Marlboro Team Penske had solid showing in
Tennessee
Sam Hornish Jr. and Helio Castroneves earned Marlboro Team
Penske a second and third place finish respectively at the Firestone Indy 200
Saturday night at Nashville Superspeedway giving the Team its fifth and sixth
top-three finishes this season.
The second place effort marked Hornish
Jr.’s third top-five finish of the season and his third top-ten finish in the
last four races. His performance was also his second top-three result in four
starts in Nashville (he finished third in 2002). More importantly, Hornish Jr.
catapulted from eighth in the 2004 Indy Racing League (IRL) IndyCar Series point
standings to fifth with 200 points.
For Marlboro Team Penske teammate
Castroneves, his third place showing marked his fourth top-three result this
season as well as his third consecutive top-ten finish. In addition, this was
his second top-three appearance in three starts at Nashville Superspeedway (he
finished third in 2003).
MILWAUKEE HOLDS SPECIAL MEMORIES FOR BOTH
CASTRONEVES AND HORNISH JR.
After a successful campaign in the final
night race of the season in Nashville, Marlboro Team Penske will head to
Milwaukee this weekend for the Menards A.J. Foyt Indy 225 at The Milwaukee Mile.
2001 & 2002 Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves is no stranger
to the Wisconsin area as he has had a great deal of success on the
1-mile oval when he competed there from 1998-2001 in the CART Series. In
1998, Castroneves scored his first Indy car podium appearance when he finished
second and earned his first Indy car pole in 1999.
Furthermore, in the
12 short oval starts the 29 year-old Brazilian has made since joining the IRL
full-time in 2002, he’s earned eight top-three finishes, including a third-place
finish this season in Richmond; wins in Nazareth and St. Louis in 2003; and a
win in Nazareth in 2002. He’s also earned three poles including Richmond this
season, St. Louis in 2003 and Phoenix in 2002.
In those 12 events,
Marlboro Team Penske has earned 16 top-three finishes, including five victories
and seven poles.
“Milwaukee holds some great memories for me,” explained
Castroneves. “It was the place where I got my first Indy car podium finish as
well as my first Indy car pole, so this track will always have a special place
in my heart. Marlboro Team Penske had a good test here a few weeks ago, and we
were able to learn a lot about the IndyCar Series package, so I’m looking
forward to this weekend. The track is fairly flat with not much banking, which
is challenging for both the drivers and the engineers as they try to get an
effective set-up for the car. I’ve had some good results in Milwaukee in the
past, and it will be fun to come back this season after being away for three
years.”
Sunday will mark 24 year-old Sam Hornish Jr.’s IndyCar Series
debut at the track. While this will mark his first time on the oval in an Indy
car, he has competed in Milwaukee with the Toyota Atlantic Series in 1999, where
he finished eighth after starting seventh.
Although he may not have
raced a lot at the Milwaukee Mile, Hornish Jr. certainly has some hometown ties
to the area. Hornish Jr.’s mother, Jo Ellen, is from Milwaukee and the Hornish
family still has a lot of relatives in the area. Many of his family and friends
will be on-hand to cheer for the two-time Series champion along with fans from
his hometown of Defiance, OH.
“I’m really looking forward to this
weekend’s event at The Milwaukee Mile,” said Hornish Jr. “I’ve never raced an
IndyCar there, I’ve only raced there in the Toyota Atlantic Series. Marlboro
Team Penske ran well at the open test in June so hopefully we can have another
strong finish like this past weekend in Nashville. Personally, this race means a
lot to me as my mom is from Milwaukee and we still have family there. One of the
first dates my mom and dad went on was at the Milwaukee Mile so it would be
great to win there. Plus, two bus loads of folks from Defiance are coming to the
race so there should be a lot of people cheering us on.”
VITOR MEIRA WINS
MARLBORO LAP LEADER AWARD
Rahal-Letterman Racing driver Vitor Meira led
the most laps last weekend after being at the top of the leader board for 113 of
the 200 laps on his way to a twelfth place finish at the Firestone Indy 200.
Meira earned three extra points for leading the most laps and sits in tenth
place in the IndyCar Series Championship point standings with 170 points. Meira
will be presented with his Marlboro Lap Leader Award check for $7,500 during the
pre-race ceremonies at the Menards A.J. Foyt Indy 225 at The Milwaukee Mile on
July 25th.
In addition, Mike King of the IMS Radio Network was the
winner of the Marlboro Lap Leader Award Media Contest. During each IRL event,
journalists have the opportunity to enter an on-site contest to predict who will
lead the most laps, and how many that driver will lead, in a given race. King,
who guessed that Meira would lead 112 of the scheduled 200 laps in the race, won
a MOMO Design Essenziale Watch.
