Carpenter prepared for tough Sonoma raceway challenge this weekend

SONOMA, Calif. (Aug. 20, 2013) – Ed Carpenter and the ECR/Fuzzy’s Vodka team feel encouraged entering this weekend’s GoPro Indy Grand Prix at the legendary Sonoma Raceway north of San Francisco.

Carpenter, the 2013 Indy 500 pole winner and the only dirt track veteran in the IZOD IndyCar Series driver field, continues to show road racing progress with his young engineering staff led by Matt Barnes. The Butler University grad’s recent Mid-Ohio race showing proved that Carpenter and his team have improved their road racing settings in the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka Chevrolet machine.

Despite a 20th place finish at Mid-Ohio three weeks ago, Carpenter produced a solid performance in the final two-thirds of the Mid-Ohio contest with lap times rivaling the leaders of the race. Carpenter, who didn’t drive in his first road race until 2006, recorded times in the 67-second bracket that put him near the top-five laps of the race.

“The 20th place finish really didn’t show how competitive we were at Mid-Ohio,” said Carpenter, the only team owner/driver in the field at Sonoma. “We suffered in the first stint with grip but the car came alive in the last two stints and I think we learned some things for the Sonoma race. If we can get the Mid-Ohio race pace back at Sonoma, I think we can have a very good race.”

Carpenter has two top-four finishes and the Indy 500 pole in 2013 despite competing with a one-car operation against the multi-car teams which can afford to exchange information between the drivers and engineers.

“We have to rely on the information Ed gives us with his Fuzzy’s Chevrolet,” said Tim Broyles, team manager for Ed Carpenter Racing. “Many of the top teams have big engineering staffs and they are able to gather tons of information from their drivers and share car settings. We have young but strong engineering staff and we have just the information from one driver. We were very pleased with Ed’s late race performance at Mid-Ohio. We hope that can translate to a good run at Sonoma this weekend.”

Carpenter and his team will get an extra day to develop their Chevrolet-powered machine this week when the IndyCar Series drivers test at the challenging 2.385-mile, 12-turn Sonoma circuit this Wednesday (Aug. 21).

Ed Carpenter Racing