Thanks to the rain, Brian (Barnhart) has decided to line 'em up by entrant points - giving Helio Castroneves the first starting position for the third year in a row. The question we got now: Can Helio (Castroneves) bring it home first like he did in 2006, or will he fade (to seventh) like 2007?
Castroneves didn't have to do anything (this week) to earn the pole for the Indy Japan 300. That was taken care of during the first two IndyCar Series races of the season.
"I'm sitting in the right spot in the championship to be in this situation and I'll take it," said Castroneves, who has won nine of the 30 races in which he's started from the pole. "We feel we have a consistent car. In the last few years we were very fast here, and I feel we can continue."
Scott Dixon, who won the season opener on the Homestead-Miami Speedway oval, will be making his third front-row start at Twin Ring Motegi. He was on the pole in 2003, led 45 laps, but finished 15th because of a crash. Andretti Green Racing teammates Tony Kanaan and Marco Andretti will share Row 2, while Dan Wheldon and Danica Patrick will be on Row 3.
After second-place finishes at TRM in each of the last two seasons, Wheldon will attempt to return to Victory Lane - the place he called home in both 2004 and 2005. In five starts at Motegi, Wheldon has led 354 of 1,000 laps (35.4%). Can he become the series first three-time winner at the track?
Dario Franchitti, #27 Canadian Club Dallara/Honda/Firestone
“The Canadian Club car was pretty good today. There is so little difference here between the top-five drivers. If we can get the car right and do our job a little better it can make all the difference for us this weekend.”
From PaddockTalk.com:
Practice for the Motorola Indy 300 at Infineon Raceway Sears Point got underway today on the 2.26-mile, 12-turn undulating circuit. From the start, top position on the speed charts traded back and forth between Helio Castroneves and Dario Franchitti, with the Brazilian pipping the Scot in both morning and afternoon sessions to earn the choice of going first or last in tomorrow’s qualifying line.
Castroneves, who had to sit out the first 25 minutes of the two-hour morning test session following a meeting with Brian Barnhart over his antics in Kentucky two weeks ago, quickly rose through the ranks and was quickest, both in the morning session (108.193 mph) and this afternoon (108.158 mph).
“I was driving my butt off out there,” said the ebullient Castroneves. “This place is very challenging; it’s like a roller coaster. We hit the right spot on the setup but tomorrow, the times will improve,” he noted. Although Castroneves thought the track would be “way better this afternoon, it was different. The grip was changing from one end of the car to the other.” His best tour came on the ninth of 12 total laps in the second, quicker group of cars.
Franchitti ended up second in both the morning (107.861 mph) and afternoon (107.971 mph). Hoping his spate of poor luck at Michigan and Kentucky is over for now, the championship leader since he won the Indianapolis 500 in May – only eight points ahead of Scott Dixon – would “prefer the 65-point lead I had” before things stopped going his way.
Although Franchitti hasn’t got a championship yet – and all four of his closest pursuers have made that jump – he is firm on the conviction that he just needs to “have fun and do the best we can as we have all season long. Good luck stops eventually and this has, no question, been the luckiest year of my career.”
Tony Kanaan finished third for the day and improved his position from morning practice, when he experienced a few incidents that included a mid-session spin at the very popular second turn. Kanaan ended up with third this afternoon and for the day, with his 10th of 13 laps at 107.764 mph, nearly half a mile per hour better than his earlier best (107.222 mph). Kanaan is third in points, 52 behind Franchitti.
Last year’s winner here, Marco Andretti came fourth for the afternoon with his afternoon lap of 107.737 mph, using his 12th or 13 laps to make that speed. 2003 IRL champion Scott Dixon came fifth for the day, based on his morning lap of 107.727 mph).
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