Eighth and Fifteenth for Briscoe and Jakes at Iowa

Ryan Briscoe earned a top-ten finish under the lights at Iowa Speedway in the No. 5 Arrow Electronics car during the Iowa Corn 300 on Saturday night.

After struggling throughout practice and qualifying 19th, Briscoe started the 300-lap race strong and worked his way through the field to finish eighth.

"I think we should be pretty happy with the race we ran today," said Briscoe. "Man, we fought hard. All weekend, we were struggling with the balance in the No. 5 Arrow Electronics car since first practice and I think we pretty much threw the kitchen sink at it for the race today. We made improvements all weekend and I was really proud of the guys. No one ever gave up.

"I think a top ten - P8 - was a great result. Unfortunately, we couldn't really make the most of new tires today so I think we could've been a bit better, but on new tires we were just hitting the ground too much. We had a very consistent car, very racy, and had a lot of fun out there. It was really physical tonight and I'm proud of the team for bringing home a P8 for me."

Teammate Jakes qualified 14th and made solid gains on the restarts during the first half of the race, picking off positions two at a time on several restarts. After stopping to top off fuel on lap 22, Jakes fell to P22 but quickly gained seven spots and moved back up to P15, where he would ultimately finish the race.

"It was a very difficult night for the No. 7 SPM MediaTech Honda," said Jakes. "The first stint was pretty good. We managed to get pretty close to the top ten but just struggled a bit with the balance all night. It's a shame. It was a long night but we'll take the weekend off now and regroup before we go to Mid-Ohio."

Contact:

monicah@spmindycar.com

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