Salinas, CA (Saturday, September 10, 2022) – Takuma Sato (#51 Nurtec ODT- Dale Coyne Racing with RWR) once again came close to making it to the second round of qualifying on Saturday but fell short by a few tenths of a second and had to settle with a 22nd place on the starting grid for tomorrow’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey.
Starting: 22nd
Round 1 (group 2): 11th
Best Lap: 1:12.4489
- Sato went out in Group 2 in the first round of qualifying.
- He recorded his best time on his sixth and final lap around the 11-turn, 2.238-mile road course with a lap of 1:12.4489.
- His fastest lap placed him 11th in his group, just three and a half tenths of a second from making it to the second round.
- Sato will be making his third start at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
- In 16 races this season, Sato has a best finish of fifth (World Wide Technology Raceway) and a best starting position of second on the streets of Detroit this year.
- Career facts:
- Has six INDYCAR SERIES wins (2013 – Long Beach; 2017 – Indy 500; 2018 – Portland; 2019 – Barber, Gateway: 2020 – Indy 500)
- 10 poles (2011 – Iowa, Edmonton; 2013 – Houston Race 1; 2014 – St. Pete, Detroit Race 2; 2017 – Detroit Race 2, Pocono; 2019 – Barber, Texas; 2020 St. Louis Race 2)
Takuma Sato #51 Nurtec ODT Honda – Dale Coyne Racing with RWR
“Unfortunately, we had a very frustrating qualifying session because through the practice sessions we were moving forward, and it looked good going into qualifying, but we had an issue with tire management and it didn’t go as we wished. There was traffic as well, it’s not an excuse because everyone deals with it, it’s just one of those unfortunate things. The field is so close that we were just a few tenths from moving to the next round. We’ll have to fight back again tomorrow from the back of the grid but I’m confident we’ll have a good car for the race.”
dalecoyneracing.com 