IndyCar Debuting in Long Beach
The IndyCar Series will make its first visit to the Streets of Long Beach, Calif., on the heels of its season opener on the other side of the country on the Streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., but open wheel cars are no stranger on the circuit.
The race was inherited as part of the merger with the Champ Car World Series and several current IndyCar drivers are familiar with the street course. The CCWS raced at the track last year for the final time in an exhibition, non-points paying race.
Will Power won the race, and will be making his first IndyCar Series start there this year driving for Penske Racing.
He's not quite sure that his experience in a Champ Car will help him as he competes there in an Indy car. Power finished sixth on the Streets of St. Petersburg two weeks ago.
"It might be a different story with these cars, without the horsepower of the Champ Cars that I am used to driving there. With the push-to-pass feature in Champ Car, we had no problems getting a run on someone or passing," Power said. "A lot of details count toward a good lap time and I would expect us to be three to four seconds a lap slower this year. That's something we'll work at over the weekend because I'm not sure how much of the Champ Car setup will carry over to IndyCar. But it's a track I really enjoy and I've always ran well and had pretty good luck there."
Power will need either lady luck on his side or a well-developed strategy to be competitive in the 22-car field Sunday when the race takes the green flag at 4:30 p.m. (ET).
Eleven other drivers and a total of eight teams currently running in the series have previously raced at Long Beach in a major open wheel series.
Power, who has made three starts at the track, is joined by Scott Dixon (2 starts), Robert Doornbos (1), Dario Franchitti (6), Ryan Hunter-Reay (3), Tony Kanaan (5), Darren Manning (1), Mario Moraes (1), Graham Rahal (2), Alex Tagliani (9), E.J. Viso (1) and Justin Wilson (5) as the drivers who have previously raced in Long Beach.
"I just can't wait to get back to Long Beach," said Vision Racing's Hunter-Reay, who finished second at St. Petersburg. Hunter-Reay recorded seventh-place finishes at the track in 2003 and 2004.
"That's one of my favorite races," he said. "It's such a cool event. It's just great to be going back there again. We're going in there with a bit of momentum at a track that I know and I love racing at."
Current points leader and winner of the first race of the season, Ryan Briscoe, has also raced on the streets of Long Beach, but not in open wheel, rather, in ALMS.
"It's a fun track. It's very challenging; it's fast. It's probably somewhere in between Surfers Paradise and St. Petersburg. You've got that crown in the road. It's got some fast corners, long straight down the front. It's going to be tough."
One of the teams ready to return to the streets of Long Beach is KV Racing Technology, which visited victory lane there with Power last year and placed its other two cars in the top 10.
Currently the team is fielding an entry for Moraes. He made his only start at the track last year as a rookie with Dale Coyne Racing and finished 20th after being involved in an incident.
"This will be the first time all the IndyCar's will compete in Long Beach and I think it's going to be a very competitive and tough race," Moraes said. "Qualifying will be very important because, like any street circuit, passing is difficult."
Another even more successful team at the track - Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing - has high hopes for its young driver Graham Rahal. In 25 previous races at the circuit, NHLR has won six races, earned 11 poles and finished on the podium a total of 14 times with Mario and Michael Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Bruno Junqueira and Sebastien Bourdais, who won three of the past four races at the track.
"The fact that the team has had so much success in Long Beach will really help us but at the same time a lot of these other guys have some experience at Long Beach and the teams know the track whether they raced here last year or haven't in a few years so its not a huge, huge advantage," said Rahal, who will make his third major open-wheel start at this track and fourth overall after competing here in the Atlantic Series. "I expect it to be more competitive than ever this year. It's going to be a tough fought battle this weekend for sure."
The IndyCar Series drivers and teams will have the chance to battle eachother for the coveted title when the action begins on track Friday. Two practices and a rookie practice are scheduled for that day beginning at 1 p.m. (ET).
Qualifying is set for 5:10 p.m. (ET) Saturday following another practice session at 1:25 p.m.
The race is set to begin at 4:30 p.m. (ET) with coverage on VERSUS beginning at 3:30 p.m.
Racingone.com
Castroneves will race on Sunday
April 17, 2009
LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) -Helio Castroneves will be back on track less than 24 hours after the Brazilian driver was acquitted of tax evasion charges.
Penske Racing Tim Cindric said Friday the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner will return to his No. 3 IndyCar in time for practice and qualifying Saturday for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Will Power has been the temporary replacement for Castroneves. He will drive a third Penske entry in Sunday's race and also will race for the team next month in the Indy 500.
Power Puts New Ride on Pole
Racingone.com
Will Power won the PEAK Performance Pole Award at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, leading a group of three cars from Team Penske that will start the race in the top 10.
Power, who won on the temporary street circuit a year ago in the final race sanctioned by Champ Car, will start from the first position in the first race at Long Beach sanctioned by the IndyCar Series.
Power's first career pole in the IndyCar Series came on a day when he switched from the team's No. 3 car to the seat of the No. 12 car.
"I saved my big lap until the end," Power said. "A great job by the team. They had to swap everything over on this car, with an all new crew, new engineer and everything. They did a good job. We're looking to have a strong race tomorrow and hopefully move up in the championship."
Helio Castroneves returned to the No. 3 car for the first time since the end of the 2008 season and qualified eighth. The third Team Penske driver, St. Petersburg race winner Ryan Briscoe, qualified 10th.
"It was a good day for us until the end of qualifying. Unfortunately, I pushed it a little bit too much trying to get into the top six and I overdid it," said Castroneves, who spun and hit the wall on his last lap. "I'm obviously very happy for Will Power; he did an incredible job jumping from the No. 3 car to the No. 12 car."
