Sparta, Kentucky (October 2, 2011) -Dreyer &
Reinbold Racing endured plenty of emotion and action during the
Kentucky Indy 300 in Sparta, Kentucky today. The team made their
11th appearance at the 1.5-mile oval as it turned out to be a
bittersweet day for DRR drivers, Townsend Bell (No. 22 Valsapr) and
Ana Beatriz (No.24 Ipiranga).
Townsend Bell made his return to Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
this weekend as he was filling in for the injured Justin Wilson.
The California native didn't have the best qualifying result
yesterday due to the constant change in weather and track
conditions, but today definitely turned out the way the team had
hoped. As the green flag dropped, Bell immediately went from 26th
position to 15th. By Lap 20, he fell back a few
positions, but just hung in there before the first pit stop. On Lap
50, Bell came in for fuel and tires and to make a few adjustments
to the No. 22 Valspar machine.
The caution came out on Lap 79 and as a result, Bell was able to
get his lap back that he had lost earlier on and he came in on Lap
84 for fuel and tires. As the green flag waved it was a matter of
staying out of trouble and moving his way up the grid, and that's
exactly what Bell did. The yellow came out on lap 166 and he was
able to make up some more ground. Bell brought the car home in 11th
place.
It was a different story for Bell's teammate, Ana Beatriz. The
Brazilian was off to a great start. She went from 20th to 18th
after the green flag dropped and Bia kept working her way up the
grid. Unfortunately, things started to change a little bit. Beatriz
came in on Lap 82 for fuel and tires. As she was exiting her pit
box, she made contact with Will Power and had to change her nose
before leaving the pits. As a result she lost two laps and filtered
to the back of the field. Fortunately, two yellows came out and she
was able to get her laps back.
From that point on she was working her way up the grid and
making incredible time. Unfortunately, luck wasn't on her side
today. On Lap 166, Beatriz got loose going into Turn 3 and made
contact with the wall, which ended her day early. Bia finished the
race in 24th position.
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing will head home to Indianapolis
where they will prepare their cars for the final race of the 2011
IZOD IndyCar Series in Las Vegas, Nevada. For more updates on the
team, please visit www.dreyerreinboldracing.com.
What they have to say...
Townsend Bell, No. 22 Valspar:"I'm really proud of
the Valspar crew. It was a great day for us. I went into this
thinking let's get a good, solid result that we can be proud of and
I think that we accomplished that today as we ran with the lead
pack there in the end. They were two wide in front of me and it was
really tough to make any moves, but I was really proud of coming
from the back to an 11th place finish. Hopefully we can build on
this and go to Vegas that much stronger."
Ana Beatriz, No. 24 Ipiranga: "Today started out
well and we passed some people. Unfortunately, on the first stop I
had an incident with Will Power in the pits and it destroyed both
of our races, but especially for Will with the championship. We had
to change our nose and lost two laps because of that. We were
recovering unbelievably well and the car was really fast. We used
the wave around on the two yellows to recover the laps that we had
lost and that put us back on the lead lap. It was great and we were
moving up and I was passing a lot of people and the car was running
really well. It's really unfortunate what happened in Turn 3. In
Turn 3, I lost it and couldn't catch it. It wasn't our day and I'm
really sorry for the guys. We were running very competitively and
the plan is to continue that to Vegas and hopefully we will do
really well there."