Texas: Panther Racing Thurday notes

Windy Practice at Texas Sets Stage for Saturday Night Showdown
Panther Driver Vitor Meira Finishes 13th on First-Day Speed Chart

FORT WORTH, Tex. (June 5, 2008) -- A windy night at Texas Motor Speedway dictated the majority of the only IndyCar Series practice session Thursday for Panther Racing and Delphi National Guard driver Vitor Meira. The team will have one more practice session and qualifications tomorrow in preparations for Saturday night's Bombardier Learjet 550.

Meira posted a top lap speed of 211.807 mph, 24.7301 seconds, which was good for 13th position on the final speed chart of the day.

Panther is looking for its sixth career win at Texas, where the team has led a total of 498 laps at the exciting 1.5-mile high-banked oval. The team is perfectly matched with its veteran driver, who has also been successful on the track known for close racing and thrilling finishes. In eight starts here, Meira has collected a pole (2002), four Top Five finishes, seven Top Tens and his worst career finish at Texas is 12th.

Vitor Meira, No. 4 Delphi National Guard:

"I think we were like everybody else today and concerned about taking any risks in the wind. The biggest thing was to find the right balance in the Delphi National Guard car tonight, and then fine tune things tomorrow. Hopefully we don't have conditions like this in the race, but if we do, we feel like now we are prepared. My car was pushing a little, but the speed is there and we feel like already have a good start on the race trim.

-credit: pr