Catchfence

Discretion is the better part of valor. Vitor Meira and the ABC Supply team weathered a few close calls in the Grand Prix of Long Beach to finish ninth, his second top-10 finish in three races. He remains 10th in the IZOD IndyCar Series standings.

Starting 13th in the ABC Supply Dallara / Honda, Meira filed into 13th as the 27-car field executed their first clean start of the season. He kept pace following 12th-starting Ryan Briscoe until the first round of pit stops. As different strategies began playing out, Meira moved up to tenth.

Pitting on lap 27 after a full course caution was called for Simona DeSilvestro’s spin, the ABC Supply team pulled out a 7.1-second pit stop, but Meira had to be held half a second to avoid hitting J.R. Hildebrand’s car entering the pit box directly ahead of Meira’s. On the way out of pit lane, Meira was tagged by Graham Rahal who shot into the fast lane exiting his pitbox. The impact shoved Meira into the outer pit wall but he was able to continue with only minor damage.

He maintained his tenth place position until the next round of stops. A problem with the fuel fill saw the second stop take 9.4 seconds and Meira dropped to 14th. Compounding the problem was the fact he bumped wheels with Danica Patrick on that out lap and lost time, but both drivers were able to continue.

The next incident occurred on the lap 66 restart when Helio Castroneves punted teammate Will Power, ensnaring Scott Dixon and Oriol Servia in the first turn. Servia spun a u-turn and came blasting back onto the track cutting off Meira who braked to avoid crashing both of them.

Meira survived that mess but on lap 71, Ryan Hunter-Reay, who’d been running second, suffered a mechanical problem with his gearbox. As he filtered back through the field, he went wide carrying Meira out to the wall, costing Meira a couple positions. Tony Kanaan and Raphael Matos filed through underneath both Meira and Hunter-Reay. Meira regained one position (Matos) to slide into ninth.

In the final ten laps Power, who’d moved up from 15th, dogged Meira but the Brazilian was able to stave off the pursuit. Power hrd to settle for 11th.

“We had a real good car but at the end of the fuel stint, we were hurting because the tires gave up,” Meira said afterwards. “And on both my out laps, we had problems—first with Rahal hitting me in pit lane and then Danica bumped wheels with me on my out lap after my second stop. Every time something happened in front of me, I had to make a choice where to go and it was never the right one! So I lost four positions in all but hey, it’s still another top-10 so we can’t complain. This ABC Supply team will have the result we deserve soon!”

Mike Conway posted a strong run to capture his first victory. The remarkable performance came after he sat out most of last year after a vicious accident in last year’s Indianapolis 500 in which he sustained severe injuries to his back and leg. Following Conway across the line was Ryan Briscoe, who along with fifth place finisher Alex Tagliani, employed a slightly different fuel strategy to gain track position which worked handily for them. Dario Franchitti finished third with rookie James Hinchcliffe posting his career best finish of fourth.

Meira took the red-eye flight home to Miami after the race to be with his wife Adrianna who is due to give birth to their daughter at any moment. The couple has chosen the name Julianna for the baby.

The Series has next weekend off. On April 27th, the teams head to Sao Paulo, Brazil for their May 1 race event there. Finishing third there last year, Meira scored his first podium finish for the ABC Supply team on the 2.5-mile street course. The race will be broadcast live on Versus starting at 12 noon E.T.

- A.J. Foyt Racing Press Release