Portland, OR (August 30, 2018) – The Dale Coyne Racing team is returning to Portland International Raceway this week for the first time since 2007 to take part in the penultimate round of the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series. The team has made more than 20 visits to the Oregon track, but it will be competing in this weekend’s event with a couple of rookies who will be making their first appearance at the road course.
Pietro Fittipaldi, whose grandfather Emerson Fittipaldi won twice at Portland in 1989 and again in 1993, will be making his fifth IndyCar Series start at the Grand Prix of Portland behind the wheel of his #19 Paysafe Honda, while Santino Ferrucci will be making his third series start in the #39 Cly-Del Manufacturing Honda entry.
After scoring his best result of the season last weekend at the short oval at Gateway Motorsports Park with an 11th place finish, Fittipaldi is carrying momentum into what will only be his second career IndyCar Series road course event. His first road course start came at Mid-Ohio about a month ago where he returned to action after being sidelined for 11 weeks due to injury.
Santino Ferrucci will be making his return to the IndyCar Series this weekend when he takes to the 1.964-mile, 12-turn circuit at Portland International Raceway. The young American will be taking on his first IndyCar series road course after taking part in two street course events earlier this season at the Doubleheader in Detroit.
The entire IndyCar field will have an Open Test day on Thursday, August 30 with five hours of available track time before kicking off official practice on Friday, August 31 at 10:45am local time. Qualifying for Round 16 of the 2018 season will take place Saturday, September 1 at 3:20pm local time and will be broadcast on NBCSN on a same day delay from 7:30pm ET.
The Grand Prix of Portland will go green on Sunday, September 2 at 12:09pm local time and will be broadcast live on NBCSN from 11:30am local time (2:30pm ET). The race can also be heard live on the Advance Auto Parts IndyCar Radio Network, including SIRIUS/XM 209/214.
All practice sessions and qualifying will be streamed live on racecontrol.indycar.com
What they have to say:
Pietro Fittipaldi – #19 Paysafe Honda
“We’ll be back on a road course this weekend at Portland, so I’ll be using my left leg much more again. The bone isn’t 100% healed yet, it’s still a little bit broken, but it’s going to be much better than at Mid-Ohio when I first came back. We have a test day on Thursday, which will be a learning day for everyone since the Indy cars haven’t raced there in a while. We’re looking forward to a good week. I’ve always loved road course racing as much as oval racing, so we’ll try and do our best in Portland to have another great race. In preparation for this weekend, I’ve been watching a lot of onboard videos of quick laps and race videos to see what strategy is like, passing points and things like that. It’s important to try and get as many references on the track beforehand so that we can be quick on the first run out.”
Santino Ferrucci – #39 Cly-Del Manufacturing
“I’m super excited to be heading to Portland this week and to be getting back behind the wheel of an Indy car with the support from Cly-Del Manufacturing. I’ve been watching the past three IndyCar races alongside Dale (Coyne) and the team, trying to learn as much as I can, learning what to expect and to have a better understanding of what I can do for the team for the next two races. I’m ready to get back racing. I’ve been watching videos and trying to learn as much as I can about the track before our test day on Thursday, but nothing beats actual track time so I’m really looking forward to being on track this week.”
dalecoyneracing.com 