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Gregg Takes Texas by 0.0424 Seconds |
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June 11. Five Menards Infiniti Pro Series rookies finished the
Firestone 100 at Texas Motor Speedway in the top five positions.
One of the rookies, however, had a slight advantage over the other
four. He ran in the Pro race last year here at Texas, and he
learned his lesson well. 
In that race, Travis Gregg, driving then, as now, for Sam Schmidt
Motorsports, sat on the front row next to his teammate and pole sitter,
Thiago Medeiros. Medeiros won the race and Gregg finished second,
keeping the third place finisher, Al Unser, at bay. At this
year’s season opener at Homestead-Miami Travis applied his lessons
learned. He was on the pole and his teammate Jaime Camara was
next to him. It worked. Travis won the race while Camara
held off third place finisher Jon Herb.
Now, Texas again for Travis. He got the right beginning. He
put it on the pole, with his teammate Chris Festa beside him. For
added insurance another teammate, Jaime Camara, (who figured out how to
keep Wade Cunningham behind him at Indianapolis) qualified third and
would start just behind Travis. Cunningham was fourth on the grid.
In the third row were two other rookies who have been on the rise this
season, Jay Drake and Nick Bussell, both with their own ideas about how
to get to the front.
In the end, Travis won, but the script was invented by some new members of the
cast. At the start of the race things went according to
plan. Gregg led and Festa provided protection. On lap 52 of
the 67 lap race Chris stuck his nose in front of Travis as they hit
the start/finish line, and Festa received credit for leading the
lap. Travis took the lead back for
keeps. (Photo on right, Travis Gregg)
But behind them other things were going on. Camara and his car
were not running the way they were at Indianapolis. He could not
protect his two teammates. Jay Drake and Wade Cunningham were
trading places and having their own race. And Nick Bussell was
behind them waiting to take advantage of any mistake either of them
might make. More importantly, this pack of rookies made sure
that Gregg and Festa would not break away from the pack.
By lap 60 Gregg was 0.3729 seconds ahead of Festa, with Cunningham
0.4494 seconds back. On lap 65 Gregg’s lead over Festa was down
to 0.0632, with Wade pulled up only 0.1806 seconds back. At 66,
one lap from the last, Festa had closed to 0.0598 seconds as he started
his run on Gregg for the lead and the victory. In doing so,
Festa, going high in Turn 2, left just enough room for Cunningham to
slip by into second.
Cunningham had seen how Festa had stuck his nose in the lead on lap 52,
and he remembered his lessons learned chasing Camara at
Indianapolis. As Gregg and Cunningham raced to the finished line
on lap 67 Wade made his move to the outside as Travis had the inside
line. Festa was not about to draft Wade close enough to give him
a push. Gregg and Cunningham crossed the finish line 0.0424
seconds apart, making this the third closest finish in Pro Series
history.
Festa finished third, Jay Drake fourth and Nick Bussell fifth.
Travis Gregg became the first Pro driver to win two races this
season. He also moved back into the Series points lead, four
points ahead of Cunningham. For Wade it was his third consecutive
second place finish. Clearly Cunningham is moving up the learning
curve. At St. Pete he finished 1.42 seconds behind
Andretti. At the IMS he finished 0.1319 seconds behind
Camara. Now it was only 0.0424 seconds that kept him from his
first win. For Wade this was his fourth consecutive podium finish, two
more than any other driver. Jay Drake also kept moving up his
learning curve quickly with his impressive race and finish. And
then there was Nick Bussell. He turned in the fastest lap in the
race!
The Pro Series high drama continues next weekend back at Indianapolis
on the F1 road course on Saturday, June 18. Here the highlight
may be the continuation of the Marco Andretti – Wade Cunningham road
racing competition we saw at St. Pete.
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