"Fame Monster" Doubles Down; Stock Car Debut Part Deux

Danica Patrick, as you have seen and heard in the Twitterverse, and soon elsewhere, will continue her learning process this weekend at Datytona International Speedway when she enters and runs the NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Saturday, February 13. Her entry will get the guaranteed points from a car acquired by JR Motorsports--so Kelly Bires ought to be able to compete.

Her debut in the ARCA race was not spectacular, but solid. She dodged flying sheet metal, felt a few nudges, gave some back, and brought the car back into the garage area 6th--on the lead lap. Patrick showed some car control skills during a spin--which will be necessary to perfect as her time in stock cars continues. Randy Bernard, IndyCar Series CEO, can only hope that her new found notoriety in the stock car arena is a good thing for Patrick's day job--competing in the IndyCar Series full time for Michael Andretti.

We're taking care of other business, and will have a very busy Race-Talk this week. We will likely be busy for CBS News, Radio, as the hype continues for the 52nd Daytona 500--which, it seems, is being overshadowed somewhat by Patrick's stock car debut

"The Danicar"

Mattel's iconic Hot Wheels brand of miniature cars returns to the racing market with JR Motorsports and Danica Patrick. Kelley Earnhardt (left) says the company will have an associate sponsor position for Danica's foray into the world of full fendered racing in NASCAR's Nationwide Series. In August at Michigan International Speedway, Danica's #7 Chevy Impala will wear full Hot Wheels livery.

When asked if she had Hot Wheels when she was younger, Patrick replied, "I'm a girl--I had Barbie dolls." Dale Jr. didn't say too much except that he had Hot Wheels in his youth.

Keep your eye on the Tweets for fresh info.

"When the Iron's Hot, Strike!"

Danica Patrick, meeting most of the NASCAR beat reporters after the final ARCA practice was washed out at Daytona International Speedway, who kept asking her the same questions shw was asked yesterday--and weeks before, about her motivation to try racing full fendered stock cars.

We called her the "Fame Monster"--and I submit that the attention she'll receive from this race, the Super Bowl commercials, the CSI episode (where she plays a race driver, go figure!), and her long awaited Nationwide debut (whether that's next week here, but definitely at Auto Club Speedway at Fontana on February 20) qualifies her.

With the birth announcements for Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Elliott Sadler and the Kyle Busch engagement--the old-school NASCAR scribes are eagerly awaiting some racing action to talk about, instead of the minutia that masquerades for news in the off season. So too, are we.

Danica-Mania, Shootout Style

Thanks to Mark Williams of MrNews Productions (halifaxareanewswatch.com) for this picture of Danica Patrick, just a few hours before a four hour and 50 minute practice for the ARCA cars at Daytona International Speedway.

Jim Hunter, the VP for Corporate Communications at NASCAR is battling cancer. He stopped by media days, and reporters offered well wishes. I knew he was on the mend when he told me "not today" when I asked him if he was ready to play nine (holes of golf, Hunter enjoys his time on the links) with a wink. Everyone hopes Jim will get back to the trail (and the links soon).

Danica Patrick suggested that she was not aware that the ARCA race here could, and has in the past turned into a crashfest. That was a rather curious remark.

Jimmie Johnson met the media and said that he'd really like to win Daytona for his crew chief, Chad Knaus. One will remember that Knaus spent time in NASCAR's doghouse for rule violations here, and his replacement, Darian Grubb, won the 500 in 2006.

The Rolex Series gremlins that befell AJ Allmendinger still haunt him--but he says running the #43 Ford with Yates horsepower gives him confidence for the 500.

More later.

