IPS: Indy II: Andrew Prendeville race notes

Prendeville Finishes 15 of 18 Laps After Getting Airborne In Second Half of Liberty Challenge Doubleheader

INDIANAPOLIS, June 17 - Fans that made donations to the Best Friends Animal Society through the RacingLapsforBestFriends.com Web site based on Andrew Prendeville's run in Sunday's Indy Pro Series race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway have to applaud their driver for his perseverance. Despite getting airborne in an incident in Turn 1 on a lap-four restart, Prendeville got the Best Friends Animal Society No. 5 restarted and finished 15 laps of the 18-lap race.

Flying through the air and landing in a gravel trap off Turn 1 definitely wasn't in the Morristown, N.J.-based driver's game plan, but neither he nor the car were hurt despite the wild ride. After he got restarted, Prendeville even recorded lap times that were comparable to the podium finishers with his RLR/Andersen Racing-prepared Dallara. But the incident was costly, as Prendeville finished 20th in the final standings after starting 21st.

Things started out well, as Prendeville advanced three spots to 18th on the initial start, right before a full-course yellow waved for contact between Micky Gilbert and Marc Williams in Turn 1. The fireworks started for Prendeville on the restart on lap four, when Doug Boyer had problems in his Michael Crawford Motorsports No. 8.

"It happened in Turn 1 on the restart," Prendeville said afterwards. "I had a great restart. Then one of the Crawford cars went flying down the inside, missed his braking point, and bounced off two or three cars. I went to the right of him so I wouldn't hit him, but he didn't even make an effort to turn going into Turn 2, so I went for a nice little flight.

"I went airborne," he continued. "They pulled me out of the gravel and I got going again; I wanted to do everything I could to help our Racing Laps for Best Friends program.

"Afterwards, I was running laps that were comparable times to the leaders'," Prendeville noted. "All we have to do is qualify better. It's as simple as that. We'll try again next race."

-credit: restart communications