The weekend was quite humorous as well. During practice BHA mechanic Butch took off his gloves only to realize that both of his hands were completely purple! No attempts to wash them off worked. Butch requested to know who was responsible for the prank, but no one claimed it, so he stated that “he would get everyone good” at a later date.

The reason? Herrington hails from North Carolina. My hometown of Winston-Salem, to be exact.

That may not sound like a big deal … but it is.

I dropped a note to Indianapolis Motor Speedway historian Donald Davidson asking about drivers from North Carolina who had tasted success during the modern era of open-wheel racing. Donald couldn’t come up with a single Tar Heel that had ascended to the level of Herrington. Not one.

A couple of Yarboroughs, Cale and Lee Roy, gave Indy cars a try decades ago when their stock car schedules allowed, but they were both from South Carolina and neither were pursuing open-wheel racing careers full time. Herrington is different.

Recently graduated from North Carolina State with a degree in mechanical engineering, Herrington wants to win the Indy 500. Appearing in a handful of Firestone Indy Lights events in 2007 and 2008, he hooked up with former IndyCar Series race winner Bryan Herta for a full-season campaign in 2009.

Bryan wasn’t shy about predicting success for Bryan Herta Autosport in its first season when we talked during the test at Barber Motorsports Park in the spring. Both Bryan and his partner at BHA, Steve Newey, think Daniel Herrington is a winner. Turns out they were right.

Read the full article at indycar.com

This is Daniel’s first win in the Firestone Indy Lights series and Bryan Herta Autosport’s first win as a team. Daniel moves to 6th place in the championship -138 points behind the leader and now winner of the 2009 Firestone Indy Lights Series J. R. Hildebrand.

Daniel Herrington – No. 28 Le Bleu/BHA Dallara/Firestone
Finishing Position: 1st
Qualifying Position: 9th

On race:
“Finally. We’ve had a rough couple of races in the middle of the season. At the beginning of the year, Bryan (Herta) told us we would win a race. We didn’t think it would be this late in the season before we won a race. It sure is nice to get that win. Teamwork with James Davison at the end certainly helped make a different in the final laps. I’m really happy for the Le Bleu crew. The’ve done such a great job all year and finally have something to show for it. I am really looking forward to the final race of the season at Homestead.”

Bryan Herta, Team Owner – No. 28 Le Bleu/BHA Dallara/Firestone

On win:
“It’s unbelievable. It feels great. Actually, it feels just like winning as a driver. I’m so excited about Daniel (Herrington) getting his first win and getting him in victory lane. The way it worked, it was exactly how our program is set up between Vision Racing and BHA (Bryan Herta Autosport), a technical partnership working together. Out on the track, those guys worked so well together. James (Davison) helped us out a lot. It’s just a great result and a great feeling.”

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The first 80 entrants whose videos meet the contest criteria will win $25 ExxonMobil gift cards and Car Care Guides from the Car Care Council. The top four winners, chosen by online public voting, will also be awarded generously:

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He fell back as far as 14th, but kept his composure and battled back to take the checkered flag where he started, in the 11th spot. Unfortunately, it snapped Herrington’s streak of six consecutive top-ten finishes. However, in 13 starts this year for BHA, Herrington has only finished outside of the top-ten a mere two times.

Herrington remains seventh in the championship point standings with 315 points (158 points behind the leader).

Herrington remains seventh in the championship point standings with 296 points (124 points behind the leader).

Television coverage of the Mid-Ohio 100 from the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course will air Monday, Aug. 10th at 4 p.m. on VERSUS. Firestone Indy Lights action resumes in two weeks from Infineon Raceway on Sunday, Aug. 23rd.

Daniel Herrington on the race:

“It wasn’t too bad a run but with qualifying cancelled we were a little disappointed because we feel like we could have qualified a little higher up and that could have helped us. We really needed all of that practice to get the car where we needed it and ended up with a pretty comfortable racecar. We stayed with the lead pack for the most part, but we lacked a little bit of pace to get by some people and move up to the front. We definitely hung with them the whole way. It’s encouraging after a few back to back frustrating weekends. To get back on an oval and run with the leaders feels pretty good and hopefully we can keep the momentum going.”

Daniel Herrington started ninth and dropped many positions early in the race, but he battled back in the No. 28 BHA/Le Bleu car for a ninth place finish.

Daniel on the race:
“That’s twice, at both Toronto and Edmonton, that we’ve started out slow but built up speed and by the end of the race we were one of the faster cars out there and catching a lot of guys. In this case, we lost so much ground in the first 25 laps that it was too much make up. We’ll take a look at this race and try to figure out what I need to do to be more aggressive at the beginning of races to stay in the mix so that at the end we can keep being as strong as we really are and pick a few people off to get some better results.”

Daniel Herrington

On race:
“We were okay for the first few laps on rain tires but it was difficult to feel the grip level while I was still trying to be aggressive so I just stayed patient. We changed to slick tired and suffered a bit of a set back on the pit stop but otherwise I had pretty strong out laps. Once I got going the no.28 Le Bleu car was running as fast as the leaders were but unfortunately were weren’t able to make up enough ground in the pit stop but we ran pretty well, passed a few ahead of me and ran fastest on the second to last lap. We’ll just have to keep working on it.”

Bryan Herta -Owner Bryan Herta Autosport

On race:
“I’m disappointed because it’s a missed opportunity for us. Especially for James who was the fastest car in the race and we didn’t give either guy the pit stop they need to try and challenge for a win. For Daniel, starting from the back already had the makings of a long day but he worked really hard to get himself into the top-10. We’re disappointed that we weren’t better prepared for the stop which made all the difference.”

Daniel Herrington – No. 28 Le Bleu/BHA Dallara/Honda/Firestone

Qualifying Position: 18th

On qualifying:

“It all started off pretty well with us in the top-five on the scoring charts at the start of qualifying but then it all when downhill in a hurry. We didn’t anticipate that the qualifying session would remain green for so long so we ended up running out of fuel and sitting watching the final 10 minutes unfold. We gave it a good run and an eighth place starting position would have been fair but unfortunately we’ll have to work that much harder for a good finish now.”

Bryan Herta -Owner Bryan Herta Autosport

On qualifying:

“We’re disappointed for Daniel because he earned his eighth place qualifying position but we made a miscalculation on the amount of fuel needed and that caused us to be light and cost him the position of the starting grid. He’ll have a lot of work to do but we’ll show up for the race ready to prove that we have the speed to move back up.”