Meijer 300 News and Notes

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With four races remaining in 2008, Scott Dixon holds a 65-point lead over Helio Castroneves. Dan Wheldon is 115 points back, and Tony Kanaan trails by 118. Dixon has five wins this season, while Castroneves has six second-place finishes. Can Dixon extend his lead or will his competitors close the gap?

Women eye success at Kentucky

For the second time this season, three women are entered in an IndyCar Series event, and two of them have enjoyed previous success at Kentucky. Sarah Fisher, a native of Commercial Point, Ohio, returns to competition for the first time since the Indianapolis 500, driving her second event under the Sarah Fisher Racing banner. Fisher won the pole at Kentucky in 2002 and finished third at the track in 2000. Danica Patrick, who claimed her first career victory on the 1.5-mile oval at Twin Ring Motegi earlier this season, makes her fourth start at Kentucky. She won the pole there in 2005. Milka Duno, whose career-best finish of 11th came on the 1.5-mile oval at Texas, will make her first start at Kentucky.

Andretti Green Racing looks to rebound

Tony Kanaan, who won at Kentucky last year, hopes to lead Andretti Green Racing back to Victory Lane again this year. The four-car team hasn’t placed a driver in the top five in the last two races. Kanaan has led more laps at Kentucky, 285, than any other driver entered in this year’s race. The other AGR drivers include Marco Andretti, who has one top-five finish in two starts at Kentucky, Danica Patrick, the 2005 pole winner at Kentucky, and Hideki Mutoh, the Firestone Indy Lights winner at Kentucky in 2007. Can AGR rebound to the front at Kentucky?

Getting Closer

Twelve drivers in the 26-car field entered for the Meijer Indy 300 have never raced at Kentucky Speedway in the IndyCar Series. Most of those drivers have transitioned to the IndyCar Series from Champ Car and have limited experience racing on ovals. Those drivers are catching up. In the series last race on an oval July 12 at Nashville, two of those drivers, Will Power and Oriol Servia, scored top-five finishes. Is a podium finish possible at Kentucky?

Race Notes:

The Meijer Indy 300 will be the ninth IndyCar Series event conducted at Kentucky Speedway. Buddy Lazier is the only repeat winner (2000-01). Last year’s winner, Tony Kanaan, is the only past winner entered in this year’s race.

Fourteen drivers entered in the Meijer Indy 300 have raced in previous IndyCar Series events at the track. Nine of those drivers have led laps (Tony Kanaan 285, Dan Wheldon 176, Helio Castroneves 35, Sarah Fisher 35, Scott Dixon 26, Vitor Meira 16, A.J. Foyt IV 13, Buddy Rice 8 and Marco Andretti 2).

The Meijer Indy 300 will be the fifth event on a 1.5-mile oval this season. Target Chip Ganassi Racing has three victories (Scott Dixon 2, Dan Wheldon 1) and three poles (Dixon 3) in the previous four races. The only 1.5-mile oval where Ganassi drivers did not win the race or the pole was at Twin Ring Motegi in April. The pole was awarded to Helio Castroneves based on points, and Danica Patrick won the race.

Season-to-Date:

· Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon are the only drivers to finish in the top five in 11 of the 13 races this season.
· Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan are the only drivers with 11 top-10 finishes.
· Helio Castroneves is the only driver running at the finish of every race in 2008.
· Seven drivers have won races in 2008. The IndyCar Series record is nine drivers in 1996/97, 2002, 2003 and 2005.
· Team Penske has won four consecutive poles, the fifth time in IndyCar Series history that a team has won four consecutive poles. In 2006, Team Penske drivers started from the pole in five consecutive races, however, one of those was awarded on points.
· Scott Dixon has five victories this season. He needs one more to tie Dan Wheldon’s record of six in 2005.
· Ryan Briscoe needs one more victory in 2008 to become the 13th driver to win three or more races in a season. That has happened 18 times in IndyCar Series history.
· A.J. Foyt Racing has its most top-10 finishes (6) since Eliseo Salazar had seven for the team in 2001.
· Teammates have started 1-2 in five races this season, the fifth time that has occurred in IndyCar Series history. The record is six in 2005.
· Helio Castroneves has finished second in consecutive races. Another second at Kentucky would tie Scott Dixon’s and Sam Hornish Jr.’s record of three consecutive second-place finishes.