Speedweeks/Tailgating/Racing's Fame Monster

Random comments about the brief time I spent at the Rolex 24 Grand-AM 24 Hours of Daytona:

• Crowd was its usual enthusiastic self--but not as big as it's been.
• Michael Shank Racing and AJ Allmendinger cannot buy a break at the (TM) World Center of Racing, it seems. Every racing gremlin (not the American Motors car) seems to camp out at the 6 or 60 car garage, and waits until things are going better than well to strike.
• How about a Porsche team taking the win with a V8 and not the legendary and proven boxer 6? And how about the fact that it's sharing garage space and engineering smarts in Jacksonville with the Brumos Porsche team?
• With the hoopla about NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers in the race--the only ones with significant hardware were Max Papis and part-timer Scott Pruett in the Riley BMW, finishing second to the Action Express Porsche Team in the Daytona Prototype Class and second overall for the Chipster. Ganassi's other BMW Riley ran like Jack the Bear until it expired with about 9 hours to go (Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya in that seat).
• Doubtless you saw the NFL stories on increased security. Wonder what that would be like if NASCAR and the track operators tried that at a place like Pocono, Talladega or any one of the other venues where the folks like to pop off firecrackers, have a couple barley-pops and grill a steak.
• Auto Racing's "Fame Monster", Danica Patrick, will make her initial stock car foray at the 200 mile ARCA race on Saturday, nestled between the 36 Hours of Daytona (Sprint Cup restrictor plate qualifying seems to take that long) and the all-skate Budweiser Shootout that evening. She will have to at least qualify in the top 10 (should be no problem to do that given JR Motorsports' ingenuity) and would have to have a top-10 finish to be taken seriously given all the hype. Even though her handlers are doing their best to lower expectations, her fans and sponsors expect a bit more. It would make a good story if she were to win the ARCA race, then change her mind and add the Daytona Nationwide race to her 2010 schedule.
• Lost in all this is Hurley Haywood's last hurrah as a sports car driver at Daytona. Haywood will give up driving the #59 Porsche Daytona prototype...but not an affiliation with the legendary Brumos Porsche team.

You will hear the reason why the Action Express team won in the winner's comments this week on Race-Talk, along with some chat with the aforementioned Ms Patrick. You may always hear this week's program, as well as the past two editions on our Motor Sports Radio archive page:

http://msrpk.com/archive.html

One for the Racers: Justin Wilson wins at Watkins Glen; gives Dale Coyne his First Win in Indy Style Racing"

It only took 25 years as an owner and driver--but Chicago area businessman Dale Coyne finally tasted the champagne as a winner--when Justin Wilson won the Camping World Grand Prix at Watkins Glen International in a car owned by Coyne. Wilson started second, and used a red-black-red tire strategy to hold off Ryan Briscoe (pole sitter) and the new series point leader, Scott Dixon from Target Chip Ganassi Racing who finished third. The red-black-red describes the option-primary-option Firestone Firehawk tires the crew decided to mount on his Z-Line Dallara Honda. This is Wilson's second IndyCar series win; he has four others in the CART/Champ Car World Series.

There were eight lead changes among Wilson, Dixon, Briscoe, Helio Castroneves (finished 4th) and Marco Andretti (5th). Average speed was double the double nickel--111.915 miles an hour. Four cautions flew.

Dario Franchitti spun into the kitty litter in Turn Five, and finished one lap down--but is second in points, with 294. Briscoe also has 294 for Team Penske--but Franchitti gets the nod for tie breakers. Helio is 4th and going into Toronto next weekend, Danica Patrick is in fifth place.

The Coyne team opted to do some heavy road course testing at places like Sebring early in 2009, followed a couple weeks ago by a long test here on the real 3.377 mile 11 turn classic Glen circuit. The results derived paid off. Coyne had to step up his investment this season when Wilson became available as a driver and some other crew and engineering people became available. Wilson almost won at St. Pete, and if not for a bad bit of pit stops, would have been a contender in Long Beach. The next two consecutive circuits are temporary circuits (Toronto and Edmonton), which may play to the new found strength of the Coyne camp.

We get a weekend off the road and rejoin you with American LeMans road racing style blogging and Tweeting in a couple of weeks--if stuff blows up--or we get more interesting e-mails--we'll break in. Yes, I will bring my camera for a TwitPic and blog picture of three.

"Could You Write a Better Script for May at Indianapolis?"

From left to right: Penske Racing President, Tim Cindric, three time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves, and 15 time Indianapolis 500 winning car owner, Roger Penske.

Castroneves led early fell back and relied on his crew and his usually heavy right foot to get past the wreckage of eight caution periods for contact...getting past runner-up Dan Wheldon and third place finisher Danica Patrick to become the most recent of six drivers to win the Indy 500 three times.

