Race 14 of 33: Sargento 200 at Road America
Track Specs: 4.058-mile road course / 50 laps
Weather: Cloudy; 75 deg.
Race Winner: Nelson Piquet, Jr.
Fellows’ finish: 3rd
Whitt’s finish: 9th
Patrick’s finish: 12th

Ron Fellows’ third-place finish in the No. 5 AER Manufacturing Chevrolet capped a strong effort by all three JR Motorsports teams in Saturday’s Sargento 200 at Road America. Fellows overcame a flat tire on lap nine, which forced him down pit road, and relegated the team to 25th-place. Fellows quickly gained ground, drove back inside the top-10 and methodically picked off positions until he claimed third place. He mounted a charge on the second-place car of Michael McDowell on the last lap, but ran out time to complete the pass. Danica Patrick was a frontrunner from the drop of the green flag, piecing together a strong showing in the No. 7. She was racing hard for fourth position with the 22 of Jacques Villeneuve on the last lap, when Villeneuve made contact with the bumper of the Go Daddy machine. The incident sent Patrick careening off course and into a gravel trap. She finished 12th. Cole Whitt had a solid but quiet race in his Road America debut. Whitt drove as high as fourth in the VooDoo Ride Chevrolet and finished the day in ninth.

Ron Fellows, driver No. 5 AER Manufacturing team
“My heart sank when I knew we had that flat tire. Fortunately, I was able to limp the car around, but I thought for sure we were going to go a lap down. Somehow we managed to stay on the lead lap and work our way back up toward the front. We had a good race there with Michael (McDowell) at the end and that was a lot of fun. But neither of us had anything for Nelson (Piquet, Jr.).

“I’ve got to thank AER, Canadian Tire and everyone at JR Motorsports. It has been great fun driving for Dale Jr. and Rick Hendrick at Road America. This is a great facility and it’s neat to come here and be able to run so well.”

Cole Whitt, driver No. 88 VooDoo Ride team
“We did what we came here to do. We didn’t get caught up in anyone else’s mess, kept all VooDoo Ride Chevrolet on the track and out of trouble for the entire day. At the end of it, we managed a top-10 finish. That’s what we were hoping for today.”

Danica Patrick, driver No. 7 GoDaddy.com team
“I’ll start with the positive. We ran in the top-five all day. I took the lead for a brief moment. Then I learned my lesson down in turn five when you try to get a little more out of the brake zone. The bummer is that we weren’t able to finish that off and finish with a top-five like we all deserved. The guys did a great job in the pits. They were awesome. Tony Jr. gave me a great Go Daddy car. We’ve been running better, we just haven’t been able close the deal.

“I think everyone saw what happened with the 22. You can make a decision for yourself. I wasn’t going to just give him the position. He was going to have to race me for it and he wasn’t able to do that cleanly. So it is what it is.”