IndyCar - Power Takes Pole - Long Beach

LONG BEACH, April 16, 2011: Will Power will take his third consecutive PEAK Performance Pole Award of the young IZOD IndyCar Series season and third in a row on the Long Beach street circuit into the 37th edition of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 17.

The driver of the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car recorded a quick lap of 1 minute, 9.0649 seconds with 2:30 left in the Firestone Fast Six to bump Ryan Hunter-Reay, the 2010 race winner, who set the fast time of 1:09.1409 a lap earlier in the No. 28 Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda car.

"That was definitely a tough one," said Power, who's finished second and third the past two years in the 85-lap race. "I know how fast Hunter Reay is around here from the race last year. He's bloody hard to beat. It's going to be a tough race, but qualifying the way we did I think we put ourselves in the best possible position."

Seven different teams are represented in the first five rows, which will keep the pressure on Power from the green flag.

Hunter-Reay's Andretti Autosport teammate Mike Conway, driving the No. 27 Window World Cares car, will share Row 2 with Oriol Servia in the No. 2 Telemundo Newman/Haas Racing car. It was the second Firestone Fast Six appearance this season for Conway, who started 16th at Long Beach last April, and Servia.

Also on April 16, Esteban Guerrieri in the No. 7 Lucas Oil/Sam Schmidt Motorsports car recorded a quick lap of 1:14.0537 late in the 60-minute session to earn the Sunoco Pole Award for the 45-lap Firestone Indy Lights race on the Long Beach street circuit.

Peter Dempsey, driving the No. 36 Pulse/02 Racing car, also will start on the front row. It was the second pole victory for Guerrieri.

DAY 2 NOTEBOOK:

IZOD IndyCar Series driver Ryan Hunter-Reay was recently announced as the newest member of LIVESTRONG's Global Envoy program. As a LIVESTRONG Global Envoy, Hunter-Reay serves as a committed cancer advocate who connects with constituents and demonstrates extraordinary leadership in the global fight against cancer. Hunter-Reay gives a voice to the diagnosed who suffer in silence. He takes a stand against cultural stigma attached to cancer and helps to spur grassroots mobilization.

LIVESTRONG is the brand of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, created in 1997 by the cancer survivor and champion cyclist to serve people living with cancer and empower communities to take action. Hunter-Reay joins a distinguished ensemble of cancer crusaders who have been invited to participate in the LIVESTRONG Global Envoy program. His fellow Envoy's include: Lillian Dube, Ryan Dungey, Carly Fiorina, Evan Handler, Dhani Jones, Her Royal Highness Princess Dina Mired, Lorena Rojas, Eric Shanteau, Graham Tatters, Kenechi Udeze and Ethan Zohn

RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda): "It is such an amazing honor to be selected as a Global Envoy for LIVESTRONG. My mother was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer in 2008 and the horrifying fight she waged made a huge impact on my life in so many ways. I was there with her every moment I wasn't on the race track and the LIVESTRONG organization of counselors and cancer survivors were a constant guiding light, which gave us comfort in our darkest hours. It was during this time that I realized LIVESTRONG is so much more than a charity. My mother ultimately lost her fight against cancer in November of 2009 however her tenacity, compassion, and fight lives on through me and today I have an amazing opportunity to help make a difference in her honor. One of the cornerstones of my message as a Global Envoy for LIVESTRONG will be early detection and awareness. I have been a loyal supporter of LIVESTRONG for just over 7 years now, and wearing the iconic LIVESTRONG yellow band reminds me, and others, on a daily basis of the 28 million individuals fighting cancer. As an IndyCar driver my car number will be the No.# 28 in recognition of those 28 million people. I can't emphasize how proud I am to represent one of the greatest humanitarian and influential organizations in the world".

