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INDYCAR: Miller’s Iowa Saturday Notebook
Written by: Robin Miller   
06/21/2009
Newton, IA
 
It may be the first co-pole position in Indy Racing League history and, more remarkable, neither driver turned a lap.

This bit of history was made Saturday when qualifying for Sunday's Iowa Corn 250 was canceled due to weepers. Instead of going by driver points or practice speeds, IRL chief steward Brian Barnhart opted to go with entrant points.
Marco's car for the Iowa race will be 'OsoFresh.' (LAT) ยป More Photos
So that meant Helio Castroneves wound up in the No. 1 slot thanks to teammate Will Power.

"That's the easiest pole I've ever won and I have to thank Will because he made it all possible," said Castroneves, who ranks fourth in the point standings but owner Roger Penske's entry has amassed the most points thanks to the sixth place by Power, who drove the No. 3 car while HCN battled the IRS in federal court last April.

"I'm sorry for all the fans who stayed to watch qualifying but I still think they'll see an exciting race."

Power, a spectator since running a third car for Team Penske at Indianapolis, was happy to contribute.

"I loved working with Ryan (Briscoe) and Helio at Indy and I'm glad my points helped get him up there," said ther Aussie who is scheduled to run five more races for Team Penske in 2009.

"This is a tough place to pass and having both Penske cars on the front row is great. I just wish I was behind them in Row 2."

Dario Franchitti turned the quickest lap in practice at 17.680 seconds in the Target Dallara/Honda -- just clipping Briscoe's best of 17.689 seconds and both were disappointed time trials got scrapped.

"I think we had a car to win the pole but Scott (Dixon) said he was flipping up water on the backstretch so the IRL made the right call," said Franchitti.

Hideki Mutoh, E.J. Viso and Dixon had all posted times before the water began coming up on the backstretch and qualifying had been delayed almost an hour by a weeper in Turn 4.

"There was a fair bit of water on the track and the more cars that would run, the more
water would come up," said Dixon, last year's polesitter. "Hopefully everything will be ready for tomorrow."

MARCO CRASHES

One driver who definitely wanted to see qualifying was Marco Andretti, who crashed his primary Venom Energy Special during morning practice. His car was too badly damaged to repair so his Andretti-Green team hustled to get his backup car ready.

"It was the car Tony (Kanaan) tire tested at Chicago so it had an oval-track setup but it didn't have the unique things for Iowa's oval and we had to install an engine because you can't carry spare engines," said AGR team manager Kyle Moyer.

Andretti got no practice laps in his backup car so the first few laps Sunday could be exciting.

"I had no warning when I crashed this morning, I've never had a car do that except when something breaks," said the third generation driver. "So we'll try to get it as close as we can and adjust it during pit stops."

THE CARL LONG EXPERIENCE

That's what Greg Beck and Jacques Lazier must have felt like Saturday when their car was thrown out of the qualifying line for two minor parts usually run on the cars at superspeedways.

But Lazier was nine mph off the pace in the 3G car and it wasn't like the two "dust rings" had any bearing on his speed.

"We went through tech three times prior to qualifying and nobody said anything," said Beck, who runs his team with only three full-time mechanics. "We've been busting our butt to make the races and tests and it wasn't like we did it on purpose."

Of course due to the circumstances Lazier starts last anyway but picking on a little team for such a nebulous infraction smacks of NASCAR playing the heavy with Long, who was fined $200,000 because his engine was a tiny bit oversized for the all-star race.


The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, SPEED, FOX, or NewsCorp.
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