Team Penske Grabs Front Row, Hornish on Pole
Written by Douglas Brown · March 25, 2006
Marlboro Team Penske driver Sam Hornish Jr. set a track record as he claimed the Marlboro Pole Award for the season-opening Toyota Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Hornish’s lap of 24.4625 seconds, 218.539 mph bettered Buddy Rice’s 2004 record lap by almost two-tenths of a second. Hornish will share the front row with his teammate, two-time Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves (218.087 mph). Danica Patrick (216.798 mph) and Scott Dixon (216.769) will start on the second row.
“We were really excited after this morning’s session. The past couple of days we’ve been out here, we’ve been up towards the top of the speed charts. We were trying to be a little bit conservative and make sure that we had good race set up. When it came time for qualifying, we put as little downforce as we could on it and went out there and tried to hold on to it. After Helio’s lap this morning, I thought for sure he was the guy that would be tough to beat. We had just enough to get him and that’s all that matters. We’re really happy that Marlboro Team Penske is 1-2.”
Official starting grid for Toyota Indy 300:
1. (6) Sam Hornish Jr., Dallara-Honda, 218.539
2. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 218.087
3. (16) Danica Patrick, Panoz-Honda, 216.798
4. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 216.769
5. (11) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 216.178
6. (15) Buddy Rice, Panoz-Honda, 215.913
7. (27) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 215.857
8. (10) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 215.804
9. (17) Paul Dana, Panoz-Honda, 215.593
10. (14) Felipe Giaffone, Dallara-Honda, 215.463
11. (7) Bryan Herta, Dallara-Honda, 215.398
12. (2) Tomas Scheckter, Dallara-Honda, 215.272
13. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 215.218
14. (55) Kosuke Matsuura, Dallara-Honda, 215.190
15. (8) Scott Sharp, Dallara-Honda, 214.789
16. (51) Eddie Cheever Jr., Dallara-Honda, 214.105
More at the Official IRL web site.
Comments
Got something to say?
You must be logged in to post a comment.