Results tagged “Andretti Green Racing” from Haddock in the Paddock

The combination of Marco Andretti and Franck Montagny produced a fifth-place finish at Lime Rock Park for Andretti Green Racing in the American Le Mans Series.
For the race this weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Montagny will be teamed with Raphael Matos and the hopes of a better finish.
Montagny made his debut with Andretti Green at Lime Rock Park, replacing Valencia's Bryan Herta and Christian Fittipaldi in the team's No. 26 Acura.
Matos, a driver for Andretti Green Racing in the Indy Lights series, will be making his first start in the American Le Mans Series.
"I'm very excited to be driving the XM Acura at Mid-Ohio in addition to my duties for the Firestone Indy Lights Series," Matos said. "I got to test AGR's ALMS car at Mid-Ohio earlier in the season, which I think will help me get up to speed much quicker. I am looking forward to driving with Franck as I know that we will be able to work well together to set up the car. Hopefully we can give Acura a win at their home track and give AGR their first win of the season."
Matos will be a busy driver. He is entered in the American Le Mans Series race and a doubleheader Indy Lights weekend with races on Saturday and Sunday.

Valencia's Bryan Herta will not be driving for Andretti Green Racing in the next American Le Mans Series race at Lime Rock Park at Lakeville, Conn., on July 12.
Franck Montagny is the new primary driver of the team's No. 26 Acura-powered entry in the American Le Mans Series, the team announced Thursday.
Montagny and Marco Andretti, son of team co-owner Michael Andretti, will drive the team's Acura in the race at Lime Rock Park. Herta is not in Andretti Green's plans for future races, but the team said in a release that a variety of drivers will team with Montagny for the final seven races of the American Le Mans Series season.
"It was a complete shock to me," said Herta, a Hart High of Newhall graduate. "I'm at a bit of a loss for words. It's there sandbox. Right now it's all kind of a bit of a surprise. I'm not going to jump at something. I want to see what happens."

After 50 races, two teams and endless questions, Danica Patrick won the first IndyCar Series race of her career in Motegi, Japan, over the weekend.
Patrick, who became the first woman to win an Indy Racing League IndyCar Series race, was asked which one of her teammates has helped her the most over the years.
She has quite an impressive list of teammates to choose from. She been on the same teams as Tony Kanaan, Dario Franchitti, Marco Andretti and Buddy Rice. That’s two Indianapolis 500 winners, two IRL champions and an Andretti.
She said Bryan Herta.
Patrick mentioned Franchitti, Kanaan and Andretti, but a conversation she had with Herta last year at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course stood out.
“I was on the front row for the first time on a road course, which was great,” Patrick said Sunday during the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, “and he said, ‘You know, when you win your first race, you’re going to go, I wasn’t doing anything different that day, it just happened.’ I wasn’t doing anything different yesterday, it just happened. He was right.”
It was Herta’s crew and team at Andretti Green Racing that Patrick inherited last year. A number of the same people that worked on Herta’s team are still with Patrick’s.
Herta, who drives for Andretti Green Racing in the American Le Mans Series now, said he remembers having that conversation with Patrick at Mid-Ohio.
“There was a lot of pressure on Danica to win and she hadn’t yet,” said Herta, a Valencia resident and Hart High of Newhall graduate. “She was already doing a great job. Nobody puts more pressure on Danica than Danica.”
He was trying to share his experiences with her. Herta won his first race in the old CART series at Laguna Seca in 1998 and won his first IRL race at Kansas Speedway in 2003. Both times, he did nothing out of the ordinary, there was nothing super-human about them. Things just sort of came together.
“You think it’s going to be so much harder, but it’s not,” Herta said.
Now that she’s won a race, it’s only going to make her better, Herta said.
“It definitely takes the question she’s been asked the most away,” Herta said. “It will free her up to focus on racing more consistently. She will become an even better driver now because of this.”
Patrick said her teammates have always demonstrated a tremendous amount of confidence in her. She said she was lucky to have those kind of teammates around her, especially at Andretti Green Racing.
“My teammates always said things like when you win your first race, when you win, this is what we’re going to do, and they always put that in my head,” Patrick said. “While I always believed it, it was nice to hear from guys like Tony Kanaan and Dario Franchitti. It’s a big honor, and I think that put that positive frame of mind and that presence there every time.”

Danica Patrick will be on a special edition of the "Andretti Green Racing Hour" on XM Satellite Radio channel 144 Tuesday night from 4-5 p.m. Pacific time.
Patrick is scheduled to talk to sportscaster Mike King about her win at Motegi, Japan, becoming the first woman driver to win an IndyCar Series race.
Following the program, XM will replay the Indy Japan 300 from 5-7 p.m Pacific time with commentary from team Andretti Green Racing team manager Kyle Moyer and XM Sports Nation host Joe Castello.
After the race, XM will broadcast the Andretti Green Racing Hour again from 7-8 p.m. Pacific time.

Valencia’s Bryan Herta posted the fastest lap in the American Le Mans Series LMP2 class during the three-day test at Sebring International Raceway in Florida earlier this week
Herta, a driver for Andretti Green Racing, will be teamed with Christian Fittipaldi in the American Le Mans Series this year. Fittipaldi, a veteran open-wheel racer from the CART and the Champ Car World Series, is the nephew of Indianapolis 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi.
The American Le Mans Series season opens March 15 with the 12 Hours of Sebring.
Herta, teamed with Tony Kanaan and Dario Franchitti, won the 12 Hours of Sebring race last year.
“I think we have potential with this new car,” said Herta, a Hart High of Newhall graduate. “We had an uneven test this week as we had some trouble with the car at times. We will go back to the shop and do our homework.”
This will be Herta’s second season with Andretti Green Racing American Le Mans Series team. He drove in the Indy Racing League for Andretti Green for three years prior to moving to the American Le Mans Series.
“Bryan has been driving this car for a year and he knows in less than a lap what to change on the car,” Fittipaldi said. “It is still a learning process with me. But I’m ready for the Sebring race.”
Andretti Green will be one of four teams using Acura-powered cars in the LMP2 division. Lowe’s Fernandez Racing, Highcroft Racing and the newly formed de Ferran Motorsports will also race Acuras.
Even though Herta had the fastest lap during the test, he said the team had some difficulty finding any consistency at Sebring.
“This place changes a ridiculous amount from one session to the next,” Herta said. “And that makes it difficult to get a reading. Our issues this week were continuity and running consistently throughout the day. It was tough to get readings with our XM Acura when we had a few things to fix. But that is what testing is all about — getting the problems worked out. We’ll come back next month for another test and work on more items with the new car. Then it will be time to race.”