Hildebrand Suffers in First Race at the Glen, Comes Back with Top Ten in Second Race

07.07.2008

J.R. Hildebrand had one of those "character building" experiences over the Fourth of July weekend at Watkins Glen. He leaves the Glen fifth in points going into next week's Nashville round, and has his work cut out for him in the Firestone Indy Lights championship chase.

Practice and qualifying went fairly well for the team, as J.R. was consistently in the top three in both sessions, and both times was knocked back to fifth when other drivers had the opportunity to use another set of tires at the end of the sessions.

The qualifying was stopped numerous times for cautions, and the team didn't find the right time to go to a new set.

"The Allied Interior Products car wasn't bad. We were a little confused on how much time we would have at the end of the session. Pretty
much everybody, whether right after the last caution or during the last run, put on new tires, and we didn't. We would have gained a little bit, but we stayed on the tires that we started the session on."

Starting fifth in the first race on new tires, J.R. aggressively attacked and after just a few laps, found himself in third exiting the "toe of the boot" at the Glen.

"I spun out in the toe of the boot. We went out on new tires, and with all the early yellows I guess there wasn't enough heat in them. I went into the corner, had no grip, and just lost it. I spun to the inside of the track, but I didn't hit anything.

"I was a sitting duck at that point. From where I was stopped, I don't think Bobby Wilson could see me, and I got tagged. The left-side wheels and the left-side suspension were damaged, but the RLR/Andersen crew is great and got the car together for Race 2."

As the finishing positions from the first race set the grid for Race 2, Hildebrand had a long way to go to get a decent points haul. Starting 19th, J.R. fought his way through to ninth at the checkered flag.

"The Allied Building Products car started out OK, but I was having a lot of trouble with the brake bias. I couldn't brake late, I couldn't turn in late, and I was losing time because of that. That made it difficult to pass. Turned out I also had a damaged shock that wasn't diagnosed as we were really jammed for time fixing the car between races."

"I was able to pick some guys off, but with what I was dealing with, some turns I had my hands full just getting through them myself. My front wing was broken most of the race because I had contact with another car early on. Later I had contact with the 6 [Daniel Herrington]. He just turned in on me.

"But the RLR/Andersen guys have done a really good job all weekend. We started off promising, but it ended up sort of a weekend to forget. Now we have to play catch-up, but hopefully we'll have better luck in the races coming up."