J.K. VERNAY WINS AT INFINEON RACEWAY AND EXTENDS POINTS LEAD

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SONOMA, Calif. — J.K. Vernay won the Carneros 100 at the Infineon Raceway on Sunday afternoon, giving him his fifth race victory of the 2010 Firestone Indy Lights season and a 71 point cushion in the season standings over
second‐place James Hinchcliffe with three races remaining.

J.K. Vernay started out the weeken a man on a mission. He laid down the first blow to the rest of the Firestone Indy Lights field on Saturday afternoon by winning the pole for Sunday’s Carneros 100 at the Infineon Raceway.

His teammates followed in seventh (Pippa Mann), ninth (Alex Ellis), and 10th (Philip Major).

Vernay just beat out Charlie Kimball by .04 seconds for the top spot. This is Vernay’s third pole of the season, and winning the Sunoco Pole Award earned Vernay a $5,000 bonus. It’s a great starting spot for him as he looks to
get back into victory lane on Sunday and extend his lead in the points standings with just four events remaining on the schedule.

Vernay with his win, was the star of the show all weekend. Starting from pole, he and the top‐three took off from the rest of the field. He had Charlie Kimball and James Hinchcliffe chasing him throughout the race, but in the
end, Vernay dominated by leading flag‐to‐flag. It was a welcome result for the Frenchman who had to agonize for the past couple of weeks over the performance he and the team had in Mid‐Ohio. The victory gives Vernay a
bit of vindication and a lot of confidence heading into the last three events of the 2010 calendar.

From here, it’s a very quick turn around for the next event on the Firestone Indy Lights schedule. Sam Schmidt Motorsports will head straight to Illinois for the Chicagoland 100 at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois.

Practice begins on Friday with the race taking place on Saturday at noon ET. Coverage will be available on indycar.com and firestoneindylights.com.

DRIVER NOTES & QUOTES
#7 LUCAS OIL/CJ Motorsport/Sam Schmidt Motorsports Driver J.K. Vernay

Started first; finished first.
Leaves Infineon Raceway in points lead with a 71 point lead over second‐place.
Won five races in rookie campaign (St. Pete, Barber Park, The Glen, Toronto, Infineon Raceway).
Made 10th Firestone Indy Lights start.
In 2009, competed in Formula 3, highlighted by two wins, and a track record at the Macau street circuit.

Vernay - "Just a great weekend. After such a disappointing weekend at Mid‐Ohio, I really wanted to win here. My family came for this race so it’s beautiful for everybody. I’m really happy. We had a good car. I wanted to take care of my tires and wasn’t really pushing. We did the fastest lap of the race at the end. You always worry when you have a Safety Car because you never know what will happen, but we won, and it’s fantastic for the team."

Team Owner, Sam Schmidt - “A great weekend. As a team, we love coming out to Infineon Raceway as we always seem to do well here, and personally, it’s one of the closer races for me. I’m thrilled with the way J.K. and Pippa performed today, and I just wish that Alex would have been able to finish that race. He was impressive the entire weekend, and we couldn’t ask for anything more out of him. Philip had a bit of trouble there, but he was able to rebound and cross the checkered‐flag. With just three events to go, we’re heading to three tracks that we’ve historically been very competitive on, so I couldn’t be more excited to get going and continue pursuing that championship and a few more race wins.”

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