JR Hildebrand felt it was a great call by his team to make his final pit stop earlier than his rivals, which gave him some valuable grip when it mattered, although it left him a little compromised at the end of the race at Iowa Speedway on Sunday.
The Ed Carpenter Racing driver was a contender all evening long, leading 38 laps, and he was rewarded with second place, his second podium of the season after a third place finish at the Phoenix International Raceway.
Hildebrand felt he had the car beneath him to challenge for the win, but came up 3.9647 seconds short to Helio Castroneves, but the American is hoping this result can bring the team some kind of momentum for the remainder of the season.
“It feels good. I definitely think that under some slightly different circumstances we had a car to win out there,” said Hildebrand. “The guys made a great call to pit early and get out into the lead at the end and try to hustle all the way.
“I think if we’d been on equal tyres with Helio (Castroneves) we’d have had something for him there at the end – but all-and-all really excited for the Fuzzy’s Vodka crew to get on the podium here again.
“They definitely deserved it after the weekend that we had. Hopefully this gets us kicked off for a stretch run going into the rest of the year.”