The scariest moment came when AJ Foyt racing driver Vitor Meira and Luczo Dragon racing driver Raphael Matos hooked wheels in turn one and Meira went vertical with his wheels riding the SAFER barrier. Meira was admitted to Methodist Hospital with a fracture of the L1 and L2 vertebrae. Indy Car Medical Director Dr. Michael Olinger says the plan is for Meira to be treated with a back brace ("non-surgical management"). Dr. Terry Trammell will keep tabs on Meira during the recovery. Meira is expected to be at Methodist for two days. Vitor felt well enough to call the team on his cell phone after being examined at Methodist.

We will be here for the front row photo and maybe try to chat up our pal Helio some more.

"Long Beach IndyCars--Something for Everyone"

On the bottom--Dario Franchitti, who like Gil deFerran yesterday, found his way to Victory Lane at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Franchitti, with the win for owner Chip Ganassi over polesitter Will Power, now takes the series point lead to Kansas. He was challenged by Danica Patrick, who started 22nd and thanks to race strategist and team owner Michael Andretti, picked her way through the full course cautions and made it to second, before a fade to a 4th place finish.

On the top--Will Power and Helio Castroneves of Team Penske chatting after a post race media availability. Power gave up the #3 to Castroneves this weekend, as he agreed to do, and will next be in Penske livery at the corner of 16th St. and Georgetown Road in late May for the Indianapolis 500, a race where Mr. Penske has a solid record of accomplishment. Helio started 8th, led some laps, but also shuffled back in the pack--he finished 7th.

We will be back at the track in Richmond for Sprint Cup qualifying on May 1, and the race on May 2.

"Front Row At St. Pete"

To your left, Graham Rahal, at 20 years, 90 days old, the youngest IndyCar pole sitter, with an effort of 103.828 miles an hour for his first pole, and a leg up on defense of his win here last year. To your right, Justin Wilson, who drove his fast lap of 103.196 miles an hour to give new owner Dale Coyne Racing his best ever team starting position. Rahal had a semi-close moment on an otherwise impeccable Fast Six...the son of Bobby Rahal thought he needed to get an even quicker lap, and upset the car ever so slightly enough to kiss the wall.

The top 6 are Rahal, Wilson, Tony Kanaan, Ryan Briscoe, Dario Franchitti, and Will Power. Scott Dixon will see the green from 8th, Danica Patrick 15th, and her teammate, Marco Andretti, 18th. Rahal showed a bit of pleasure when asked whether he derived satisfaction from beating and out qualifying Marco.

We'll blog after the American LeMans Series race wraps up.

The "Captain" Gets A Double

Ryan Briscoe used a classic Roger Penske pit strategy to get out in front of trouble, and win the Honda Indy 200 here at Mid-Ohio. Roger brought Briscoe in for tires early...and timed it right so the cautions fell Briscoe's way--that, and a fast Honda V8 is the story. Polesitter and teammate Helio Castroneves was a distant second...but considering his competition for the title(pointleader Scott Dixon) finished third...it was a good points day for the team. Briscoe is 5th in points after this, his 2nd IndyCar victory in 31 career starts. With Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas' win in yesterday's American LeMans Series LMP 2 class, this marks the 19th time that Penske Racing has pulled off a double victory, and the fourth time they've won two races at the same track. The 1-2 finish in the IndyCar race is Penske's 8th in the IndyCars and 35th in open wheel history (includes CART and Champ Car).

The Top 5 in IndyCar points:

Dixon 455

Castroneves 397

Kanaan 365

Wheldon 364

Briscoe 296

The IndyCars finish their "six pack" with their first Canadian appearance in Edmonton...I'll bet everyone will look forward to the week off on August 1-3...maybe tempers (are you listening Milka and Danica) will get a chance to cool down.

We'll rejoin you next weekend from the corner of 16th Street and Georgetown Road in Speedway, Indiana next week, for the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

"Rainout Theatre at Richmond"

This is Danica Patrick's Dallara Honda getting ready to go back in the transporter after a strong shower cut back the practice before tonight's qualifying. USAC has sprint cars and Silver Crown cars on the property as well.

The qualifying session for Saturday night's SunTrust Indy Challenge is slated to begin at 7:30 local time.

