Backstretch Motorsports

INDIANAPOLIS (May 9, 2009) — Helio Castroneves will start his ninth Indianapolis 500 from a familiar spot.

The Brazilian, who celebrates his 34th birthday on May 10, scored his third Indianapolis 500 pole position and Roger Penske’s record 15th pole position with a four-lap average speed of 224.864 mph (2 minutes, 40.0967 seconds cumulative time) on the 2.5-mile oval. It was the Brazilian’s 27th career IndyCar Series pole and his first of the season.

Teammate Ryan Briscoe made a late attempt to unseat Castroneves in the six-hour session, withdrawing his second-best qualifying time, but came up short (224.083). He’ll be in the middle of Row 1, with 2007 Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti (224.010) on the outside in the No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car.

The first 11 spots of the 33-car field were set on Pole Day. Positions 12-22 will be set May 10.

Graham Rahal, making his second start, qualified fourth in the No. 02 McDonald’s Racing Team car for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing. Reigning Indy 500 and IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon, the ‘08 pole sitter, and Andretti Green Racing’s Tony Kanaan also will be on Row 2. Kanaan, whose initial attempt was disqualified because of a post-qualifying technical inspection infraction, bumped his way into the field with an hour left. He’s never started lower than sixth in his eight 500 Mile Races.

Mario Moraes (223.331), driving the No. 5 KV Racing Technology-Votorantim car, qualified sixth, with Marco Andretti (223.114) and Will Power (223.078) also on Row 3.

Danica Patrick (222.882) will start 10th and Alex Lloyd 11th. Lloyd bumped Hideki Mutoh from the field with an attempt that ended one minute before the end of the day. Six different teams are represented in the 11 positions.

***

PEAK PERFORMANCE POLE QUALIFYING NOTES:

* Helio Castroneves won the PEAK Performance Pole Award presented by AutoZone and its $100,000 prize.

· Ryan Briscoe and Dario Franchitti qualified on the front row and earned $25,000 and $10,000 from PEAK, respectively.

· This is the third Indianapolis 500 pole for Castroneves. He also won the pole in 2003 and 2007 when he went on to finish second and third, respectively. Castroneves’ two wins in the Indianapolis 500 came from the 11th and 13th starting positions in 2001 and 2002, respectively.

· Castroneves is the eighth driver to win at least three poles at the Indianapolis 500. Rick Mears won six while Rex Mays and A.J. Foyt each won four. Johnny Rutherford, Mario Andretti, Tom Sneva and Arie Luyendyk each won three poles.

· This is the 15th pole for Roger Penske at the Indianapolis 500, more than any other owner. No other car owner has won more than four poles. Penske’s first pole win at Indianapolis was with Tom Sneva in 1977.

· This is the 27th career pole for Castroneves. He is the IndyCar Series’ all-time leader.

· Castroneves has qualified in the top 10 for seven consecutive Indianapolis 500s.

· Castroneves leads all IndyCar Series drivers with 79 career top-five starts. He also leads all drivers with 98 career top-10 starts.

· This is the 43rd IndyCar Series pole for Team Penske.

· Briscoe qualified second and will start on the front row at the Indianapolis 500 for the second consecutive year. He started third last year.

· Briscoe will start in the top 10 for the third consecutive year. He qualified seventh in 2007.

· This is Briscoe’s best starting position of the season. His previous best was fourth at St. Petersburg.

· Briscoe has qualified in the top 10 in 12 consecutive IndyCar Series races dating back to Watkins Glen 2008.

· Franchitti qualified third and will start on the front row for the third time at the Indianapolis 500. He also started third in 2004 (finished 14th) and in 2007 (finished first).

· Graham Rahal qualified fourth. He qualified 13th as a rookie last year.

· Rahal’s father, Bobby, won from the fourth starting position in 1986.

· Scott Dixon qualified fifth, the fourth consecutive year he has qualified in the top five for the Indianapolis 500 and the sixth time in eight starts.

· Briscoe, Dixon and Rahal are the only drivers to qualify in the top 10 in all four IndyCar Series races this season.

· Tony Kanaan qualified sixth. He has started in the top six in all eight Indianapolis 500s in which he has raced.

· Kanaan has qualified in the top 10 in 19 consecutive IndyCar Series races, the longest active streak.

· Mario Moraes qualified seventh, his second consecutive top-seven start in the IndyCar Series. He started sixth at Kansas. Moraes started 31st in last year’s “500.”

· Marco Andretti qualified eighth, his fourth consecutive top-10 start in the Indianapolis 500.

· Will Power qualified ninth. He started 23rd as a rookie in last year’s Indianapolis 500.

