| Date/Time: | 2006-07-25 13:01:00 |
| Race: | ABC Supply AJ Foyt Indy 225 |
Bucknum Experiences Milwaukee Mile Debut, Impressive Run Ends in DisappointmentIf Jeff Bucknum was intimidated by the oldest race track in North America and of the most daunting venues in autoracing, he certainly didn’t show it. Jeff competed in the ABC Supply Co./AJ Foyt 225 this weekend and was more than competitive from opening practice to the race.Jeff had never competed at Milwaukee but working with the master of Milwaukee, AJ himself helped the speed the learning curve. The car was stable off the trailer and newly appointed race engineer Len Paskus help fine tune the car in practice during Friday and Saturday sessions. During the final practice prior to qualifying Jeff turned more than a few heads by setting the 5th quick time, a truly impressive performance.Qualifying however was a bit of a step back as a subtle setup change had a negative impact and Jeff qualified 16th for the main event. His time was a mere .5 seconds of the pole time set by Helio Castroneves and Team Penske.There was a lot of anticipation on race day for Jeff’s ABC Supply Dallara Honda and Jeff was determined to stay clean and gain experience. An untimely engine change had limited his practice after qualifying and he lacked many miles of running in traffic. The unscheduled engine change also precipitated moving Jeff to the last row of the starting grid. When the green flag fell he picked up one position and soon began moving up, staying on the lead lap until circuit 24. Soon he passed for P15. He was gaining speed and on lap 34 turned a superb 156mph lap as he chased his competitors. He diced back and forth with Sharp until he again prevailed. ““We weren’t the quickest car at the beginning," said Bucknum, "Actually, we did not hit the tire pressure right. After we got our second set (of tires), we started to run decent times and hung with the others even though we were a couple of laps down,”. On Lap 112 he gained P14 by passing former Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice then moved on up to P11, his highest position in the race. He swapped positions with Rice several times, with that duo putting on one of the better races in the field. In fact at the 150 lap mark Jeff was turning laps consistently as fast as the leaders of the event. Then on lap 198 Jeff’s day ended as he got the right side tires just a bit into the marbles and the car pushed up to encounter the wall, damaging the suspension and ending Jeff’s day. The hard drive Jeff had put in up to that time insured a 13th place finish in spite of the incident. "You have to be so careful about the marbles. Up in three and four I literally barely touched them with my right front. The racing line was becoming lower and narrower with each lap. Just a few laps earlier I had been in the exact same area and it was fine, But this time. I did everything I could do to not hit the wall. I downshifted and everything else but nothing.” Jeff’s crew was also disappointed at the ending but not of the efforts Jeff had given the team all weekend. They are already hard at work and enthusiastic to prepare for the next event, The Firestone Indy 400 at Michigan International Speedway to be held Sunday, July 30. This is another new venue for Bucknum but he is showing he is very versatile at the IndyCar learning experience and is anxious to turn his first laps next Saturday when practice begins. |
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