The Crittenden Automotive Library

Salvaged a top 10 in Iowa

Topics: Daniel Herrington, Miller Lite 100

Salvaged a top 10 in Iowa

Andrew Herta
Bryan Herta Autosport
June 21, 2009

Qualifying a season best fourth position in the Bryan Herta Autosport No. 28 Dallara/Firestone machine sponsored by Le Bleu, Herrington advanced to the third position on the first green flag lap and began working J.R. Hildebrand for the second position. Just before a caution on lap 52, Herrington made a run on Hildebrand, but was blocked from completing the pass. Race control penalized Hildebrand and the faster Herrington was able to move to second to begin working on race leader, Wade Cunningham.

While running in the second position on lap 93, Herrington was attempting to get around lapped traffic, including competitor Mike Potekhen who was less than yielding. Herrington made contact with Potekhen and as a result, began shuffling back through the field due to right front wing damage to the car. He hung on to take the checkered flag in ninth position.

In the seven races so far this season, Herrington has only finished outside of the top-ten once this season when he had contact with the wall at Milwaukee. As a result, he has moved up from eighth to sixth in the Firestone Indy Lights championship point standings with 168 points (59 points behind the leader).

Daniel Herrington:
“I’ve never been so happy and disappointed to finish ninth. It’ll pulls the heart right out of your chest to be running second and have contact with a lapped car. It’s disappointing but then it’s also a positive to be running up there with the leader and be running strong especially when we haven’t gotten the opportunity to show what we can really do this year to date. As tough as it was to end the race that way, it’s also reassuring that we’ve made some gains with the car and seem to be there speed wise. We sure would like to go out there and show that we have the potential to win a few of these. For the whole season we have been kind of chasing the AGR and Schmidt guys, so to be up there running and racing with them and being competitive is really reassuring. I’m looking forward to the next one.”
On contact:
“Wade (Cunningham) and I came up on a lapped car and Wade went by him on the inside. It looked like he left me room and I started going by him on the inside but for whatever reason we had contact. I was trying my hardest to give him enough room. I was trying to be cautious since we were sitting there in second place and I didn’t want to blow our position but we still managed to make contact (front wing damage). From then on I was just trying to hold on.”