Frost drops back to 8th at Portland after overshoot.
The Indy Lights Championship turned up the heat on Saturday as the green flag flew for Race 1 of the Indy Lights Grand Prix of Portland Presented by Cooper Tires.
Despite starting fifth, Kyle Kirkwood capitalized on as many positions as possible to work his way into second on the charge to catch leader, David Malukas. Robert Megennis moved the No. 27 machine into fifth, earning his third top-five finish at the 1.964-mile road course. Rookie Danial Frost was poised to challenge Megennis for a top-five position before overshooting Turn 1 and dropping back two places to finish eighth.
“We started today’s race P7. We had a good run during the race and made it up to sixth. I got a run on Robert [Megennis] towards the end of the race and kind of overshot the move and missed Turn 1. We lost two positions because of that. I would rather try and make the move than be stuck behind. At the end of the day, this race was kind of a learning experience. Starting this far back, it is quite difficult to make up ground that quickly. Hopefully tomorrow we are going to be better off with the new tires. I think we are going to have a better shot at getting a better result. The team did a great job with the car. We were very fast overall during the race running fast laps after fast laps, so the pace is there and I am very confident with that. We just need to focus on running a little bit better in the race tomorrow.”
Danial Frost, Car #68
A compact schedule will begin on Friday, September 17, with 45 minutes of practice at 10:10 a.m. PDT, followed by the first of two 30-minute qualifying sessions at 1:30 p.m., which will set the starting order for Race One at 12:45 p.m. on Saturday. A second qualifying session at 9:45 a.m. on Saturday morning will determine the grid for Race Two at 10:15 a.m. on Sunday, immediately prior to the NTT INDYCAR SERIES headline event.
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