Catchfence

LEXINGTON, Ohio – (August 9, 2009) – Dan Wheldon’s National Guard Panther Racing car finally came to life Sunday during the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, but a malfunction of the air vent on what should have been the team’s final stop forced the team into an additional pit stop and a 16th-place finish.

Wheldon qualified 17th for today’s 85-lap event, and jumped two positions at the drop of the green flag and was running well until an expected handling issue that forced the team to pit early for new tires. As team cycled through two rounds of pit stops, Wheldon moved as high as ninth on the chart as he pitted on Lap 60 for what should have been the final trip to pit lane for the day. But as Wheldon returned to the field, the team realized a malfunction in the air supply to the fuel nozzle prevented the tank from filling with Ethanol and meant Wheldon had to pit again on Lap 70 for a splash of fuel to get to the end of the race.

Panther will travel to Infineon Raceway this Thursday for a test session with Wheldon, in preparations for the upcoming race on the scenic road course, which will be held Sunday August 23 at 5 p.m. (EST) with live coverage provided by VERSUS and IMS Radio Network and Sirius XM channel 211.

Dan Wheldon, No. 4 National Guard Dallara Honda

“The car was actually very good today. We had a problem on the first stint that really set us back, but once we fixed that our pace was really good. I think the thing we can take from this is that we’ve got a good baseline for our test this Thursday (at Infineon) and we know where we need to get our car early in these race weekends so we can qualify well. We had a fast racecar today, which is normal for the National Guard Panther Racing car – that’s encouraging and we just need to keep building on where we are now.”

- Panther Racing Press Release