Manning making progress with Foyt Racing

Darren Manning and the ABC Supply team soldiered through a tough weekend to finish twelfth in the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi Saturday afternoon.

From the outset on Thursday, the team struggled to make Manning feel comfortable in the No. 14 Dallara/Honda. The team took a different direction with set-up on Friday which Manning liked. However, qualifying didn't go particularly well and although he was starting 18th, Manning was confident that he had a good race car for the race.

In the race Manning advanced to 13th by lap 10, a position he held through the first couple of pit stops. A long pitstop on lap 87 under green contributed to his losing two laps to the leaders. However, he was able to gain a lap back on the following pit stop when a yellow came out after the leaders had pitted. He moved up to 11th which is where he ran until he had to duck into the pits for a splash of fuel with four laps to go, dropping him to 12th.

"I'm not worried about the results just yet because we're still learning and improving as a team," said Manning afterwards. "It's just our second oval race together and I'm licking my lips to get to Indy because of all the testing time we'll have there. Today, the car was a bit of a struggle in the middle part of the race but the last quarter of the race it was really sweet - I could race with the guys."

"I'm happy to be heading to Kansas because I think we have a good baseline now," he continued. "If we had only started with the set-up we ended up with, we would have had a much better showing. The important thing is we continue to improve every time out."

E.A.
Source Foyt Racing