· Power has qualified in the top 10 in all three races he has competed in in 2009.

· Danica Patrick qualified 10th, marking the fifth consecutive season she will start in the top 10. Her best qualifying effort came as rookie in 2005 when she qualified fourth.

· Alex Lloyd qualified 11th in his second Indianapolis 500 start. He started 19th last year.

· Dan Wheldon did not make a qualifying attempt. He has started on the front two rows in five of his six starts in the Indianapolis 500. The only other year he started outside the top six was in 2005 (16th) when he won the race.

***

INDYCAR SERIES POST-QUALIFYING QUOTES:

HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Team Penske, pole winner): “Just to be here right now is awesome. I have to say that without this crowd here, without the support of the fans, there was no way I could have gotten through what I did.” (About pressure of qualifying): “It’s not over yet. There’s still an hour and a half left. I hope they take it easy on the beer because I might want to drink one later on.” (About withdrawing qualified run and re-qualifying): “Yes, it was a gamble, a big gamble. But we took a chance, and it paid off. But now that we’re (on the pole), that’s where the rest of them want to be, so it will be nerve-wracking for an hour and a half.” (About the conditions): “It was magic the way the sun came out. Now I hope it is magic for me.”

RYAN BRISCOE (No. 6 Team Penske, second): “I thought I was going to have a shot at the pole then and just couldn’t get it done. We tried. You can’t say we didn’t try. We knew we had speed. I didn’t go as fast as I was expecting. I felt confident that I was going to be able to at least defend my position. And I really thought I had a shot at getting the pole, but it didn’t work out. I think the track got quicker. When we went into that qualifying run, I would have liked to have had a couple more practice runs. I knew I had a fast car, and I knew I was going to have a shot at it. So far, the Team Penske cars are looking pretty good. We’ve been solid all month. We tried to go out and get (the pole) back, but we couldn’t get it done at the end of the day. It was just an unbelievable qualifying run by Helio (Castroneves) and Team Penske. He must be on top of the world at the moment. But I tell you, for me, second place at the Indy 500, second front row in a row, it’s a great feeling, and I’m just so happy to be here. I know I’ve got a good car going into this race in a couple of weeks, and I just hope we can have a solid run, be at the front all day long and have a shot a winning this 500.”

DARIO FRANCHITTI (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing, third): “I’m a little sorry we didn’t get the pole. We are still on the front row. We made the best of what we had in the Target car. Everybody here wants to beat Penske, but you’re fighting against AGR. And you have Newman/Haas/Lanigan. There are more and more teams coming out. The competition level is getting tougher and tougher. It’s great for the fans. We knew we didn’t have the pole speed. It was a pretty nerve-wracking. We were really concerned somebody would knock us off the front row. We went out and did seven practice runs. And on each of those runs, you are pushing it to the limit. It was a long day. It was fantastic being back and driving the car around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It puts a smile on my face every time.”

GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 02 McDonald’s Racing Team, fourth): “We knew that before (on first qualifying attempt) we weren’t quite trimmed out, and there is probably still a little room to go even now, but we needed to go out there and give it another shot. We were completely legal, but there were some things that we felt we needed to improve on. Basically we felt we needed to go back out, so we gave the McDonald’s car another shot, and it turned out even better than the first time and we ended up gaining two spots because right before we made our second run we were sixth. So we’re pretty happy with fourth. We had one practice run before our second attempt, and it was a little bit quicker, so we decided to trim a little more. But when we went out, we had a gearbox problem and it was 5 p.m., and people were starting to get in line, so it was a little tense. The McDonald’s guys changed the gearbox in pit lane, and we had to make our qualifying run without a practice lap because of the time. They did a great job fixing everything so quickly, and I was able to go out and put it on the second row. I would rather start from the inside of the second row than the outside of the front row, so I’m pretty happy with how the day ended for the McDonald’s team.”

SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing, fifth): “It was a bit of a frustrating day. It wasn’t terrible. The car was consistent; we just didn’t have the speed. The car has a little shine on speed now and then. Qualifying fifth is a further back than we thought we would be. We know that anything can happen here. At least the pole gives you bragging rights for a couple of weeks. We did it last year, but this was a tough day for us. They (Team Penske) are a bit ahead of us. They have been since day one. The race will be different; that’s the one that has a different pay check. Our first attempt was not very good. We gained a little bit later, but we got beat by Rahal. The conditions were fairly decent late. The wind had died down. It was one of those days when you try and chase the conditions and see what happens.”

***
SUNDAY’S SCHEDULE (all times local):

7 a.m.

Garages open

10:15-11:15 a.m.

IndyCar Series practice

Noon-6 p.m.

Second Day Qualifying