It was a valiant effort by Lowe's Fernandez Racing and drivers Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz in the Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix Sunday, but, unfortunately, it resulted in an unrepresentative fifth-place class and overall finish.
The team inherited a front row starting position after the second-place car of de Ferran Motorsports was sent to the back of the field for changing tires following an off-course excursion in Saturday's qualifying session.
The No. 15 Lowe's Acura ARX looked to be the class of the field, but after Diaz turned the controls over to Fernandez, the team found itself the victim of wrong place, wrong time. On lap 47 as the No. 20 Dyson Porsche rejoined the track directly on the racing line after an off-course excursion, there was light contact made, resulting in Fernandez losing the right-front dive plane. That affected the handling of the No. 15 machine.
He battled both an ill-handling car and traffic in the closing stages to a fifth-place result.
The next round of competition for Lowe's Fernandez Racing will be the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park on July 12.
Adrian Fernandez, #15 Lowe's Acura ARX: "I think we had the car to win today. Luis proved it and I was out there running pretty easily. Traffic in this series can be very frustrating -- very unpredictable -- and you just never know what is going to happen. One of the Dyson cars went off and came back on track and suddenly just turns into the corner in front of me. I never expected it. He was coming very slow and when you are that slow, you don't jump onto the racing line. I was at least 40 miles an hour quicker than him. Once we damaged the dive plane, we had a lot of push in the car. Toward the end, the car was better, but it was a little, too late. Luis did a tremendous job. We just have to keep doing this and one day we will get our race. It was a frustrating end."
Luis Diaz, #15 Lowe's Acura ARX: "I have mixed emotions today. The team gave us a great car, but this series can be very tough because you have the mix of the different classes and the traffic. On one side, I am happy because the car was unbelievable -- really unbelievable. On the other, I think the team deserved a better result. It was not in our hands today, but I am optimistic. I cannot wait until the next race."
