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PICS: ABBOTT, BOyD, WIllIAMS, levITT/lAT, lAT SOUTH
indYcAR
Castroneves worried by honda pace
tEam pEnSkE drIVEr hElIO
Castroneves is concerned that his
team could struggle to match rival
outfit Chip Ganassi Racing at Texas
Motor Speedway next month unless
it can find a way to match the update
that Honda brought to last weekend’s
Indianapolis 500.
Penske’s engine supplier Chevrolet
dominated qualifying for the race,
claiming nine of the top 10 places on
the grid. Part of its performance was
attributed to the additional 10
kilopascals of boost that teams were
allowed to run on Pole Day and Bump
Day, on which qualifying took place.
However Honda produced an
update in the week between qualifying
and Carb Day and Castroneves, who
finished 10th in last Sunday’s race,
believes that the Japanese
manufacturer now has the edge
in superspeedway trim.
“Chevy is doing a great job, but
Honda really surprised a lot of
danICa patrICk haS lEft thE
door open to an Indianapolis
500 return in the near future,
but only as part of a doubleheader
with Charlotte’s
600-mile NASCAR Cup event.
US news outlets reported
last week that Patrick’s
management team is working
on a deal to race at both Indy
and Charlotte on the same day
in what is expected to be her
first full season at NASCAR’s
top level, and the 30-year-old
American told USA Today that
she was supportive of the idea.
“If I did the Indy 500, that
[double-header] is what it
would be,” said Patrick.
Patrick (10) did Charlotte
Cup race last weekend
people,” the three-time Indy 500
winner told AUTOSPORT. “I really
thought we’d be at least challenging
[the leaders], but we were not even
close, to be honest.
“We didn’t have the speed to
compete against the Ganassi cars and
others. When they brought the boost
indYcAR
Patrick considering
Indy/NASCAR double
“As long as everything works
out, and we’re able to transition
to Cup, that would be awesome.
It would have been some sort
of double if I’d done it this year.
That’s just the way it would go
down, and that would be a hell
of a lot of work, but I’m sure it
would be pretty fun.
“I wouldn’t want the
distance since the last time I
drove an IndyCar to be too big.”
Contesting both races
involves making repeated trips
between Indianapolis and
Charlotte, which are almost
600 miles apart, in order to
complete qualifying and the
race at each venue.
Castroneves fought
Honda-powered cars
level back down from 1.4 to 1.3, it
certainly threw our speed off a little
bit. We’re going back to a road course
[Detroit], where the boost will be 1.4,
and on the short ovals it will be 1.4.
But at Texas and [season-finale]
Fontana, it will be 1.3 again. So
we’ve got some work to do.”
Bernard: China will happen
indYcAR
IndyCar defiant
on China race
IndyCar CEO randy BErnard IS
confident that the series’ first race in China
will go ahead as planned, despite aspects of
the deal having still not been finalised 10
weeks before the planned August 19 event.
According to Bernard, most of the details
for the Quingdao street race were signed
off some time ago, however the process
has been slowed down by the appointment
of a new city mayor.
“They want a race,” Bernard said. “The
mayor wants to get his arms around it,
understand it and make sure that he is fully
involved in this so he doesn’t want to have
a black eye in his first year of office. We’re
continuing on with that event like we’ve
planned. We have a signed contract. It’s
just a matter of working on the details.”
Bernard said the series has not discussed
a back-up plan to fill the gap in the calendar
should the China race become unviable.
“We’re not looking at that yet,” he told
AUTOSPORT. “I’m still confident that we
can make it happen this year. I’d say that
in 14 days, things will be more solid.”
news
Pit & Paddock
AUTOSPORT SAYS…
mark glEndEnnIng
US EdItOr
It’s a weird thing, the idea of greatness,
because it’s never really clear where the
threshold lies. It’s difficult to argue against
the inclusion of Dario Franchitti, four-time
IndyCar champion and now three-time
Indianapolis 500 winner, among the
pantheon of US single-seater racing’s elite.
But then again, we’d also have said that a
week ago, back when he’d only emptied
the bottle of milk over his head twice.
You might already have seen reports
declaring that Franchitti ‘joined the greats’
last weekend, which makes it sound a bit
like winning at Indy again was akin to taking
the trip that moved him up to the platinum
level of his frequent-flyer programme. Helio
Castroneves is a three-time Indy winner as
well, and while
he’s become part
of the Month Of
May folklore and a
fan favourite, you
don’t often hear
him being spoken
of in the same
sort of terms as
Franchitti – or
even Scott Dixon who
Franchitti was
already a legend
has ‘only’ got one title and Indy 500
victory to his credit.
Franchitti didn’t turn into a ‘great’
overnight, any more than AJ Foyt or Johnny
Rutherford or Rick Mears did. It’s a process,
not a level that can be achieved by getting
the right numbers on a sheet of statistics.
Franchitti’s transformation into motorsport
royalty has been underway for some time.
On Sunday, he merely hammered the point
home. Again.
REMEMBER WHEn…
MAY 26, 2002
…Franchitti first started the Indy 500?
Then a front-runner in Champ Car, Franchitti
qualified his Team Green Dallara IR2-Chevy
27th at the Brickyard and finished three laps
down in 19th as Helio Castroneves won.
May 31 2012 autosport.com 23