Conquest Racing Announces Driver Change for #36 Entry at Indy 500
INDIANAPOLIS (MAY 17, 2009) - Conquest Racing announced late Sunday night
that they will be replacing Bruno Junqueira aboard the #36 Conquest entry
with the team's primary driver Alex Tagliani for this year's
Indianapolis 500. The following are statements from the drivers and team
principle.
Eric Bachelart, Conquest Racing Team Owner
"We had the chance to qualify two excellent drivers today.
Unfortunately we didn't have the same fate for both entries despite
excellent work from everyone on the team. Bruno has once again shown the
world how talented a driver he is and we truly appreciate the work he has
done for us in this short amount of time and thank him for his excellent
work. Alex didn't make the show and it wasn't for a lack of
speed or a fault of his own. He simply fell victim to exceptional
circumstances. That's how the magic of Indy works sometimes; it can
be good or bad. We've been working with Alex for a long time now
and have built our commercial and marketing program around him. He has
been our primary driver since the start of the season and we felt that it
was in the best interest of the team and our partners to have him in the
car for the Indy 500 as we continue to build our future together."
Bruno Junqueira
"I want to thank the team and ALL SPORT/BIG RED for giving me the
opportunity to qualify their car today. I was able to go fast right from
the start despite not having a lot of practice and that was very
rewarding for myself. I really enjoyed working with Conquest Racing, they
gave me a really good car and hopefully I can work with them again the
future. It's a shame that Alex got bumped out of the field at the
end. I knew coming into this that Alex is Conquest's primary driver
and that if something happened to the first car that I would likely give
him my place and I completely understand it."
Alex Tagliani, driver
"I want to first of all say thank you to Bruno for being so
understanding and to the team for taking this decision. We have been
building this long-term relationship for a while now and I'm more
than thrilled to be able to pursue that by taking part in my first Indy
500. Obviously it would have been much sweeter if we would have had both
cars in the show because Bruno and I had fast and identical cars.
It's pretty much a fluke that I didn't make the field. We
just got caught out. You never want to second-guess yourself but if we
had to redo things we probably would do it differently, but now that is
in the past. At the end of the day, I'm just really happy right now
to be realizing my dream of running in the Indy 500. The team has worked
so hard all month and they deserve to be here."
-credit: cr
