USA today: A.J. Foyt RacingVitor Meria had a couple of close calls in the pit stall during Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
AJ Foyt RacingVitor Meria had a couple of close calls in the pit stall during Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Close calls. Surviving them made a difference to Vitor Meira and my team ABC Supply. We pulled off another top-10 finish this past weekend at the Grand Prix of Long Beach. The race could have gone better, but taking into account everything that happened, I left satisfied.Qualifying ran okay — we started 13th isn't so bad when you look at the past Long Beach experience teams and/or drivers Vitor was against. We've improved on qualifying courses in the streets, but competition is even stronger this year. We are still looking to break into the top 12. The dreaded double-file restarts never really came out this weekend because the cars had to go so slow via winding giving into the main straight — they don't have time to Monte before Green was released. The benefit was that there was a pileup in the first round because all but the first two lines came through single file. However, there was a crash in turn 1 at the end of the race which involved mighty team mates, but that had more with brake fade — or disappear from the brain of an individual. I bet its owner wasn't very happy — I would be pretty crazy.Returning to our race, Vitor was racing where he began — just behind 12 qualifier Ryan Briscoe, who pitted earlier using a slightly different fuel strategy. He worked for Briscoe because of full course yellow that left four laps later. We pitted with all others in which prudence; the ABC crew provide made his things in 7. 1 seconds. But Victor had to wait for leaving his pitbox because neighbor JR Hildebrand was entering in your Inbox at the same time. However, this half second might have made a difference in our luck.As Vitor sped down pit lane, Graham Rahal shot outside his pitbox straight into the fast lane — against the rules if you get caught. He banged wheels with Vitor, throwing him over the fence. Rahal veered into pitbox of Serbia but continued. Lucky for us, it does not damage the final racing-car 14 because fighting wheel to wheel. But that wasn't the end of everything. The next stop of Vitor, had a problem that turned him into a second-nine more. Hurt also that the tires were though both at the end of the stint — as a second and half a turn! So when he left the pits he began in front of Danica but couldn't stay in front of it since it was on cold tires and she wasn't. He fell from 10 to 14 of the combination of slow and stop wasting so much time on tyres worn out. The thought was (Yes, we thought about it) that if he had problems over Blacks at the end of the passage, he would have the worst problems with the "reds" which is what we were putting on. It seemed the lesser of two evils, but the way the race played out, is not so sure.Vitor avoid another accident when Oriol Servia came blasting out on his way after making a 360 on sale instead of one. Servia was caught in the first turn accident involving willpower, Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon. Vitor hadn't braked hard and downshifted, Serbia would have fallen into it. Because the accident was with leaders, moved from 14th to ninth.But it wasn't over yet! Vitor had yet another close call to deal with the 20 laps from the end.Ryan Hunter-Reay, who was running second, had a problem with his gearbox few laps later. As he fell back through the field he was staying low and cars were going around it. Vitor was outside when Hunter-Reay came back in the Groove and put almost Vitor on the wall. Vitor thinks Ryan was still trying to figure out what was wrong with your selector and not seen Vitor out of it, but it was a very close call for the 14 again! Vitor lost positions for Tony Kanaan and Raphael Matos, but he was able to pass Matos back to ninth. He spent the final six laps holding off power returned from 16 to finish the day 10 So Considering everything that went wrong, that Victor showed some heads-up driving to bring the car ABC supply home in one piece and score another top 10 Finish. He also placed 10 in the point of the IndyCar Series. We head to Brazil after the Easter weekend to the country of origin of Victor. If we stay ahead in the count of calls from close, Vitor may just surprise people as it did last year in Brazil when he finished on the podium. Surprise to everyone but me, IE. For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ. To report corrections and clarifications, contact standards Editor Brent Jones. For consideration of publication in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and State for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections usatoday.com. We've updated the guidelines of the conversation. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation of how to use the "report abuse" button. Read more.
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