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NEWGARDEN FINISHES SECOND AGAIN AT IOWA SPEEDWAY

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Repeats Result from 2014; Carpenter Narrowly Misses Out On Top Five Finish

(NEWTON, Iowa) July 18, 2015 – Race Notes

– Josef Newgarden matched his best result at Iowa Speedway, finishing second for the second year in a row behind Ryan Hunter-Reay. Teammate and CFH Racing co-owner Ed Carpenter narrowly missed out on his own top five finish, settling for 6th place at the end of the 300-lap race.

– Qualifying took place four hours before the start of tonight’s Iowa Corn 300. Newgarden earned a seventh place starting position while Carpenter started two rows behind in 11th.

– At the drop of the green flag, Newgarden vaulted up to second place where he would stay for the majority of the race’s first stint. He made his first pit stop on Lap 77 and by the time the entire field had cycled through, he had moved into second place. Carpenter was the first car on his strategy to pit, dropping him all the way back to 22nd, but he worked his way back up to 13th.

– While race leader Helio Castroneves was working through lapped traffic on Lap 105, Newgarden saw his opportunity and took the lead of the race. A caution came out immediately following on Lap 107, setting up a second round of pit stops under the yellow flag. Newgarden entered and exited the pit lane first while Carpenter gained one position and moved up to 12th.

– Newgarden maintained his lead on the Lap 120 restart, but relinquished it back to Castroneves on Lap 126. As the stint wore on, Newgarden’s car continued to improve and he took the lead back on Lap 159. He would stay in the lead until the last pit stop of his race.

– Meanwhile, Carpenter showed his oval prowess in his No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet by steadily moving through the field. After his third stop of the race on Lap 174, also under a caution, he was all the way up to 7th place. He made quick work of two cars in front of him on the restart; by Lap 189, he had moved into the top five.

– The fourth and final pit stops of the race occurred under green flag conditions. Carpenter was the first of the CFHR cars to pit, coming on Lap 247 after making it up to 4th place. Newgarden pitted from the 1st position two laps later. He came out behind Hunter-Reay, who had stopped several laps earlier on Lap 238.

– Before the entire field could make their final stops, a late-race caution came out on Lap 262. Hunter-Reay’s gap was removed, giving Newgarden the opportunity to pass him on the restart. Hunter-Reay jumped back out front and despite Newgarden cutting his lead every lap, he took the checkered flag in 2nd place. He crossed the line 0.5046 seconds behind Hunter-Reay, mirroring the finishing of both drivers from 2014.

– Carpenter was involved in his own late-race battle, taking the Lap 277 green flagfrom the 6th position. He quickly passed Sage Karam, who came back and engaged Carpenter in a multi-lap, extremely tight battle. Though he made it up to 4th, Carpenter dropped back to 6th as a result of racing against Karam, where he would finish the race.

– Newgarden’s Chevrolet featured Wichita State University (WSU) at Iowa Speedway, continuing the partnership from 2014. WSU engineering students were on-hand at the track throughout the weekend to learn the interworking of an IndyCar team. CFH Racing co-owner Wink Hartman hails from Wichita, Kan. and is an alumni of WSU.

– Newgarden led 111 laps of the 300-lap race, the most of any drivers in the field. His second place finish is his third podium of 2015, following his wins at Barber Motorsports Park and the streets of Toronto, Canada earlier this year. Last week at the Milwaukee Mile, Newgarden earned his first career pole position.

– Carpenter’s 6th place finish is his best of the season to date. Carpenter, who only drives on the oval events, had a tough start to his season with three DNFs (Did Not Finish). His luck turned around last weekend in Iowa as he finished 9th in the ABC Supply Wisconsin 250.

– Luca Filippi, driver of the No. 20 on road and street course events, welcomed his daughter, Mia, on Monday, July 13. Mia is the first child for Filippi and his wife Elisa.

– CFH Racing will enjoy an off weekend before heading to Lexington, Ohio for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The race will be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network starting at

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 67 WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND: “Well, it was tough.  I really feared that if we were going to get into a shootout situation and we were behind, not leading, that it was going to be tough for us.  We didn’t quite have the ultimate speed, but we had an incredible racecar.  I’m so proud of my guys. It was fun to run here, you can’t beat running around Iowa in an Indy car.  It’s unbelievably fun and more fun for me because we had such a great racecar.  But it’s disappointing, I’m really sad we lost that thing to be honest! We had a car to win and we still had a great effort all weekend. Hopefully, we keep this momentum going.”

ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA CHEVROLET, FINISHED 6TH: “It’s cool that Ryan (Hunter-Reay) won the race, he needed that.  American’s kicked butt tonight.  I’m just mad because I had a car that was good enough for third or fourth. I had to do safe driving – slam on the brakes on the straightaway to save Sage (Karam’s) butt and he gets rewarded with a podium for it. He should have been penalized on the spot.”

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