Catchfence

Race: Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Sunday, April 17 (3:30 PM ET, VERSUS)

Track: Streets of Long Beach (1.968-mile street circuit)
Location: Long Beach, Calif.

NOTES/NEWS

Follow CGR on Twitter: Follow @CGRTeams for official updates from Chip Ganassi Racing’s INDYCAR and GRAND-AM teams.

Managing Director Mike Hull on Long Beach: “The Long Beach Grand Prix has enormous Open Wheel equity – the winners of this race in F1, CART, and IndyCar represent the very best. The locals refer to it as the “race.” For us, it’s a Big Race to Win. All of our people are very energized to be recognized in Long Beach. Over the years, the race track configuration has been changed to match the downtown planners aggressive growth, but the common denominator continues to be curbs, concrete, and uneven surface. It truly represents a technical driver who finds the quickest route. Watch closely, as it isn’t always conventional.”

CGR Wins: Chip Ganassi Racing’s Indianapolis-based operations have won four out of the five races they’ve entered so far in 2011 (Rolex 24 At Daytona-GRAND-AM, Grand Prix of Miami-GRAND-AM, Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg-INDYCAR and the Porsche 250-GRAND-AM). The TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates team’s win at Barber Motorsports Park gave CGR its 138th victory.

Graham Rahal and the No. 38 Service Central Team

Follow Graham on Twitter: Follow @GrahamRahal for updates as the driver of the No. 38 Service Central Honda completes his first season with Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing in the IZOD IndyCar Series.

Tire Strategy: The No. 38 Service Central car will support Big O Tires, Service Central’s California retail center this weekend. Big O Tires is one of North America’s largest retail tire franchisors, with nearly 500 locations in 21 states. For more information, please visit www.bigotires.com.

Barber Recap: Rahal started in the 10th position and ran consistently in the top-10 until contact with another car sent the No. 38 Service Central Honda to pit lane for repairs. The Service Central team returned to the track and focused on gaining as much track position as possible before ending the day two laps down in 18th position.

Rahal on Long Beach: “The Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing team is headed off to the West Coast which is Big O Tires country, so that’s what we’ll have on the No. 38 Service Central car. I think Long Beach will be a great event for us. We’re going to have a lot of guests there, so we will be looking to get some good points and put on a great show for them. Even with the first two races not turning out as we’d hoped, we’re feeling pretty good. We’ve shown we have the speed and now we want to get rolling at Long Beach and start to turn things around.”

Road/Street Stats: With 36 starts on a road/street course, Rahal has one win, three top-fives, and seven top-10s. Rahal has one pole on a road/street course which came in 2009 at St. Petersburg where he finished seventh.

Winning Combination: Tim Keene will call the shots for the No. 38 Service Central team in Long Beach. Keene is the Team Manager and Race Strategist for the four-time GRAND-AM Rolex Series No.01 TELMEX Dinan-prepared BMW/Riley with TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing. Keene first worked with Rahal when the No. 01 TELMEX team went to Victory Lane for the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January.

Rahal, the Blogger: Keep up with Rahal as he provides his perspective on the Service Central team, his competitors and post-race recaps in season-long blogs with SPEEDTV.com and AutoWeek.com.

TEAM ROSTER

Mitch Davis – Team Manager

No. 38 (IndyCar)
Crew Chief (Air Jack): Matt Swan Race Strategist: Tim Keene
Engineer: Martin Pare Rear End (L/F): Dan Rushing
Assistant Engineer: Zack Eakin Rear End (L/R): Pat Nelson
Tires/Transport Driver: Mike Briggs R/R: Eric Prentice
Spotter: Lee Orebaugh Front End (R/F): Nick Cooper
Gear Box: Mike LaFontain Front End/Fueler: Trey Harkins

About Chip Ganassi Racing Teams

Chip Ganassi created his own one-car IndyCar team in 1990 and established a partnership with sponsor, Target. Today, Chip Ganassi Racing Teams includes two entries in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, four in the IZOD IndyCar Series and one Daytona Prototype in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Cars Series. Overall his teams have 12 championships and 138 victories, including three Indianapolis 500s, a Daytona 500, a Brickyard 400 and four Rolex 24 At Daytonas. Ganassi boasts state-of-the-art race shop facilities in Indianapolis and Brownsburg, Ind. and Concord, N.C., with a corporate office in Pittsburgh, Penn.

- Chip Ganassi Racing, Press Release