PREMA enjoys season-best run at WWTR

The potential shown by PREMA Racing at the Indianapolis 500 where it earned pole position with Robert Shwartzman was summoned on Sunday as the new IndyCar Series team earned its best finish of the season and led five laps late in the contest at World Wide Technology Raceway.

Starting 24th, Shwartzman got to work on moving forward as he engaged in an immediate battle with Christian Rasmussen who would go on to finish third. With his pole-winning race engineer Eric Leichtle back on the No. 83 Chevy timing stand, the duo made the car faster throughout the 260-lap race and were able to earn 10th place at the finish, tops for the rookie and the strongest for PREMA through eight races.

“I’m really happy that we’ve finished the first short oval with our best result of the season so far, a top 10,” Shwartzman said. “Starting from 24th today, I tried to get more confidence with the car and by the final stint I felt like I had the car under control, and it felt really fast. A big thank you to the team, they’ve done an amazing job and completed some good pit stops, so shout out to them. Chevy also did an amazing job with the engine; it was flying, we had so much power which helped me get out the corners and overtake some guys like Alex (Rossi). We need to keep this rhythm into Road America next week as we’ve shown now that we can get top ten results.”

The fact that PREMA and Shwartzman achieved their best result on an oval – where they lack the most experience – made the top 10 even more remarkable. Veteran teammate Callum Ilott was looking like the program’s best chance for a bigger finish after running up front and leading laps 248, 249, and 253-255.

“Today’s result is hard to take in, especially when we were leading with just a handful of laps to go,” said Ilott, who was credited with 18th. “The car felt really good all race, our pace was strong, and we made our pit stops at the right time. I had hoped we could have made it to the end, but when the fuel started getting tight in the final ten laps, we had no choice but to make the call to pit from the lead. It’s tough, but that’s racing sometimes.”