Boesel loses his bearings

Driving in his second race for Team Menard, Raul Boesel rode the roller coaster that is the Texas Motor Speedway until a wheel bearing gave way retiring the Johns Manville/Menards Dallara Chevrolet on lap 185. Boesel's finishing position was listed as 13th in the Indy Racing League Boomtown 500 won by Jeff Ward.

Early in the 200 lap affair, Boesel's car struggled with a slight understeer condition, one that almost saw the blue #2 hit the outside wall in turn 2 twice. Two pit stops into the race, however, the team managed to get a handle on the handling with a series of wing adjustments. Given the newfound confidence in his car's ability to operate in traffic, Boesel was then able to race into the top-10. One final change on lap 129 to the outside rear tire pressure changed the game and "Always Cool" crept into contention.

Running 7th with less than 20 laps to go, Boesel dove into turn one and felt the car nearly break loose. He reported a problem on the right rear, pit immediately and it was discovered the wheel bearing had gone bad.

A Team Menard team member signalled with a hand gesture to the neck that the night was over and Raul killed the candles on his V8 with 15 laps to go.

"The beginning of the race, my car in traffic wasn't the best with a slight understeer," said Boesel, drenched in sweat. "We worked on the car and worked on the car through the race until it was in a position to race for the win at the end. By the end I could run low and high. I thought in the last 40 laps we were going to challenge to be there. We were with the lead pack and I was starting to get excited. But ultimately the wheel bearing went bad and that was it."

Team Menard is now 11th in the team entrant standings heading into next weekend's Pikes Peak, CO event.