Indy Car’s freaky friday
Written by Scott Keller · April 18, 2009
Wow, what a day! The Indy Cars invaded Long Beach for the first time, Paul Tracy inked a deal to run in the Indy 500, and Helio Castroneves flew to Long Beach today to race in a third Penske car after being acquitted in his much ballyhooed court case. Friday was a little on the freaky side today, but it was good.
The day got started with a 90 minute morning practice session that kind of got started slowly. A number of drivers had never driven on the Long Beach circuit, and seemed to be tippy toeing around to get a feel for it. The Newman/Haas/Lanigan team, to little surprise, posted some quick numbers early in the session. But as the session continued, the Target and Penske guys started posting some quick times, too. Dario finished quickest in the session, followed by Ryan Briscoe, and Mario Moraes.
But the biggest news of the first session today had nothing to do with the on-track action. With about 30 minutes to go in the session, the news broke that the Miami jury that sat in on the Helio Castroneves case had come back with an acquittal on six of seven charges, and that the seventh charge was deadlocked in a hung jury. Castroneves was freed, and Long Beach was abuzz.
In the mid-day press conference held by the Penske squad, team manager Tim Cindrick announced that Helio would be jetting to Long Beach over the evening and be back in the #3 car on Saturday morning. Cindrick also announced that Will Power will also be in a car tomorrow, the #12 Team Verizon car. Apparently, Roger Penske keeps a spare Indy Car team in his back pocket for rainy days, or something. The paddock is going to be a zoo tomorrow when Helio shows up for the first time after his acqittal.
Another big press conference took place today when KV Racing announced that they will field Paul Tracy in the 2009 Indianapolis 500 Mile Race. Paul Tracy will return to the brickyard for the first time since his controversial almost-win in 2002, a win that ironically ended up in the hands of Helio Castroneves.
After all of this brewed after lunch, it was go-time for the Indy Cars again. The afternoon practice was in the afternoon heat, and the speed charts looked quite a bit different. Will Power, driving the #3 car, the car that Helio will drive tomorrow, came out and posted fast time. If he was trying to prove himself worthy of the Penske insta-team, he did nicely. He was chased by Dixon, Raphael Matos, Dan Wheldon, and Mike Conway had a great run posting the fifth quickest time.
The madness kicks in tomorrow when Helio rides in on a white horse. Who knows what will happen then.
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Way to go Helio! With the way the Feds prosecute cases if asked ten times what I thought his chances were, I’d have said guilty on all ten responses.
The best news is he was declared innocent on six counts, which means they can’t retry him on those issues. Will they try to retry him on the hung count? I would hope they go home and give it up.
Love your line on Penske having spare teams, not to mention SPONSORS, laying about in wait for a driver.