Milestones & Records:

Helio Castroneves will attempt to make his 111th career IndyCar Series start. It would also be his 109th consecutive start. If Castroneves starts at Kentucky and Infineon, he will tie Sam Hornish Jr. for second all time with 110 consecutive starts.
Helio Castroneves can establish an IndyCar Series record for most consecutive seasons with at least one win should he win the Meijer Indy 300. Castroneves is tied with Scott Sharp with victories in seven consecutive seasons.
Helio Castroneves extended his IndyCar Series record for consecutive seasons with a pole to seven when he won the PEAK Motor Oil Pole Award at Nashville. His pole at Mid-Ohio was the 25th of his career.
Tony Kanaan finished fourth at Nashville, giving him the 63rd top-five finish of his career, an IndyCar Series record. Helio Castroneves is tied for second with Sam Hornish Jr. with 62.
Helio Castroneves has passed Scott Sharp as the all-time leader in top-10 finishes. Castroneves has 84. Sharp has 82.
Scott Dixon needs to lead two laps to become the fifth driver to lead 2,000 laps in his career. The others to lead at least 2,000 laps are Sam Hornish Jr. (3,428), Helio Castroneves (2,868), Dan Wheldon (2,735) and Tony Kanaan (2,487).
Scott Dixon has led 716 laps this season. The record for most laps led in a season is 889 by Tony Kanaan in 2004.
Helio Castroneves has led laps in 67 IndyCar Series races, tied with Sam Hornish Jr. for the all-time record.
Vitor Meira has gone 89 starts without a victory in the IndyCar Series, the longest drought of any IndyCar Series driver.
Helio Castroneves has gone 28 starts without a victory, the longest drought of his IndyCar Series career.
Marco Andretti’s next top-10 finish will be the 20th of his career.
Scott Dixon needs to win one more pole to tie Greg Ray for second all time with 13.

Meijer Indy 300 FAST FACTS
Date / Time: Saturday, Aug. 9 6:30 p.m. (EDT)

Track: Kentucky Speedway

Distance
200 laps / 300 miles

TV
ESPN2 (Live)

Radio
IMS Radio Network / XM Satellite Radio (Live)

2007 Winner: Tony Kanaan

2007 Polesitter: Tony Kanaan

Kentucky Speedway
1.5-mile oval
First IndyCar Series race in 2001
Seats: 66,089

Fisher prepping for return at Kentucky

There are five offices at the home of Sarah Fisher Racing in Indianapolis. Yet you won't find the company's founder, office manager, accountant, marketing head and star in a massive wood-paneled room with a dutiful assistant parked outside the door.

Instead, the only female owner-driver in the IndyCar Series decided to take a small room overlooking the team's garage.

``I want to see the shop, see what's going on,'' Fisher said with a laugh.

She always does, one of the main reasons Fisher will be back in her ``other'' office this week at the Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway.

Saturday's race marks her first start since a disastrous month of May, when two title sponsors backed out and she and husband Andy O'Gara poured their life savings into helping the team make the field for the Indy 500.

Fisher qualified 22nd, but her hopes of impressing future sponsors ended when Tony Kanaan spun into her halfway through the race. She finished 30th and was in tears while riding to the medical center, knowing her season may be over.

``It's very character-building,'' she said. ``I could write a book on the month of May alone.''

Rather than give up, Fisher simply went back to work. While her team reassembled the car, she worked the phones trying to find a sponsor for two more races.

Enter Dollar General CEO Rick Dreiling, a racing fan who was moved by Fisher's story. The company has signed on to help sponsor Fisher this week and in the season-ending event at Chicago in September. Dollar General could stay involved in 2009 if Fisher can recapture the form that made her one of the series' most popular drivers earlier in the decade.

``He's looking at 2009, he's asking questions and that's a start,'' she said. ``But you can't just expect them to jump on board and expect them to sign up because we had a good race.''

Finding a way to be competitive at the 1.5-mile Kentucky oval, though, won't hurt. Fortunately for Fisher the track's notoriously bumpy corners are laced with good memories. She became the first woman to capture an IndyCar pole when she set a track record qualifying time in 2002. She ran third at Kentucky in 2000 and launched her last comeback bid with a 12th-place finish in 2006 while working for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.

That partnership ended after last season, and rather than try to find a job on someone else's team, Fisher decided to be her own boss, a job that's proven to be equal parts liberating and frustrating.

``At the beginning of the year, I didn't realize how deep and how organized that I needed to be,'' she said. ``I run all of the financial side of it. If they need something, they come to me, whether it's accounting, managing, payroll, everything a young businessperson goes through.''

