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Giebler crashes in Indy debut
Phil Giebler's car leaves a trail of sparks as it slides backward along the wall after he crashed on Lap 107. The Oxnard High graduate was competing in his first Indianapolis 500 and finished 29th.
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INDIANAPOLIS With a bit of pit-stop strategy, Oxnard native Phil Giebler went from last to ninth a third of the way through Sunday's Indianapolis 500.
But barely more than halfway through the race, his rookie appearance at Indy came to an abrupt end. Entering the first turn of Lap 107 -- on a restart following a caution period for an accident -- Giebler lost control of his Playa Del Racing Panoz/Honda. The car executed a quarter spin and slammed into the outside wall.
"We were out there on cold tires. I went into Turn 1, and the cars in front of me checked up, so I had to brake as well," Giebler said. "The car had a pretty bad push (understeer), and it just snapped on me.
"The car was pretty unpredictable on the restarts, so it made the first corner hard to handle. We were struggling with the car all day, but I think we were really starting to make it work. We tried to make some strategic moves by staying out (when others pitted), and then we had some trouble in the pits on the next stop."
Starting in 33rd position, he had improved by 11 positions just 100 miles into the race. A different pit-stop strategy by his team helped him vault into ninth place while the yellow flag was out on Lap 69.
He dropped to 17th by Lap 80, but still was positioned to move up during the second half of the race. However, a slow pit stop caused him to go a lap down to the leaders.
"It really is a shame that I couldn't give all the Playa Del Racing and Ethos Fuel Reformulator guys a better finish," said Giebler, who wound up in 29th place, "but I think we learned a lot. Hopefully, we can find the funding for some more races this season."
Posted by THX1138 on May 28, 2007 at 8:34 a.m. (Suggest removal)
For a first time out, you guys did a great job! I was amazed at how quickly Phil moved up through the field! Two thumbs up!
I noticed there were several cars had trouble with turn 1, especially when they got up into the marbles.
I'm sure the team has gained valuable experience and will hopefully be back next year...
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