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TOUGH DAY FOR CFH RACING IN THE ANGIE’S LIST GRAND PRIX OF INDIANAPOLIS

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Hard-Fought Race For Filippi, Newgarden And Hildebrand Despite Finishing Positions

(SPEEDWAY, Ind.) May 9, 2015 – Race Recap

– Despite the fact both JR Hildebrand and Luca Filippi were able to run in the Top 5 and that Josef Newgarden ran a consistent pace with the leaders, their finishing positions did not reflect the quality of their CFHR Chevrolets in today’s Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis. With each of the three cars being involved in separate incidents, Filippi brought home a 14th place finish, Josef Newgarden finished 20th and JR Hildebrand completed the race in 21st.

– As the 25-car field streamed into Turn 1 at the green flag, Newgarden was hit from behind, ripping off the right rear bumper pod. The CENTURY 21 crew brought Newgarden in for a rear wing change and managed to get him out on the tail end of the lead lap. Newgarden was able to run the same lap times as the leaders throughout the entire event, but after he fell one lap down he was unable to capitalize on that speed.

– Filippi also sustained damage in the multi-car incident on the opening lap, breaking both his front and rear wings. As the damage did not look severe, the team elected to have him stay out and keep his 4th place position in the running order.

– Hildebrand was able to avoid the incident completely, gaining 8 positions on the start. At the Lap 3 restart, Hildebrand was running in 7th. He moved into 6th by Lap 10, a position he would remain in for the majority of the race.

– As laps progressed, the damage to Filippi’s front wing became worse. Radio contact was lost when Filippi’s radio came unplugged, which the crew fixed during his first pit stop on Lap 20. The No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka crew also replaced the damaged front wing during that stop. Despite dropping as far back as 22nd and still having a broken rear wing, Filippi was strong in traffic. He was able to regain several positions and finish 14th.

– After pitting from 5th for what was to be his final stop, two problems occurred for Hildebrand on Lap 61. The car was not fueled to completion and an issue arose with the right front wheel. Hildebrand slowly maneuvered the No. 6 Preferred Freezer Services car back around the 2.434-mile road course and was able to bring the car in the next lap without further incident. He re-entered the race in the 21st position, where he would finish.

– CFH Racing will be returning to the track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Monday, albeit on the 2.5-mile oval course. Hildebrand and Newgarden will be joined by team co-owner Ed Carpenter, who will be stepping into the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka car for the first official day of Indianapolis 500 practice.

LUCA FILIPPI, NO. 20 FUZZY’S AWARD WINNING VODKA CHEVROLET, FINISHED 14TH: “Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. I had a great start, moving up from ninth up to fourth. I was hit from behind and it broke my rear bumper, costing us two percent of our downforce for the entire race. I had no pace and no downforce. When we had to come in and change the wing I lost time there. In the meantime, we had an issue with the radio as well. We were very fast in traffic and able to pass people. It was a very unfair day for us, we easily had a top five car so this is a shame. Now it’s Ed’s turn, I really hope he will finish out the Month of May strong in the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka car.”

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 21 CENTURY 21 CHEVROLET, FINISHED 20TH: “It was just a tough day for the whole team. It doesn’t look like we had any luck anywhere in the field for any of our guys. For us, it was a day of attrition. I’m sure a lot of people weren’t happy with us trying to get our lap back, but we were still racing the best that we could.  If a yellow, fell we could’ve gotten that so that’s the reason we were pushing so hard for two-thirds of the race. It’s a shame we couldn’t get the opportunity to race today.  That’s racing, sometimes you have good days and sometimes you have bad ones.”

JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 6 PREFERRED FREEZER SERVICES CHEVROLET, FINISHED 21ST: “We got a good start and I was on the inside. I just dove for the inside and missed all of it so I passed a lot of cars. That worked to our strategy because we were actually running with the leaders. We got a good restart and just pulled away from a bunch of guys at the beginning of the race.  We were just holding steady. We were basically running in the Top 5 when we came in for the pit stop. It felt like I had a wheel loose, but as it turned out there was something mechanically wrong with the car. I came back which ended up being an extra pit stop that took us out of contention. It was a really good job by all of the guys, we ran really strong for a long time today. We struggled a little bit earlier in the week so it’s nice to have such a good strong run and run with the boys up front.”

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