Now that I have some time to digest what NHRA announced on their investigation into Scott Kalitta's fatal crash...

~What they found seems consistent with what happened on the video. Of course, there may have been other video that was recorded but not used by ESPN, and that video was likely reviewed.

~The top end at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park has a gradual concrete curve which was designed to funnel out of control cars that may have shot through the "kitty litter/sand/etc". back into the "kitty litter" to slow the cars down. But when a car gets airborne, that curve would seem to serve like the pocket of a baseball glove once all of the crashing against the television camera boom was complete. This can be illustrated by looking at an aerial photo of the facility.

~The Ford/Delphi "Blue Box' evidently survived the explosion and crash, and is yielding some valuable information. You can thank Dan Davis...the soon-to-retire boss of Ford Racing...for greenlighting this project, which put the data recorder in each Funny Car this season.

~Engine failure with 7,000+ horsepower is a fact of life. It can be mitigated with stronger engine parts...but stronger parts trade power for reliability. Power in a nitro funny car or Top Fuel car translates to speed.

~Parachute mounting: The inflation of the parachutes didn't happen. Does one suppose that an auxiliary chute could be mounted to the chassis of the Funny Car, set to deploy if the body blows off?

Just some thoughts as the straight line guys get ready for racing at Norwalk Ohio. We'll keep our eyes on the sky...and rejoin you with some qualifying highlights.

Dixon Dominates; Danica Disses Briscoe after Pit Road Wreck; Reunification Brings Back Some Buzz

If you ask the only New Zealand driver to win the Indianapolis 500 what made the difference, Scott Dixon will give all credit to the Target Chip Ganassi team's preparation in the off season. When Dixon snuck into Concord, NC and the Lowe's Motor Speedway Media Tour, he made a big point of saying he was focused on winning the championship. He is back in the point lead after the Brickyard victory--a dominant 115 out of 200 laps led performance. Dixon now leads Helio Castroneves by 15 points going into the race at the Milwaukee Mile next weekend.

Danica Patrick and Ryan Briscoe collided on lap 171, when Briscoe started to fish-tail as he hit the throttle. Patrick's car was in the way. There was likely some fault which could be attributed to both drivers. When Danica marched to confront Briscoe, she was edged aside by some security operatives...even though she still had her helmet on...you could tell by the stride that Danica was angry. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway management was pleased with the first 500 since the Champ Car amalgamation.

The race was entertaining; it was nice to not have some sort of weather problems to delay the race.

We plan to live blog from the Michigan Sprint Cup Extravaganza in a couple of weeks, or if we have some extra that happens after Race-Talk is produced. Sign up for the podcast on our podcast page: http://msrpk.com/podcast.htm

Track Too Tough To Tame; Dixon on Indy Pole; Massa Roasts Turkey, Nabs GP F1 pole

• Felipe Massa starts the Turkish Grand Prix on the pole...his Ferrari teammate, pointleader Kimi Raikkonen 4th. Heikki Kovaleinen starts 2nd for Mercedes McLaren
• Scott Dixon gets the pole for the 92nd Indianapolis 500 with a speed of 226.366 miles an hour. Teammate Dan Wheldon, a past 500 Champion, starts 2nd (226.110)...followed by Ryan Briscoe and series point leader and two time winner, Helio Castroneves from Team Penske. Danica Patrick starts 5th
• If last night's Nationwide Series race is any indication, Tony Stewart will have something to say about the outcome, and there will be more banging tonight on track, than there is in the quality control room of the Stanley hammer factory.
• We'll have more at the end of the race.

Danica Mania is trans-continental; Will Power dominates Champ Car swan song

The record books will show that Danica Patrick (above) and Will Power are both IndyCar series winners on April 20. Patrick's historic victory will revive "Danica Mania" at least this weekend at Kansas and of course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Power's dominating drive (anytime you jump from 4th to first on a standing start and lead 81 of 83 laps, that is certainly domination) will be a footnote to racing history. Don't sell Will short--once he figures out the Dallara chassis, he'll be a force to reckon with in the IndyCars. The top three (lower photo) were Power, rookie Franck Montagny (left) and Mario Dominguez (right)

If you were a racing fan, you would not have been disappointed with the weekend. The American LeMans Series event and the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach had moments for everyone. Perhaps we've discovered another celebrity to make the move to a driver's seat...Jamie Little's win in the Pro Celebrity race was almost as popular as Danica's Japan victory. Jim Michaelian, Long Beach GP boss, just told me the weekend crowd was in the 170-175-thousand ballpark.

