Catchfence

SPEEDWAY, IN – - MAY 8, 2009 – - Round #4 2009 IndyCar Series season – - KV Racing Technology drivers Mario Moraes and Paul Tracy were 14th and 17th respectively on the speed charts following the final day of practice before tomorrow’s pole day qualifying for the 2009 Indianapolis 500, May 24, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana.

Moraes, #5 KV Racing Technology – Votorantim Honda/Dallara/Firestone, ran 32 laps today posting a fast lap of 223.575 mph while Tracy, #15 GEICO – KV Racing Technology Honda/Dallara/Firestone, made 30 circuits around the 2.5-mile Brickyard oval recording a quick lap of 223.372 mph.

“Today we worked on the KV Racing Technology – Votorantim car for qualifying,” said Moraes. “We were able to do some good runs, the car felt stable and I think we found some speed for qualifying. Tomorrow we will make a few extra changes and hopefully we qualify in the top-11.”

Tracy said, “Today was okay for the GEICO – KV Racing Technology team. We began trimming the car out, but we’re still not completely there. We spent today running laps on our own working on the qualifying setup. I don’t think we were as fast as we need to be for qualifying, but we are not totally trimmed out yet. We were just outside the top-12 on our own today, without drafting, so I think we can still reach our goal of qualifying on the first day in the top-11.”

Moraes will be trying to qualify for his second Indianapolis 500 and just his 12th oval race. The 20-year-old Brazilian, the second youngest driver in the series, made his IMS debut last year qualifying 28th and finishing 18th. In 11 previous oval events, Moraes has a best finish of 10th last year in Nashville (career best finish is seventh on the Watkins Glen road course also in 2008).

Tracy, a native of Canada will be attempting to qualify for his sixth Indy 500. In five previous races at the IMS he has a best qualifying effort of seventh in 1993. His best finish is a controversial runner-up performance in 2002.

Indianapolis 500 qualifying takes place in four parts. The first is Pole Day, when the pole sitter plus 10 other cars (total of 11) join the grid. All other times after the first 11 are voided. The second part occurs this Sunday when spots #12-22 will be seeded. Regardless of how fast a car runs on the second day, even if it is faster than the cars on the first day, they will be slotted in order from 12-22. All times after those 11 spots are filled are again voided. The third segment will be on Saturday, May 16 when places #23-33 are determined, again regardless whether they were faster than the first weekend of qualifying. The fourth, Bump Day, will be on Sunday, May 17. On Bump Day, cars can be removed or “bumped” from the field of 33 by a faster car. If the bumped car is not the last car on the grid (33rd), all the cars behind the bumped car move up the grid and the new car takes the 33rd spot even if its time is faster than the pole time.

Tomorrow’s Pole Day qualifying begins with two 30-minute practice sessions featuring half the field in each session starting at 9:00 a.m. There will another practice from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. open to all competitors. Cars start lining up for qualifications at 11:45 a.m. Qualifying attempts beginning at 12:00 p.m. A draw will be held to determine qualifying order. The draw includes all cars entered for the 2009 Indianapolis 500 including backup cars (T cars). The actual order in which cars qualify depends on whether a driver qualifies his primary or backup car, and whether he decides to make an attempt to qualify or pass his place in line. Note, cars, not drivers, qualify for the Indianapolis 500. A car has made a qualifying attempt after running two warm-up laps and four timed laps. The average speed of the four timed laps determines a car’s qualifying speed. Each car can make three attempts to qualify on each of the four days of qualifying.

Qualifying for the 2009 Indianapolis 500 will be broadcast live on Versus from 12:00 noon to 6:00 p.m. ET.

For more information about KV Racing Technology visit: www.kvracingtechnology.com

- KV Racing Technology Press Release