Starting in the back of the field in his second Indy Racing League IndyCar Series race, driver Paul Dana’s day ended early as his car was never able to recover from his crash during Friday’s practice at the XM Satellite Radio 200 at Phoenix International Raceway.

Because of the crash in practice, the Ethanol Hemelgarn Racing team was not able to participate in qualifying and entered the event at the 1-mile oval with their #91 Dallara/Toyota/Firestone in last position on the starting grid.  

“The crew did a great job of getting the car ready for the race. They worked late making sure I had a car that would be able to compete,“ Dana said. Dana  was  in  trouble  early  on  in  the  race  when  the  radio  in  his  helmet  failed, meaning he was unable to hear his spotter or communicate with his team to try to tune the car. Then he was hit by another car on lap 33.  

“I was just trying to stay out of everyone’s way early on and establish a rhythm and see if we could get back on pace, but the car was skating all over the place and it was hard to hold on. Then we got hit and the crew was concerned about the suspension and wheel bearings, so we decided to park it.”

“It’s frustrating. We’ve got to get some time in the shop to work out the kinks in our  program,  and  we will  definitely  be  testing  at  a few  more  tracks  in  the  next couple of weeks in order to be properly prepared for the rest of the season.”

Dana is currently tied for 12th in points and still leads in the rookie standings. The IndyCar  Series  goes  to  the  Honda  Grand  Prix  of  St. Petersburg  on  April  3 followed by the Indy 300 Japan on April 30. The Ethanol title sponsorship was created through the cooperation of a growing group  of  companies  within  the  fast-growing  ethanol  industry,  led  by  the  major ethanol design-build firms Fagen Inc., ICM Inc. and Broin Companies.