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Castroneves Races Like The Wind To Earn The Indy 500 Pole

Indianapolis, Ind. ? Helio Castroneves raced to the pole position for the Indianapolis 500 when he ripped off four rapid laps at an average speed of 224.864 miles per hour to gain the premier starting spot for the 93rd running of the famed race.

For Team Penske, the renowned team garnered its 15th pole and Castroneves topped all Pole Day qualifiers for the third time in his accomplished career to become the third driver to do so. The colorful Brazilian now has 27 career IndyCar Series poles.

The PEAK Peformance Pole Award presented by Auto Zone and its $100,000 prize went to Castroneves at the day?s conclusion.

On a windy, cool day, 11 cars gained an official starting spot for the race, three were bumped, seven withdrew and re-qualified, two failed post-qualifying technical inspections and three drivers walked away from practice crashes.

Throughout the day, all competitors were affected by winds that gusted up to 31 miles per hour, although the wind speed tailed off late in the afternoon.

Castroneves was one of those who elected to make a second qualification run, gaining the pole in the late afternoon and bumping teammate Ryan Briscoe from the first slot.

Said Castroneves about his achievement, ?It is incredible for me. These guys (Team Penske) gave me my life back. Since I was 11 years old, racing is all I wanted to do, and this place (Indianapolis) is magic for me.?

Regarding the re-qualification, he stated, ?It was a big gamble, but we took a chance and it paid off.?

Noted Roger Penske, ?We are excited to have Helio (Castroneves) come back and show everyone how good he really is. He did a fantastic job.? Tim Cindric, Team Penske president, added, ?Our goal was to get the pole and get all three cars into the race.?

Briscoe, in a companion Team Penske entry, qualified second fastest at 224.083 mph with 2007 winner Dario Franchitti pushing his Target Chip Ganassi Racing entry to the outside of the front row with a speed of 224.010 mph.

For Briscoe, he was slightly frustrated after making a second run for the pole. ?I thought I was going to have a shot at it and just couldn?t get it done,? he said. You can?t say we didn?t try. We knew we had speed. I didn?t go as fast as I was expecting. I think the track got quicker. It was just an unbelievable qualifying run by Helio (Castroneves) and Team Penske.

Franchitti, too, was somewhat taken back by the outcome. ?We didn?t have enough today for Helio (Castroneves),? the Scotsman said. ?I thought we had something for Ryan (Briscoe), but we couldn?t get the car going any faster, although we got everything out of it we could. It is a little disappointing.?

Second-row qualifiers were Graham Rahal, 2008 winner Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan, who rebounded after having his first run disqualified. Also, he had a completely different car from Friday, a multi-colored one at that.

?It?s Hideki?s (Mutoh) tub with parts off of my other car,? he said. ?We changed engines and chassis, and we did go two miles an hour quicker. Qualifying the first day for us, at this point, it was almost a miracle for us. Nothing came easy for me.?

Regarding his earlier disqualification, he commented, ?We were down 8/10ths of a pound. Those are the rules and it was our mistake.?

Mario Moraes, Marco Andretti and Will Power in the Team Verizon Wireless of Team Penske were the third-row qualifiers.

Danica Patrick shook off a slower run to gain the 10th starting position and Alex Lloyd gained Pole Day?s final position with a late qualification.

?It was really exciting for me,? Lloyd said. ?We struggled this morning and wondered whether we should attempt to qualify, but we did it. It is exciting to be the underdog.?

Practice crashes dashed the qualifying hopes of 2005 500 winner Dan Wheldon and rookies Robert Doornbos and Nelson Philippe. No injuries were sustained in the wall-banging incidents.

The second day of qualifying takes place Sunday between Noon and 6 p.m. And the fastest 11 cars will earn starting positions for Indianapolis 500 on May 24. Twenty-eight cars will be eligible to attempt a qualification run.

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