If you have ever been part of a reconciliation of a particularly nasty argument, you will know what the atmosphere was here. Yes, the stalwarts for each side had their moments, but the backbiting and caustic comments were mercifully not evident. Everyone involved seems to have moved forward. While there's a lot of ground to make up on NASCAR, the IndyCars have fallen into a cosmic conjunction of events that even 1801 International Speedway Boulevard cannot duplicate. For the sake of open wheel racing fans, the IndyCar community needs to take fair advantage of that set of circumstances.

We're taking a race break this weekend, so please stay tuned for our Race-Talk and Radio-Road-Test programs. We finished road test number 750 last week; it's a third generation model of the mini-van that kept the Big Three the Big Three...and it got an honest 25 miles per gallon on I-15 back from Las Vegas at or above the posted speed limits, with big time room.

Danica Patrick Makes Racing History

Patrick became the first woman to win a major open wheel auto race by passing Helio Castroneves with two laps to go, to win the Indy 300 at Twin Ring Motegi. Castroneves finished second; Scott Dixon, third. If you think Graham Rahal got some publicity for his win in St. Petersburg, you have seen nothing. I was working late here in Long Beach, and only got to see a monitor with the images. It is a big deal to see a dream come true--you could see it in Danica's eyes

NASCAR will certainly not be pleased in private that the first major auto racing win for a woman came in the IndyCar series. Shirley Muldowney, of course, has three NHRA championships and multiple wins--for purposes of this discussion, drag racing is in its own category.

Greetings from St. Pete with Snapshots

Top--one of the fuel tanks in the pits for the American LeMans Series race here. This particular type of racing fuel is related to E85 (85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline) which is becoming more available at pumps near you. Cellulosic ethanol is made from wood, which if you think about it, makes a lot of sense...because the pressure to use corn stocks to make ethanol could be lessened. The Corvettes and Aston Martins will run on the cellulosic ethanol blend this weekend.

Second--one of the aforementioned Corvettes getting ready to practice before qualifying later today.

Third--The overall winner of the 12 Hours of Sebring for the "Captain", Roger Penske. This car is driven by Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas.

Bottom--the #7 Motorola Dallara Honda driven by Danica Patrick getting the thrice-over by the Andretti Green Racing team after practice. Justin Wilson (yep-one of those former Champ Car drivers who are now IndyCar series drivers) was the fastest in the first practice, clocking in at 102.014 miles an hour. Twenty six cars practiced. Patrick's car turned only 23 laps, with a best speed of 99.121 miles an hour.

Please remember that practice makes perfect...but in racing..it doesn't count until the green flag flies.

Homestead Updates

The 3 hour Gainsco GrandAm race has fewer than 40 minutes to go...and Scott Pruett leads overall. You will remember that Pruett already has one victory in 2008...the 24 Hours of Daytona for Chip Ganassi Racing.

What's going on here department: The second and third IndyCar qualifiers, Ed Carpenter and A. J. Foyt IV, both of Vision Racing (owned by one Anton H. "Tony" George), had last night's qualifying times disallowed after failing an inspection. Because both of those cars move to the back of the 25 car grid, that moves Danica Patrick up to second starting position, and gets Dan Wheldon from a 24th place starting slot, to 22nd. The best action on track will still involve Wheldon (who looks for a 4th consecutive win here at Homestead) coming to the front.

We'll update this post with the GrandAm Rolex Series winner later.

Dario Franchitti's Pit at Richmond--Just Another Saturday Night Cruise?????

Saturday Night Special--IRL Indy Cars at Richmond...Short Track DeLuxe

Greetings from Richmond...which is a 3/4 mile oval...just about the perfect length for NASCAR Nextel Cup cars. Tonight, after a rainout of qualifying, the IndyCar series runs on its shortest track of the year...some wags describe driving these cars as similar to "flying jet planes in a barn". Dario Franchitti starts on pole because of the washout of qualifying. The Indy 500 winner comes off a win in the "wreckfest" at Iowa Speedway's 7/8 mile oval. Dario's led most of these laps easily...in the late stages, he's fighting off the challenges of Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon. Danica Patrick is 6th...not quite a factor, with 224 of 250 laps in the books.

