Catchfence

LEXINGTON, OH (August 8, 2010) – Supported by a fast racecar and an efficient pit crew, Raphael Matos turned in a dynamic performance to record his fourth top eight finish of the season in the IZOD IndyCar Honda Indy 200 at Mid Ohio Sports Car Course.

Despite starting 19th, Matos climbed a race-high 12 positions, including four passes in the final 20 laps to finish seventh, his fourth top 10 of the season.

“This was probably one of our best races so far this year,” de Ferran Dragon managing partner and team president Gil de Ferran said. “Rafa, again, drove an impeccable race, we had the fastest car on the race track during the final stint, the crew had a couple of the year’s best pit stops, and Jay called great strategy. Overall, a fantastic effort and we’re very happy with the result.”

As solid as Matos was on the track, the HP de Ferran Dragon crew turned in two fast pit stops to help pave the comeback trail. Matos gained four positions in the pits and eight on the course. He was 15th when the team made it’s first stop under caution on lap 26 and gained three spots coming out and picked up one more on the final pit stop on lap 60. After that, it was all Matos, climbing from 11th to seventh with spectacular passes in the final 20 laps.

“It was a very exciting race,” Matos said. “I have to thank the team for great pit stops and strategy. We needed a good result after our qualifying result wasn’t what we had hoped. The team and engineers gave me a really good car. I was able to conserve fuel when I needed to and was able to be competitive and push when I needed to as well.”

After struggling to 19th in qualifying, the HP de Ferran Dragon engineers and crew worked overtime to deliver a car and strategy that would prove worthy of contention.

“We all put our heads together last night, for more than four hours, and the engineers made some good decisions with the setup leading into the race today,” de Ferran said. “This was one of those races where everything went well.”

With the seventh place finish, Matos collected 26 points and moved up to eighth in the Mario Andretti Road Course Standings and into 12th overall heading into the final road course race of the season in Sonoma.

“I am extremely happy with the end result,” Matos said. “We’ll carry some momentum and some new knowledge gained here into the race in two weeks at Infineon.”

- de Ferran Dragon Racing Press Release