RACE REPORT: Sonsio Grand Prix

“Not the day we were hoping for today at the Sonsio Grand Prix. We started out strong, but after going a lap down from the contact on the second lap, we just never fully recovered. We were obviously hoping to go into the rest of the month with a better result, but unfortunately, that just wasn’t in the cards for us. We’ll just shift our focus to the 500 and move forward from here.”

• After clutch issues cut Kyle Kirkwood’s Warm-Up Session short this morning, the Florida native had a lot of work to do in today’s race, taking the start from the back of the field in 21st.
• By Lap 14, Kirkwood had navigated up seven positions to 20th and had recorded the fastest lap of the race at the time on Lap 17.
• At the halfway mark, the PreFab Honda was up to seventh before making up another spot into sixth by Lap 50.
• With the race coming to a close, a late untimely yellow put Kirkwood down a few spots to eighth, where the PreFab Honda would ultimately take the checkered flag after making up 13 positions throughout the 85-lap race.

“I really didn’t do much, if I’m being honest. The team gave me a fast race car. We didn’t get out during Warm Up, so we were a bit blind as to what car we actually had, but Bryan Herta is a magician at strategy, and he played our cards right. He put us on the right tires when we needed to be, and we made a lot of passes in pit lane on strategy because of it. Fortunately, he called that race, or else we probably wouldn’t have moved that far forward. So, I’m thankful to this team. They did a really good job this weekend. We had a lot of hiccups, a lot of mishaps, some of them induced by me, and we bounced back big in the race. For tires, it probably hurt us starting from the back because the Reds were actually retired to run, and we had a plethora of them, whereas the guys in the front did not. So, we had to mix some things up.”

• Starting the day with a sixth-place finish at this morning’s Warm-Up Session, Marcus Ericsson rolled off the grid in 20th confident the Fresh Connect Central Honda had more pace in it for today’s 85-lap race.
• Ericsson was up two spots to 18th before contact on Lap 6 forced the Fresh Connect Central Honda back to the pits.
• On his way into pit lane, the Swede reported on the radio that the No. 28 Fresh Connect Central Honda felt off. After taking the No. 28 behind the wall for further evaluation, the team decided to retire from the race, ending Ericsson’s race day early.

“We don’t really know what happened there with the car. We just ran into some issues, and that was kind of it for us. So, we just need to try and figure out exactly what happened there and why it took us out of the race. Obviously, I didn’t want to end the day this way, but we’ll just have to go forward from here.”

“The No. 27 PreFab team executed their strategy really well today. It was unfortunate that the yellow at the end came when they were on the prime tire, as they were certainly vulnerable on the restart there. Overall, great execution from that team. The No. 26’s race was compromised, obviously, at the start when he got the nose taken off. Good execution from everyone to get back on the lead lap after that, but then we just kind of smoked the tires on the third stint doing that. So, we were essentially soldiering to the finish and then ultimately had a mechanical issue. Lastly, we’re still trying to get to the bottom of what happened with the No. 28, but it was clearly a short day for them. Right now, we have a good opportunity to re-center as we go into 500 race prep. It’s certainly important for the whole team to focus on the positives from the last two days and use that as a platform for the rest of the month.”