Beatriz makes stunning comeback in Iowa!

With a handful of laps remaining, Ana Beatriz, who had slowly but surely made her way to the front of the field, took advantage of the lapped traffic to gain upon and get around one last car, race leader Wade Cunningham.

That pass would change the complexion and dynamic of the race and lead to several of the most edge of your seat laps all night, including the final lap which saw the white flag fly, the caution come out, a car flipped, several others damaged, and Ana Beatriz coming back from injury, a destroyed car and no sponsorship to win the Miller Lite 100.

The night began with the cancellation of the IndyCar qualifying due to "weeping". Then word came that officials were pushing up of the race start due to the threat of weather. That order was belayed as the track continued to "weep". In fact the race start ended up actually being delayed by more than an hour.

With the field finally on track doing a few installation laps to test the conditions, Sebastian Saavedra found himself in trouble before the green flag even waved, pulling off onto pitlane as the cars headed towards the start, one of the lower wishbones on his front suspension detached. It would take several laps, but his team would get him back on track to compete and try to gather those valuable championship points.

JR Hildebrand and Wade Cunningham made things exciting for the first 3 laps, traversing the track side by side for the entirety until Cunningham got the better of the points leader to take the lead, where he would stay until Beatriz's late move as race neared completion.

There were several notable drives throughout the 115 lap event. James Davison, who's off-roading during qualifying lead to him starting from the back of the field, drove to a top ten finish, which may have been a better result had he not been involved in the last lap incident.

Mario Romancini also had a terrific run, starting from 13th to make his way to the front to battle with the lead pack. He would finish 4th on the night.

In a good luck/bad luck scenario, Daniel Herrington, who was in 2nd at the time, touched wheels in turn 4 with the lapped car of Mike Potekhen. Miraculously both were able to maintain their composure and keep their cars off the wall and on track. Unfortunately the incident would drop him through the field to eventually finish 9th.

It was that incident that lead to Beatriz getting up behind and catching Cunningham.

The most eventful night had to be that of Pippa Mann who had several moments. On Lap 53, the Brit found herself spun around and facing oncoming traffic. Managing to avoid any contact and keep her car running, she was able to right herself and continue. Several more squirrelly moments would come to a scary conclusion as the white flag flew, the race ending with Mann's car upside down. Mann would exit the car of her own volition, shaken but unhurt.

When all was said and done though, the night belonged to a grateful and jubilant Ana Beatriz, who proved once again why she should be in a car, hopefully for many, many years to come.

POST RACE QUOTES:

SAM SCHMIDT (Owner, Sam Schmidt Motorsports): "I think that is our first 1-2-3. It is a great effort for the team. It was a brand new car they had to build up the last few weeks. This made up for all those hours."

ANA BEATRIZ (No. 20 Healthy Choice/Sam Schmidt Motorsports, first): "I was thinking and wanting to finish the race today. We qualified sixth, but it was great at the start of the race and it was very competitive. I was fortunate to find the right time to pass Wade (Cunningham). There was a lot of lapped cars out there when that happened. It was all about momentum. Wow, I can't believe I got first and Sam Schmidt got a 1-2-3. It is unbelievable. At the finish, I was thinking it was just unbelievable. I nearly crashed there at the end right there around the flipped car. This team deserves it. I really want to celebrate with them tonight. The last couple of weeks have been tough missing out on sponsorship and then finding a way to come back."

WADE CUNNINGHAM (No. 11 Lucas Oil/Sam Schmidt Motorsports, second): "Sebastien Saavedra is 25 laps down, running flat out because he has good tires. The team said, 'Hey, just let him go; he's just going to keep driving forward.' I was just saving my tires, so I just let him go. The minute he got in front of me, he slowed down half-a-second a lap because he knows I'm fighting him for the championship and he was out of the race. It's probably the most unsportsmanlike thing I've ever seen on the racetrack, apart from shunting someone into a wall. I hope the stewards do something because if they don't, I will."

