Jimmy Kite and the Ethanol Hemelgarn Racing team fought hard all day at this weekend's Peak Antifreeze Indy 300 presented by Mr. Clean at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, IL.
The team started the day 17th on the grid and was working their way up the fieldwhen Kite ran over some debris from Ryan Briscoe's crash on lap 19. The teambrought the car into the pit to change the right rear tire which was losingpressure; dropping them to the back of the pack. The #91 Ethanol-sponsoredDallara/Toyota/Firestone managed to work their way back to an 18th place finishwith some aggressive driving and great pit stops.
The team was optimistic about this weekend's event after having a great testhere last week. Unfortunately things didn't come together quite the way they hadhoped. A disappointed Kite said, "I wish we could have provided a better finishfor all of the Ethanol guests that came out to watch this weekend. We've beenmaking gains all season and we were hoping to put on a good show for them.We thought coming in here that we could get another top-10 finish like we did onthe last 1.5-mile oval we ran in Kentucky, so we're definitely disappointed,"
The bright spot for the team has been their consistency. This was Kite's tenthIndyCar start of the year and his eighth straight finish since replacing the rookiePaul Dana, who was injured practicing for the Indianapolis 500. Kite hasn'tsuffered a DNF since his second race with the team back on June 11th at Texas.
Ethanol Hemelgarn Racing is backed by a group of companies within the fast-growing ethanol industry, led by the major ethanol design-build firms Fagen Inc.,ICM Inc., and Broin Companies. Ethanol is a high octane, high performance fuelthat is clean burning, renewable and made in America. As a growing componentof the United States' gasoline supply, ethanol delivers improved vehicleperformance while reducing emissions and improving air quality. The IndyCarSeries has announced that it will switch to ethanol as its fuel source beginningwith a 10% blend in 2006 and moving to 100% fuel-grade ethanol in 2007.
The team's 2005 roster of supporting partners under the ethanol banner includesnearly 30 equipment and process technology vendors and suppliers to theethanol industry.