Updated at 9 PM local.

Dario Franchitti holds off Scott Dixon for his second win in the last 7 days; adds to point lead going into Watkins Glen next week. Margin of victory was 0.41 second...Franchitti was credited for leading 241 of the 250 laps.

Updated at 9:35 PM local

Best quote of the night from Dario (whose picture we shot at the post-race news conference) "You get paid to do the PR stuff; the driving you do because you like it."--attributed to Scott Dixon in a response to a question about all the media appearances that accrue to Indianapolis 500 winners.

If we get to an event next weekend, then we'll blog from there.

Indianapolis 500 Wrapup

This is Dario Franchitti wired up to talk with TV hosts after winning the 91st Indianapolis 500. He came to America to drive in the CART (now Champ Car World Series) Championship Series. We would have posted this Sunday night...but the old bromide about "for want of a nail, etc." also works on computers. When there are two screws holding a case where there should be six, then strange things happen, just like at Indy...where there are more twists and turns than any road course anywhere, despite it being a 2 1/2 mile oval.

• Michael Andretti likely drove his last Indianapolis 500. He'll be credited with a 13th place lead lap finish. He is the Andretti in Andretti-Green Racing. Franchitti (winner) and Danica Patrick (8th) had the best finishes for AGR.
• I still contend that Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan are the two best IndyCar series drivers never to have won at Indianapolis. Methinks TK will have unfinished business next May.
• Don't count Helio Castroneves out of the IndyCar championship. He's 4th in points with 171, just 13 back from Scott Dixon, who retakes the IndyCar point lead.
• NASCAR aside--Casey Mears wins on Memorial Day weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway. That means the Mears family (he and uncle Rick) has five Memorial Day wins between them.
• Score two for the good guys--Franchitti's win at Indy...and Kyle Petty's third at Lowe's. Franchitti remembered the late Greg Moore when he answered a question about being so well liked in the IndyCar paddock. As for Kyle...there are places in the afterlife for those who really come back from adversity to make the lives of others better. You might have a favorite driver...but Kyle ought to be one of your favorite people and role models as well.

We're taking a road break until Pocono on June 8.

Carburetion Day Snapshots/91st Indianapolis 500

Top--AJ Foyt giving guidance and motivation to his crew during the Carb Day run. AJ has 2 cars entered..the #14 of Darren Manning and the #50 of two time Indy winner, Al Unser, Jr.

Center--Al Unser, Jr. getting ready for the Carb Day run...he shook down the #50 (numbered in honor of Foyt's 50th year in the sport) with a fast lap of 217.158 miles per hour.

Bottom--Roger Penske looks over the telemetry while polesitter Helio Castroneves shakes down the pole winning car for the last time. The two time Indy 500 winner was 4th on the practice chart with a speed of 223.527 miles per hour.

Top Five Speeds on Carburetion Day:

1. Tony Kanaan/#11--225.467
2. Dario Franchitti/#27--223.807
3. Michael Andretti/#39--223.575
4. Helio Castroneves/#3--223.527
5. Jaques Lazier/#21--223.468

Other Past Champs:

• Sam Hornish, Jr./#6--222.981 7th Fastest
• Dan Wheldon/#10--222.199 13th Fastest
• Buddy Rice/#15--221.161 17th Fastest
• Buddy Lazier/#99--218.149 30th Fastest
• Al Unser, Jr.--/#50--217.158 31st Fastest

The Ladies:

• Danica Patrick/#7--222.862 8th Fastest
• Sarah Fisher/#5--218.173 29th Fastest
• Milka Duno/#23--211.658 33rd Fastest

Pit Crew Competition Results to follow.

Updated at 1:36 pm local.

Penske Racing and Helio Castroneves' crew win the Pit Crew Competition over his teammate Sam Hornish, Jr. Couple that with Ryan Newman's Pole at Lowe's Motor Speedway, and it's been a good 24 hours for Team Penske. See you Sunday.

Updated at 7:36 pm local