Josh Green Procures Podium Finish in Freedom 90 Oval Race

Championship contender Josh Green took home a podium finish at this weekend’s Cooper Tires Freedom 90 Indy Pro 2000 Race at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park after an impressive run up to the front during the Carb Night Classic.

After a rain delay on Thursday which caused back to back practice and qualifying sessions for the competitors, Green qualified his #3 car sixth in his single car qualifying run, setting him up for a challenge to catch up to the leaders in the 90-lap race the following day.

Green rose to the challenge and collected two positions on the opening lap of the race, moving him up to fourth position right at the start. After about 25 laps of racing, Green’s car was consistently .2 seconds faster than the leaders, allowing him to close the gap to the third place car of Enaam Ahmed lap after lap. On lap 54, Green successfully made the pass for third in Turns 1 and 2 before a yellow flag came out for an incident just ahead of him.

On the Lap 56 restart, Green took a peek for P2 but stayed patient for the right opportunity to make the pass. While fighting for second place, Green was suddenly called to serve a late penalty on Lap 66 and give up third position for allegedly passing under the yellow flag. He obliged and quickly regained third position under the green but was then told to surrender the position once again after his first relinquishment was deemed unsatisfactory. Despite the setback, Green still finished third and earned valuable championship points, putting him fifth overall in the points leaving the weekend.

“I’m extremely proud of everyone under the tent this weekend,” said Green. “We didn’t start off where we wanted to by any means and struggled to find our way in the practice sessions. When qualifying rolled around, we maximized our package and got a solid P6. Peter and the team worked hard overnight to figure out where we could find what we needed to have a strong race car, and they executed that near perfectly. We got off to a strong race start and slowly worked our way forward to get both Turn 3’s and my first podium at the oval! It takes a team, and every weekend we continue to rise to the challenge. Never say die!”

This weekend marked Jonathan Browne’s debut into oval racing, and although facing a challenging schedule with limited time to practice, the Irishman gained confidence with every session and did an excellent job becoming acclimated to the track and racing conditions to give a great performance in the Freedom 90.

Starting 13^thfor the race, Browne took the green flag and settled in for the 90-lap contest. Browne steadily gained two positions as the laps ticked on, and with less than 20 laps to go, he broke into the top ten after passing the #4 car of Braden Eves. With lap times that were fast enough to put him in the top six, Browne spent the remaining few laps catching up with the field and ultimately finished P10 in his first oval event.

“It was not the easiest of days for me,” said Browne. “I struggled with a couple things in practice which followed into qualifying, leaving us to start at the back for the race. After a difficult start, I was able to climb back up from 14th to 10th with the pace to be in the top seven by the end. I’m really happy with the steps the team made giving Josh and I a really good car in the race, so a big thank you to all of them. I’m looking forward to getting back at a road course again next!”

“Indianapolis Raceway Park is certainly one of the most challenging ovals we go to,” said Team Owner Peter Dempsey. “It’s high stress on the team and on the drivers with the physical demands of running against the wall lap after lap. I’m extremely proud of what we accomplished with the Indy Pro 2000 team this weekend. We had a rough start, but the drivers and team stuck together to work tirelessly to improve every time we went on track. Fortunately, we had time post qualifying to work on the car to improve it for the race.”

“Josh drove an amazing race and was consistently one of the fastest on track,” continued Dempsey. “Unfortunately, his chances for a win were taken away from him with a bad call from race control. He did a great job to stay calm and maximize our result, ending up P3 and taking home some good points for the championship. For Jonathan, it turned into a ‘tick the box’ weekend where his main focus was to get the experience in oval racing. He did a good job, and now we can refocus on the road course of Road America in a couple of weeks.”

COOPER TIRES USF2000 CHAMPIONSHIP