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Carpenter Disappointed In Texas Qualifying Friday

Topics: Ed Carpenter, Firestone 550

Carpenter Disappointed In Texas Qualifying Friday

Tom Blattler
Ed Carpenter Racing
June 8, 2012

Ed Disappointed in Texas Qualifying

June 8th 2012 - FT. WORTH, TEXAS – Ed Carpenter shook his head as he jumped from his No. 20 Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka Chevrolet Friday in qualifying for the Firestone 550 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Carpenter was not pleased with his two-lap qualifying effort of 211.643 miles per hour which placed him 20th in the 24-driver field for Saturday’s 228-lap main event set for 8:50 p.m. EDT. The race will be televised on NBC Sports Network beginning at 8 p.m. EDT.

After the first practice session was delayed for an hour due to “weepers” (moisture) in the track surface, the cars ran for one hour and 15 minutes with the new “low-downforce” in the new DW12 Dallara” chassis. Just an hour later (at 5 p.m. EDT.) qualifying began.

Unfortunately, Carpenter was scheduled to be the first driver out for time trials and it put a strain on the Ed Carpenter Racing crew to make the changes needed for qualifying. The short turnaround time hurt Carpenter and ECR team as gearing wasn’t adjusted between practice and qualifying.

The result was evident immediately when the Fuzzy’s Vodka car hit the “rev” limiter on Carpenter’s warm-up lap. Ed recorded a 210.936 m.p.h. in his first timed lap followed a 212.355 clocking for an average of 211.643. Alex Tagliani won the pole at 215.691. A night practice also was scheduled for Friday night at 7:45 p.m. EDT.

“I’m pretty upset,” said Carpenter after qualifying. “We were just off with our gearing in the Fuzzy’s car. We were on the rev limiter for both laps. I think I could have been as fast as Tony (Kanaan) and others if we had our gearing right. We were first up to qualifying and we didn’t have much time to prepare the car before qualifying. Everyone is so freaked out about ‘pack’ racing that we have so little downforce. And it will be extremely hard to get through the field from the back. I have been racing here since 2004 and I don’t feel we’ve had a true ‘pack race’ since 2005. I feel everyone is nervous coming to the first one and a half track of the year. I understand that. I don’t feel I’m reckless but we also have to put on a good race for the fans. This is a challenging track for the drivers.”