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 7 Hinchtown/Sam Schmidt Motorsports, third): "What a night. First of all, with the delays it was tough. Everyone was in the wrong frame of mind heading into tonight and it was tough to stay focused. We had a pretty good car at the start, running fourth there behind Daniel (Herrington) and then just sort of started losing it when I got side-by-side in traffic. I did a lot of work in the cockpit with the weightjacker and front bars trying to get it back. Slowly the car started coming back to us.Then it was a matter of being in the right place at the right time. It's tough to stay out of trouble at a short track like Iowa. I had contact with Daniel at one point and nearly took out both of my teammates at one point. There was some great wheel-to-wheel racing. I'm glad that the weather held off, and congratulations to Sam Schmidt Motorsports on the great race."

MARIO ROMANCINI (No. 5 Revita/Win Brazil/Allied/RLR Andersen, fourth): "I'm very happy with the finish, because we didn't have a good qualifying and started (13th). It's good for the championship because we scored good points, and let's go for the next one now. It's a very tough track and it's difficult to pass, and that's why I'm happy with our finish and scoring good points."

GUSTAVO YACAMAN (No. 44 Crepes & Waffles/Tuvacol/SSM, fifth): "It was a very hard race. The car was really hard to drive because we had a lot of push. I just let the race come to me and kept four tires on the car."

JAMES DAVISON (No. 21 People*s Liberation/Vision Racing): "There were two laps to go and (J.R.) Hildebrand, (Charlie) Kimball and myself were all battling for position, and we were running into a bunch of lapped traffic, and ultimately Pippa (Mann), who was off pace battling a loose car. Running behind J.R., my car just went up into her and we tangled and that was it. The most frustrating thing is to do damage to the car with two laps remaining in the race. We didn't lose much. We were running seventh and ended up tenth. For sure it is not good and having to deal with that."

PIPPA MANN (No. 16 Panther Racing): "I am not sure what happened. The car was tight when we started tonight, and I tried to move my adjustments around to help. I ended up with the car still very tight but then very loose as we got to the middle of the race. It made my life very interesting. I was sitting back and I think I had just touched with Brandon Wagner and that caused the first spin. I came into the pits and we made adjustments to the car, but unfortunately it went the wrong way. I moved my in-car adjustments some more, but I was still struggling quite a bit. I don't know if it was the spin or the adjustments we had made. I was just riding it out, but it was difficult since we were so off the pace, and it was difficult to stay out of the way of the lead lap cars. I was doing my best to stay out of the way, and I don't know what happened then. I just know I got hit, and I saw the wall coming, and I said - I won't tell you what I said. It is not printable, but it was something like, 'Oh crap!' I said that repeatedly, and then I was upside down. I could smell the sparks, and by the time the car stopped I had my belts off and hands on the ground and ripped out my ear phones trying to get out since I wanted to get out as quickly as I could because of the smell of the sparks. That was my first time upside down."


Unofficial Miller Lite 100 results:
1 Ana Beatriz 20 115 Laps
2 Wade Cunningham 11 6.7954
3 James Hinchcliffe 7 6.8989
4 Mario Romancini 5 8.6620
5 Gustavo Yacaman 44 32.8424
6 JR Hildebrand 26 37.9974
7 Charlie Kimball 35 41.2336
8 Martin Plowman 15 114 Laps
9 Daniel Herrington 28 114 Laps
10 James Davison 21 114 Laps
11 Andrew Prendeville 2 112 Laps
12 Pablo Donoso 9 109 Laps
13 Pippa Mann 16 105 Laps
14 Mike Potekhen 24 103 Laps
15 Sebastian Saavedra 27 85 Laps
16 Brandon Wagner 32 59 Contact
17 Sergey Mokshantsev 3 5 Mechanical
18 Rodrigo Barbosa 55 0 *DNS
*race control suggested he not start due to his lack of pace earlier in the day*