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Driver Townsend Bell was in the No. 77 Bowers & Wilkins pit Friday with a team headset on listening to the communications between the Sam Schmidt Motorsports (SSM) team members and driver Alex Tagliani. Bell, who lives in nearby Santa Monica, Calif., will be Tagliani's SSM teammate in May for the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race as driver of the No. 99 Herbalife Dallara/Honda/Firestone car in May. He will be in the Tagliani's pits today and race day.

TOWNSEND BELL: "I'm just getting a feel of faces and names and what the dynamics are for May. I'm also just trying to listen in a little bit to see what Alex' feedback is like with his engineer in hopes that gives us a little head start working together and understanding what their dealing with, although this (LBGP) is an entirely different type of track. It's interesting just to observe, and you're always trying to learn something."

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When the green flag falls on Sunday's Firestone Indy Lights race, there will be a very excited father standing in the pits. Derek Daly, from Noblesville, Ind., will be watching his son, Conor Daly, race for the first time during the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach weekend. As a driver, Derek Daly raced at Long Beach both in Formula 1 and in IndyCar, from 1978 to 1984 and won the Toyota Pro Celebrity race in 2000.

"My love of America started with Long Beach in 1987 when I came to race in Formula One," said the elder Daly, a native of Ireland. "In 1984 it became an Indy Car race, and I started on the front row with Mario. The race poster the following year was me leading Mario Andretti into turn one on the final warm up lap. I always thought that Long Beach on race weekend is what the rest of the world imagines southern California to be every day - fun, sun and smiles. To see my son compete on the same streets with the same enthusiasm is a real kick for me."

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Bryan Herta Autosport announces sponsor lineup for Indy: Car No. 98 has been in Victory Circle twice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway - both times associated with the Agajanian family. Dan Wheldon, the 2005 Indianapolis 500 champion, hopes to make it three.

The No. 98 entry of Bryan Herta Autosport for the 100th anniversary Indianapolis 500 was unveiled at the IZOD IndyCar Series Fan Village that's part of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Globally-recognized fashion brand William Rast and record labels Curb and Big Machine will be the primary sponsors.

"A couple of weeks ago we confirmed that Dan Wheldon - a good friend, former teammate and Indy 500 winner - would be driving our car at Indianapolis this year," said Herta, who formed BHA with race engineer Steve Newey in 2009. "We made that announcement in Dan's hometown of St. Petersburg, Fla., and here at my home race and William Rast's back yard we wanted to unveil our partnership lineup.

"We are obviously thrilled to have William Rast back with us at Indianapolis for the second year in a row, and we are excited about our new involvement with Curb/Big Machine - record labels for some of country music's biggest stars. We are equally excited about our new collaboration with Mike Curb, Cary Agajanian and Scott Borchetta, and to be associated with such highly respected names in and outside of racing."

The No. 98 car won the Indy 500 in 1952, when 22-year-old Troy Ruttman became the youngest winner of the race in the Agajanian Kuzma/Offy, and 1963 when Parnelli Jones triumphed in the Agajanian Willard Battery Watson/Offy (aka the "Ol' Calhoun" Watson roadster).

"Curb Agajanian is excited to join with Bryan Herta Autosport and Big Machine to be a part of Dan Wheldon's running for his second victory at the Indianapolis 500," said Curb, a former Lt. Governor of California. "It would be great to see the Agajanian name back in Victory Circle at the Brickyard and Dan is certainly capable of making that happen."

A replica of the No. 98 William Rast-Curb/Big Machine car will be on display from May 27-Oct. 23 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library in Simi Valley, Calif., as part of the Ronald Reagan Centennial Celebration. Reagan was the track announcer at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines in the 1930s.

Fans can bid on Hunter-Reay's helmet: Ryan Hunter-Reay, the 2010 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach winner, is wearing a LIVESTRONG design helmet this weekend that will be auctioned along with a limited-edition print by motorsports artist Randy Owens on eBay.

All proceeds go to LIVERSTRONG. Hunter-Reay, a former resident of Dana Point, Calif., is a LIVESTRONG Global Envoy.