to sixth. In 2009 he started 11th and finished 21st due to retiring with electrical problems after completing 153/228 laps…His highest IZOD IndyCar Series start is THIRD at Nashville Speedway (oval) and best overall series finish is SECOND (Iowa 2008).

NHR AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY: Will be the THIRD race here for the team. Graham Rahal and Robert Doornbos competed for the team here in 2009. Rahal qualified 12th and retired in 22nd after he struggled to control his race car in the opening laps and dropped from 12th to 18th on the first lap and continued to fall back before he lost control and made contact. Doornbos qualified ninth and finished 11th. Rahal and Justin Wilson competed for the team here in 2008. Rahal started 18th and finished 11th. Wilson qualified 23rd, ran as high as 13th but finished 27th after he brushed the T2 wall and retired with suspension failure after 39/228 laps…The Firestone 550 will mark the team’s 451st event since being formed (chart available upon request). Including the Firestone 550, the team will have entered a total of 799 cars in these 451 events.

TUNE IN: The Firestone 550k will be televised live on Versus at 8:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday night. Live timing & scoring and streaming video can be seen free of charge on www.indycar.com.