JUSTIN WILSON LEADS RUSPORT 1-2Justin Wilson (#9 Intel Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) stormed to a victory in Sunday's Gran Premio Telmex/Tecate Presented by Banamex by leading 65 of 70 laps around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Wilson fought off a number of fierce challenges from teammate A.J. Allmendinger (#10 Western Union Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone), including a final charge after a Lap 65 restart, to score his second victory of the Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford season. Allmendinger held on to the second spot for his fifth podium finish of the year and Paul Tracy (#3 Indeck Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) powered back from a pair of incidents that sent him to the back of the pack to take his seventh podium finish of the campaign.
TOP THREE FINISHERS QUOTES:
Paul Tracy: "Probably the end result didn't come out as well. You know, it was a frustrating day for us. I made a good start, got by AJ. I was in second place. Somebody touched me in the back tire, punctured it. Came in, changed it and that put us three-quarters of a lap behind. We got a pit stop out of the way. The yellow came out, which really played into our hands. On the restart with Rodolfo, we were fighting and ended up touching. I gave him a flat tire. That kind of led into me blocking AJ on the track and trying to keep him behind me. After that, pretty much thought we were out of it. Then we started to catch up. Passed some guys. We got a couple lucky yellows at the end. I had a lot of 'push to pass' left, was able to make positions back. So good result. "
A.J. Allmendinger: "You know, I mean, as Justin and I would admit, we've probably given away a couple 1-2 finishes this year we should have had. To finally give Carl a 1-2 finish, I think it's absolutely fantastic. You see the tears that come down his face after we do well, you can see how much he cares. For us as a team, I think it's important to know that your team owner is behind you that much. I've been with him from the start. He's just been a hundred percent behind this team."
Justin Wilson: "It feels great. I just want to carry on from what AJ was saying. Friday we really struggled. AJ was fantastic. I saw his setup. We kind of evolved each other and were able to work together like that to try different things, see if it works. If it doesn't work, we got the other car to back up on. That's what we did this weekend. It's great. The team have done a fantastic job, like AJ said. They really deserved the 1-2. Hopefully we can get a few more next year."
