Castaneda Gains Experience Despite Disappointing Day at Barber

Castaneda Gains Experience Despite Disappointing Day at Barber

Topics: Troy Castaneda, Grand Prix of Alabama

Castaneda Gains Experience Despite Disappointing Day at Barber

Monica Hilton
Bryan Herta Autosport
April 2, 2012

Birmingham, AL - Returning for the second race of his Firestone Indy Lights career, Troy Castaneda was ready to build on his ninth place finish in his first Indy Lights race just one week ago in St. Petersburg, FL. Despite running strongly through the middle section of the race, Castaneda’s day was unfortunately cut short in a single-car accident late in the race.

After rain delays and a few yellow flags during practices and qualifying, the Team Barracuda – BHA car started the Grand Prix of Alabama in P9. With just eight laps left to go in the race, the #28 car ended up in the barrier and finished P15.

“Today was pretty interesting,” Castaneda said. “We had a good morning session in practice. The car felt pretty quick and we had some good race pace keeping up with most of the guys. Towards the end I went into turn five side by side and had some brake problems. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get the car around the corner and went straight into the tires. I’m disappointed and I feel bad for the guys, but as they say it’s just one of those racing things. I have to learn from this. I’ve already learned a lot and I feel stronger in the car, both physically and mentally.

“Special thanks to Barracuda Networks, Bariani Olive Oil and Bryan Herta Autosport for helping me out this weekend. They’re a good team to work with and hopefully we can move forward from this into the next race.”

With a weekend off, the Firestone Indy Lights Series will head out to southern California for the Streets of Long Beach on Sunday, April 15 beginning at 1:45 p.m. ET. Fans can catch live scoring of the event on IndyCar.com and see all the action on NBC Sports Network.