Power lapped the 11-turn, 1.968-mile circuit in 1 minute, 9.7107 seconds, 101.631 mph to edge Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Dario Franchitti by 0.1568 of a second.
"I'm happy to be back at Long Beach," Franchitti said. "I love the track. I love the atmosphere. There's such a buzz about the place all week. The balance of the Target car was really good there at the end. I was just trying to get a clear lap."
Rookie Raphael Matos qualified a career-best third, while second-year driver E.J. Viso qualified a career-best fourth. Justin Wilson, who won the pole last year at Long Beach and started on the front row at St. Petersburg, will start fifth. Reigning IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon will start sixth.
The 85-lap Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach will take the green flag at 4:30 p.m. (ET).
Franchitti drives off with Long Beach win
April 19, 2009
LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) -One thing Dario Franchitti and team owner Chip Ganassi have in common is that both hate to lose.
It wasn't easy for either one of them to accept the failure last summer when a lack of sponsorship forced Ganassi to shut down Franchitti's Sprint Cup team in the former IndyCar Series champion's abortive move to NASCAR.
``For both of us, that was very tough to swallow because we're used to such success,'' Franchitti said Sunday after giving Ganassi his fifth victory in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, but first since 1999.
``Chip lost an awful lot of money last year, I lost my drive and a bunch of people lost their jobs. So I don't think it was easy on anybody.''
The win in only his second race back in IndyCar, and only his second race driving an open-wheel car for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, was a big moment for both.
As Franchitti was interviewed after getting out of his car, a beaming Ganassi walked up, hugged his newest driver and said, ``Sweet.''
It was all he had to say.
Franchitti said he felt as if the seaside circuit in downtown Long Beach owed him after finishing second to Ganassi drivers Alex Zanardi (1998) and Juan Pablo Montoya (1999) during his days in the now-defunct CART series.
``Yeah, the Target cars do have a great history here,'' Franchitti said. ``I remember distinctly following that Target (logo) on the rear wing, so it's nice to be on the other end of that today and get the job done. And it feels great to win again in the IndyCar Series.''
Franchitti dominated this time, beating runner-up Will Power, the pole-winner, by 3.318 seconds - half of the final straightaway.
``That was a lot of fun,'' said Franchitti, who dedicated his ninth IndyCar victory to actress wife Ashley Judd, who celebrated her 41st birthday watching the race from the Target Chip Ganassi Racing pits.
Judd said, ``With about 25 laps to go, I got really nervous and I said to myself, `This is the Target Chip Ganassi team. Winning is what they do.' So I was able to calm down a little. I'm just so happy for him.''
Helio Castroneves, who got back in his Team Penske car Saturday after being acquitted of federal tax evasion charges, started eighth and finished seventh.
``I'm so happy to be back,'' said the Brazilian, who even led a handful of laps despite not even driving a race car for the past six months. ``I thought I was going to be really tired, but I'm ready for the next race. I was sore this morning. My muscles were hurting. But this is what I love and I'm so glad to be back.''
Franchitti said his team gave him the win with a near-perfect pit strategy, starting the race on the softer and faster optional Firestone tires and bringing his No. 10 Dallara in for his first pit stop before any of the other contenders.
``The guys pitted me early,'' Franchitti said. ``The last race, we felt we had the car to win and waited too long to pit. This time, the timing of that first stop, they called it perfectly. After that, we were saving fuel and still making good laps times.''
Franchitti left IndyCar after winning both the 2007 Indianapolis 500 and the series championship. After losing his NASCAR ride, Ganassi decided to team Franchitti with 2008 Indy winner and series champion Scott Dixon and the move has paid off this season with a fourth-place finish in the opener at St. Petersburg and a victory.
Power, who filled in for Castroneves during winter testing and in the opening race, had to move to a new, untested car on Saturday when the longtime Team Penske driver returned to the cockpit. But the Australian, whose only remaining scheduled race with Roger Penske's team is next month's Indy 500, did just fine in the new car.
And, despite his uncertain racing future, the Australian said, ``I'm with Penske. I'm not really looking anywhere else. I'm very focused on the Indy 500 and, for the team, I want to remain with them the rest of my career.''
Power's biggest challenge Sunday was losing most of his radio communication and all of his telemetry readout early in the race because of a wiring problem.
``It was the sort of result that I needed,'' Power said. ``The only thing was I didn't know if I could make it (to the end). I was doing some serious fuel saving out there.''
Power said that without the communication problem, he might have been able to challenge Franchitti at the end.
It was because of fuel,'' he said. ``Believe me, Mate, I was saving like you would not believe and driving as hard as I could through the corners to make up for it. ... The car was there. If I were able to go (all out) we would have been on it.''
The winner, who led 51 of 85 laps on the 1.97-mile, 11-turn course, including the last 30, disagreed.
``At one point,'' Franchitti said, ``(the team) came on the radio and said, `What is the car doing? What changes do you want?' I said, `I'm not pushing the car hard enough to know what the car is going to do on the limit.' That tells the story.''
Tony Kanaan, another former IndyCar champion, was third, followed by Danica Patrick, getting her best ever finish on a road or street course, former series champion Dan Wheldon and Marco Andretti.
Dixon, who finished 16th at St. Petersburg, continued to struggle, finishing 15th here. He was involved in three separate accidents, bumped E.J. Viso into one of the concrete barriers that line the wall, getting caught up in a chain-reaction collision that damaged several cars and put Justin Wilson out of the race and getting hit from behind by St. Petersburg winner Ryan Briscoe during a caution period.
``It was just a bad day,'' Dixon said. ``I love the road courses but we've just had a rough time. It's just fantastic that Dario had a great finish for the team. We're looking forward to Kansas (next Sunday).''