Indianapolis, Ind. (24 May 2018) – After a near podium finish during the Indianapolis Grand Prix weekend earlier this month, Darren Keane will return to Cooper Tires USF200 powered by Mazda competition as he heads into his first oval outing for the Freedom 75 at Lucas Oil Raceway.
Keane has shown a tremendous amount of growth in only his second year of USF2000 competition, scoring a big podium finish at the 2018 season opener in St. Petersburg and coming just shy of a second podium finish earlier this month at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Keane will now be looking to move to the front in his first oval outing in his No. 36 Newman Wachs machine at Lucas Oil Raceway this Friday as part of the Mazda Road to Indy “Freedom Friday” events.
A quick turn around from his last race in Indianapolis just three weeks prior, will bring Keane back to the Racing Capital of the World with his Newman Wachs Racing squad.
Keane’s quick ability to learn will be an asset heading into the 0.686-mile oval – also the only oval outing for the 2018 USF2000 season. Looking forward to everything the short oval has to offer, Keane is keen to get the weekend started.
“Lucas Oil will be interesting since I have never driven on an oval before, but I’m not too worried,” explained Keane. “I think the passing will be the most difficult part because you have to find racing room but I think I’ll be comfortable with that. I really enjoyed the street races that we had, which I had never driven on before, so that gives me confidence about racing on the oval. It will be a step by step process but I’m really looking forward to that first on track session.”
Freedom Friday events will get underway with the first official practice session on Thursday afternoon and Friday will stage a morning qualifying run following by the Freedom 75 at 6:05 p.m. ET.