Chris Festa

Chris Festa
Chris Festa
Nationality	American
Born	September 5, 1985 (age 39); Atlanta, Georgia
Retired	2008
Firestone Indy Lights Series
Years active	2005-2008
Teams	Sam Schmidt Motorsports; Cheever Racing; Target Chip Ganassi Racing; Rahal Letterman Racing
Car number	25,19,51,9,24
Starts	40
Wins	0
Poles	2
Fastest laps	33 races
Best finish	2nd in 2005, 2007
Previous series
2004; 2003	Toyota Atlantic; USF2000
Championship titles
2002	2 Started his career in gokarts at the famed Lamar county speedway in barnesville ga., where he learned his racing ability.

Chris Festa, born in Atlanta on September 5, 1985, is an American auto racing driver.

Festa leading Arie Luyendyk Jr. and Marty Roth during a race on the Streets of St. Petersburg in 2005

Festa (inside) racing alongside Micky Gilbert in the 2008 Firestone Freedom 100

Festa raced the #9 Dallara for Chip Ganassi Racing in the Indy Pro Series in 2007. He also served as Target Chip Ganassi Racing's development driver where he did all the test and development driving for the team's IndyCar program during the 2007 and 2008 Seasons. His work contributed heavily to the win in the 2008 Indy 500 and 2008 IndyCar Series Championship for Scott Dixon. As of the end of the 2007 season he has made 39 IPS starts with a best finish of 2nd (3 times) and won the pole for the first race of the 2007 season at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Festa finished 6th, 8th, and 10th in series points in his first three seasons in the Pro Series, respectively.

He previously competed in the Toyota Atlantic series in 2004 for Rahal Letterman Racing where he was teammates with Danica Patrick. and finished 8th in series points at the age of 18. Chris Festa was a surprise addition to the #7 SAMAX Motorsport Daytona Prototype team for the 2007 24 Hours of Daytona, but drove well and the team finished a respectable 6th place. He returned to the series, now known as the Firestone Indy Lights Series driving for the new Alliance Motorsports team. Festa left the team after 7 races with a best finish of 5th in the season opener at Homestead-Miami after the team's funding ran out. He finished 22nd in points.

Over the course of Festa's career, he won over 60 races and was known for his aggressive style.

Festa is a brother of Kappa Sigma at Florida State University.

Festa is now retired from professional racing and is currently living in Atlanta, Georgia.

Complete motorsports results

American Open-Wheel racing results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest race lap)

USF2000 National Championship results

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos	Points
2003	PR1 Motorsports	SEB1 15	SEB2 11	LRP1 9	LRP1 16	MDO1 10	MDO2 10	ROA1 9	ROA2 25	MDO3 9	MDO4 5	ATL1 10	ATL2 24	11th	107

Atlantic Championship

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Rank	Points
2004	Team Rahal/Letterman	LBH 11	MTY 7	MIL 7	POR1 10	POR2 6	CLE 14	TOR 8	VAN 13	ROA 8	DEN 7	MTL 7	LS 7	8th	172

Indy Lights

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Rank	Points
2005	Sam Schmidt Motorsports	HMS 10	PHX 2	STP 8	INDY 8	TXS 3	IMS 3	NSH 7	MIL 10	KTY 9	PPIR 6	SNM 5	CHI 11	WGL 4	FON 4			6th	387
2006	Cheever Racing	HMS 16	STP1 6	STP2 8	INDY 4	WGL 14	IMS 15	NSH 9	MIL	KTY 8	SNM1	SNM2	CHI 5					8th	205
2007	Chip Ganassi Racing	HMS 2	STP1 8	STP2 12	INDY 2	MIL 21	IMS1 11	IMS2 14	IOW 16	WGL1 21	WGL2 17	NSH 9	MDO 13	KTY 4	SNM1 13	SNM2 19	CHI 19	10th	313
2008	Alliance Motorsports	HMS 5	STP1 11	STP2 15	KAN 16	INDY 18	MIL 13	IOW 18	WGL1	WGL2	NSH	MDO1	MDO2	KTY	SNM1	SNM2	CHI	22nd	119

External links

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