CART: Rain forces cancellation of qualifying for Miller Lite 225 at Milwaukee
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
June 3, 2001WEST ALLIS, Wis. - Rains forced cancellation of Saturday's scheduled qualifying session for Round 6 of the FedEx Championship Series, the Miller Lite 225 at The Milwaukee Mile.
The starting grid for the event will be based on points, with Kenny Brack (Shell Ford Lola) of Team Rahal starting on the pole and reigning Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves (Marlboro Honda Reynard) of Marlboro Team Penske starting alongside. Brack receives credit for his third career pole position, all of which have occurred this season. His previous poles came at Monterrey, Mexico and Fort Worth, Texas.
Brack does not receive a championship point for the pole, since it was not earned during an actual qualifying session. He was third fastest during testing Friday, at 164.864 miles per hour (22.535 seconds), while Castroneves was fastest at 166.601mph (22.300 seconds).
Brack, winner of the most recent FedEx Championship Series event at Motegi, Japan on May 19, holds a 49-47 lead over Castroneves in the FedEx Championship Series championship heading toward Sunday's 4 p.m. ET green flag (live, ABC-TV).
This marks the first time that qualifying for a FedEx Championship Series event has been rained out since 1998 at Gateway International Raceway, where Greg Moore sat on the pole, based on having the fastest practice speed. It marked the first time qualifying had been rained out at Milwaukee since 1996, when Paul Tracy was awarded the pole based on fastest practice speed.
The Miller Lite 225 is Round 6 of 21 in the 2001 FedEx Championship Series. The series visits seven countries and four continents during the season and climaxes with the season-ending Marlboro 500 Presented by Toyota on Sunday, Nov. 4 at California Speedway in Fontana, Calif. Thanks to a partnership between Marlboro, Toyota, CART and California Speedway, the winner of the season finale will collect $1 million. An additional $1 million, as well as the prestigious Vanderbilt Cup, will be awarded to the driver who wins the FedEx Championship Series championship.
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING
KENNY BRACK, Shell Ford Lola: "You don't have much to do at the track when you're not racing. It gets kind of boring. Of course, it's worse for the fans, because they come out to the track and don't see anything running. We didn't run a race setup yesterday [Friday], because we struggled during the early part of practice. [Jokingly] I guess we're going to have to beat Helio on talent. No, we've still got the warmup tomorrow morning, and we should be all right."
HELIO CASTRONEVES, Marlboro Honda Reynard: "I had a chance as soon as I started practicing [yesterday] to do a fast lap, so we concentrated on the full-tank setup. We wanted to make sure we don't have the same problem we had at Nazareth. I know what the car is going to be like for tomorrow, and I'm very comfortable. It was a very busy day for me anyway. I was able to talk to all the people I didn't have a chance to talk to before, and we also had the opportunity to see the fans. It's disappointing that they didn't get to see any cars on the track, but at least they got to see us up close. "
WHAT'S NOTEWORTHY
* When he takes the green flag for Sunday's Miller Lite 225, Christian Fittipaldi (Kmart Toyota Lola) of Newman/Haas Racing will make the 100th start of his CART career. Fittipaldi, nephew of 1988 FedEx Championship Series champion Emerson Fittipaldi, made his first start at Miami in 1995, where he qualified seventh and finished fifth. He owns two victories (Road America, 1999 and California Speedway, 2000) and a pole position in his CART career. Fittipaldi owns top-10 finishes in all four of his career starts at The Milwaukee Mile, topped by sixth in 1996 and '99.
Text provided by T.E. McHale
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