Castroneves, Briscoe And Team Penske Fastest At Infineon Raceway

By Joe Jennings
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Updated: August 23, 2008

Sonoma, Calif. – Three days after a fire destroyed Team Penske’s primary cars, Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe were the fastest qualifiers for Sunday’s Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma at Infineon Raceway. The race will be the 15th IndyCar Series event of the year.

In back-up cars, Castroneves claimed the pole with a speed of 107.809 miles per hour and teammate Briscoe was a tick of the clock slower at 107.787 mph.

For the popular Brazilian driver, he achieved his third PEAK Motor Oil Pole Award of the season and his series-leading 26th career pole. And Briscoe will be making his fifth front-row start of the season. The two drivers also qualified 1-2 for the third consecutive road or street course race.

The peerless Team Penske chalked up its 175th pole.

“What a great comeback for Team Penske after what happened earlier this week,” Castroneves said with satisfaction. “Ryan (Briscoe) and I tried everything we could to get the front row for them. Our guys did an incredible job. If you close your eyes, you don’t know what car you did it in. Qualifying was a close call and we both kept pushing. This pole tastes sweeter than the others.”

Added Briscoe, a two-time winner in 2008, “Helio (Castroneves) and I push each other a lot. Having two of the fastest cars on the track really helps us. We compare the data after every session, and I’ll pick up a bit where he’s strong and he’ll pick up where I am strong. And we just try to put it all together. It is great to have Team Penske sweep the front row again.”

Will Power qualified third for his fourth top-five of the season in the KV Technology car. His speed was 107.551 mph. “We have sort of been there all weekend in the top three, and we’re happy about that. I think I could have done a better job in the last run, but it does feel good.”

Tony Kanaan gained the fourth starting position with a speed of 107.493 mph. “We were one change behind in the Firestone Fast Six,” he stated. “We tried everything, but as a team, we have come a long way. We’ve been struggling on the road courses, so I’m glad to see we’re in the top four.”

IndyCar Series point leader Scott Dixon timed fifth fastest at 106.746 mph with Power’s teammate Oriol Servia sixth at 106.514 mph.
“We’re probably disappointed with our qualifying,” Dixon said. “The car was fairly decent, and then on the last qualifying run, we tried to lower the car to see if we were missing something. But we couldn’t even get within 8/10ths of a second on our last run. We always seem to race better than we qualify, and we want to make sure we follow up with some points tomorrow.”

Justin Wilson, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Andretti Green teammates Danica Patrick and Marco Andretti rounded out the top-10 qualifiers.
Twenty-seven cars were on hand and all but Enrique Bernoldi took part in qualifications.

The Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma takes the green flag at 5:30 p.m. EDT.