Most young entrepreneurs, however, don't conduct their business at 200 mph. Her business obligations have limited her time in the cockpit, though Fisher was encouraged by her car's performance during a recent test at Kentucky. Fisher believes she can be competitive this weekend and knows a poor showing will make finding a sponsor for next year more difficult.

``The pressure is undeniable,'' she said. ``I don't think it's totally from our ontrack performance, but who we are, how we represent ourselves on and off the track. It's not just going around in circles. There's pressure as a team owner to make sure all the ducks are in a row.''

Simply getting on the track, however, is a victory for Fisher. When she slides into the cockpit for qualifying on Friday, all the pressure from the office will melt away and it'll just be her and the car, just the way she likes it.

``It's so easy to tune it all out when I put that suit on,'' she said. ``When we rolled into Kentucky for the test, I didn't even take the computer with me. It's easy to separate (business and racing). Racing is the funnest part of the job.''

There will come a time when Fisher sees herself moving to the front office full-time, but the checkered flag on her racing career isn't yet in sight. She knows her name - and her ardent fan following - is her team's hottest commodity. Though she hopes to gain enough sponsorship to run all at every IndyCar race on an oval next year, a lifetime in racing has taught her plenty of lessons about looking too far ahead.

Maybe this weekend will work out, maybe it won't. Either way, she'll still be back in the office next week, watching the garage and working the phones.

``I have a goal in mind and this is what I want to do with my life, my family and my team,'' she said. ``It's a full-time job and it's hard, but I love it.''

Dixon on pole for Meijer Indy 300
August 8, 2008

SPARTA, Ky. (AP) -Helio Castroneves has a theory on why nobody can seem to catch IndyCar Series leader Scott Dixon.

``Scott seems to have a V12 engine,'' Castroneves said after watching Dixon grab the pole for the Meijer Indy 300 on Saturday at Kentucky Speedway.

Dixon easily earned his fifth pole of the season, averaging 218.968 mph during his four-lap turn around the 1.5-mile oval, his Target Chip Ganassi car snapping Team Penske's streak of three consecutive poles at the track. Vitor Meira will start outside the front row with a four-lap average of 218.409.

``It's been pretty tough the last couple of weekends,'' said Dixon, tied for second on the career IndyCar Series pole list with 13 . ``We've missed a little bit on qualifying, hopefully it looks like the car is pretty strong this week.''

Dixon saying his team ``missed'' during qualifying recently shows just how dominant his car has been all season. The Indy 300 marks the 12th straight race Dixon will start in the top 10.

The pole will only make it that much harder for the field to catch him. Dixon has won three times this year when he's started from the front, including the Indy 500.

While he has a considerable points lead on Castroneves, the perfectionist in Dixon can't help but think about how much closer he could be to a championship. It comes with the territory when you lose the points title on the last lap of the last race of the season, as Dixon did to Dario Franchitti in 2007.

``We probably should have a lot bigger lead than we've got right now,'' Dixon said. ``We've to do what we're capable of and hopefully the last four races we can string out that lead a little bit more.''

Castroneves, qualified sixth, is hardly ceding the title.

``We're not giving up at all,'' Castroneves said. ``It's still like 60 points. It's still 200 points in the game and what we need to do is just keep pushing as hard as we can.''

Even if that includes taking some chances now that he might not have earlier in the year.

``Now it's not about being consistent,'' he said. ``Now it's about going out there, taking chances and trying to make some gains.''

Meira has no hopes of winning the title, though he thinks he's due for a breakthrough after a roller coaster season. Saturday's race will be the 90th start of his IndyCar career, and he's still searching for his first victory. Meira's best finish this season is a second-place finish to Dixon at Indy.

``Definitely (if I win) some questions are going to stop, so that's good,'' Meira said. ``It's going to be a big relief for everybody.''

Sarah Fisher qualified 16th in her first start since the Indy 500. Fisher called the car ``OK'' but admitted a lack of track time the last two months has them scrambling to keep up. Fisher set the track record while winning the pole here in 2002.

``There were some (research and development) things we wanted to try in the trailer but we just didn't have the time,'' she said. ``Our target is for a top 10 obviously. If we could come away with that, we'd feel great.''

Danica Patrick will start in the last row of the 26-car field after wrecking during practice. Crew members on her Andretti Green Racing team attempted to fix the car using parts from her backup car, but couldn't get the repairs done in time for her to qualify. They decided against going to the backup car because it is set up for the road course at Infineon Raceway on Aug. 24.