Briscoe wins pole for ABC Supply/A.J. Foyt 225
By Bram • May 30th, 2009 • Category: IRL, News, Notes, Your Series. Your Driver.
Last Year's ABC Supply/A.J. Foyt 225 at The Milwaukee Mile winner Ryan Briscoe wins the PEAK Performance Pole Award for this year's event (Dan Helrigel/IRL)
Briscoe recorded a four-lap qualifying average of 1 minute, 26.7966 seconds, 168.394 mph to earn his first pole since the 2008 season finale at Chicagoland Speedway. Graham Rahal will start second at Milwaukee for the second consecutive season after a qualifying effort of 168.117 mph.
Tony Kanaan, a two-time winner at Milwaukee, will start third beside 2008 series champion Scott Dixon. Mario Moraes and Hideki Mutoh share Row 4, and Danica Patrick and Dario Franchitti will start from Row 5.
Castroneves, who became the ninth driver to win the Indianapolis 500 three or more times, will start from the back after his No. 3 car made contact with the SAFER Barrier in Turn 2 on his first qualifying lap. Castroneves will start 20th or worse for the third time in the last four races on ovals. He ended the 2008 season with a win from the 28th starting position at Chicagoland, and last month he drove from 21st to second at Kansas.
Also on May 30, Mario Romancini won his first career Firestone Indy Lights pole for the Husar’s House of Fine Diamonds 100 presented by Charter. Romancini recorded a two-lap qualifying average of 49.4453 seconds, 147.800 mph. Series points leader J.R. Hildebrand qualified second (146.927)
PEAK PERFORMANCE POLE QUALIFYING NOTES:
· Defending race winner Ryan Briscoe wins the PEAK Performance Pole Award. Briscoe started 11th in last year’s race.
· This is Briscoe’s fifth career pole and his first since the 2008 season finale at Chicagoland Speedway.
· This is Team Penske’s 44th pole in the IndyCar Series, the most of any team. The team has won the pole for two consecutive races. Helio Castroneves started from the pole at Indianapolis.
· Graham Rahal qualified second at Milwaukee for the second consecutive year. Last year, he finished 25th.
· Rahal has qualified fourth or better in three consecutive races - all on ovals. He has qualified seventh or better for every race this season.
· Tony Kanaan qualified third.
· Scott Dixon qualified fourth, his third consecutive top-five start.
· Mario Moraes qualified a career-best fifth. His previous best was sixth at Kansas earlier this season.
· Hideki Mutoh qualified a season-best seventh. His previous best was 13th at Kansas. Mutoh’s last top-10 start was fourth at Kentucky last season.
· Danica Patrick qualified seventh, her third consecutive top-10 start.
· Tomas Scheckter qualified 10th in his first start with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.
· Rookie Mike Conway qualified a career-best 11th. His previous best was 12th at St. Petersburg.
· 2009 Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves will start 20th after an incident during qualifying. This will mark the third time he has started 20th or worse in three of the last four races on ovals. In last year’s season finale at Chicagoland, Castroneves won after starting 28th. Last month, he finished second at Kansas after starting 21st.
***
INDYCAR SERIES POST-QUALIFYING QUOTES:
RYAN BRISCOE (No. 6 Team Penske, qualified first): “I knew when I was in front of (Graham) Rahal, it was going to be good. He seems to get around this place pretty good and was on the front row last year. The car was good. I was a bit worried about my teammate (Helio Castroneves) and the Target boys, but thankfully the time held up. We won from 11th last year, so hopefully starting on the front row can get me away from the chaos that always happens the first couple of laps. I had a good race car last year, so hopefully we can replicate that tomorrow.” (About Helio starting in the back): “He always seems to win the races when they put him in the back, so I’ll be looking for him in my mirrors, for sure.”
***
The ABC Supply/A.J. Foyt 225 will be the sixth IndyCar Series event at The Milwaukee Mile. Past winners Ryan Briscoe (2008), Tony Kanaan (2006-07), and Dario Franchitti (2004) are entered in the event.
***
Helio Castroneves will attempt to become the 10th driver to follow a victory in the Indianapolis 500 with a win the following race at The Milwaukee Mile.
HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Team Penske): (About his week since winning the Indianapolis 500): “It was busy. We were in New York for a day and a half, and then we went to Texas for about a day as well and then Chicago to have a media luncheon with the folks over there. It was a great message. It was fantastic to be a part of this again. I remember when I did it in 2002 it was a lot of fun. Somehow it was even more fun this year. It was great. It was really cool.” (About attempting to become the 10th driver to follow up a win at Indianapolis with a win at Milwaukee) “Ryan (Briscoe) definitely was incredible in developing the car. Winning last year gives us confidence that we’re going to have very good equipment again this year. We want to continue the momentum to this race and have two strong cars for this race. It’s a different track. We’re going from 2.5-miles to a 1-mile oval, but everybody is going to feel that change. Even though we don’t achieve the speed of going 200 mph on the racetrack, inside the car it feels like you’re going 200 mph because everything happens so fast. It’s a tradition place. It’s always nice to come back to Milwaukee. Hopefully I’ll be the 10th driver to do that.” (About what he wants to accomplish at Milwaukee) “To me, to break the karma. I do very good in qualifying, and it’s incredible, I really have a lot of fun. Unfortunately, during the race something always happens. We try to cover everything this time to make sure we have a good result. This place is so awesome. Coming from a 2.5 mile oval to 1-mile, and constantly in traffic. It doesn’t matter if you have a good car, you’ve got to be good in traffic. You do have different lines that you can be very good and fast at.”
