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Another Top Ten for Tagliani at Sonoma

Topics: Alex Tagliani, GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma

Another Top Ten for Tagliani at Sonoma

Monica Hilton
Bryan Herta Autosport
August 26, 2012

Alex Tagliani and his newly-branded Barracuda Racing team achieved a ninth-place finish for Sunday’s GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma.

The Canadian driver started the race in P8 and gained three positions during the first three laps of the race. The team executed their three-race pit stop strategy and ran most of the 85-lap competition in P5.

The later laps of the race brought about two yellows – the first since Toronto – and Tagliani made contact with the No. 28 car of Ryan Hunter-Reay on the restart, drawing a penalty. After the drive-through was served, Barracuda Racing was running P9 and would finish the race there.

Tagliani was disappointed in the incident but maintained his confidence in his Barracuda Racing crew after achieving their seventh top-ten finish in eight races.

“The only thing I can say is that there’s probably not going to be enough apologies to make Ryan [Hunter-Reay] feel better. I understand. I ran into him, and the guy that comes from behind and makes contact is at fault. I take full responsibility on the incident. With that said, I pay my dues to be here and I’m allowed to race with everybody. I had a really good run on Dario, I was beside him into the corner and when I turned, I just missed the apex and Ryan was right there. If I could rewind, I would like to avoid pushing him, that’s for sure.

In racing, I’ve been in situations where I want to be nice and I want to be a gentleman, but then the people behind just blow by you. When I’m out there, I want to bring the Barracuda Racing car into the best position possible. Today, I think we had a top five car, but it was a race incident.”

Team owner Bryan Herta added, “It was shaping up to be a really good race with Barracuda Racing. The contact and the penalty were unfortunate but we certainly had a strong racecar all day long and Alex did a great job. Now we look forward to heading to Baltimore next week.”

Next week, the IZOD IndyCar Series heads east for the Grand Prix of Baltimore on Sunday, September 2. The 75-lap competition is will be aired live on NBC Sports Network from 12-5 p.m. EDT with pre-race activities beginning at 1:55 p.m. and an estimated green flag drop at 2:47 p.m. Fans can also listen to the live radio broadcast on IMS Radio Network and Sirius Satellite (XM 94 and Sirius 212).