Hornish and Chevy Win IRL Pole

Contact: Rick Voegelin
rickvoegelin@compuserve.com
GM Racing Communications
(831) 761-2201
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Hornish Puts Gen IV Chevy Indy V8 on Pole

    SPARTA, Ky., Aug. 16, 2003 - Happy days are here again for Sam Hornish
Jr. and Chevrolet. The two-time Imdy Racing League champion put the new Gen
IV Chevy Indy V8 on the pole for Sunday's Belterra Casino Indy 300 at
Kentucky Speedway. Hornish won the top starting spot for the third time in
his career with a fast lap at 219.614 mph on the 1.5-mile oval. He set the
pace in the tightest qualifying field in IRL history, with just .5367
seconds separating the 20 qualifiers.

    Hornish led a revitalized Chevrolet contingent that saw four of the
top-10 qualifiers powered by Chevy Indy V8 engines. Robbie Buhl qualified
his Purex/Aventis Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet Dallara sixth at
218.461 mph, his teammate Sarah Fisher was ninth at 217.911 mph in her
AOL/GMAC Dreyer & Reinbold Chevrolet Dallara, and Buddy Rice was tenth in
Red Bull Cheever Racing's Chevrolet Dallara at 217.765 mph. Hornish, Buhl,
Rice and Chevrolet all turned in their best qualifying performances of the
season.

    "We thought we had a setup that would be fast enough for the top five,
but didn't know if it would be fast enough for the pole," said Hornish, who
won in both of his previous pole starts in 2002. "It was a good day for me
and the Pennzoil Panther team, and also a good day for Chevrolet with the
first pole of the year. I'm looking forward to making up the four feet we
lost by in Michigan.

    "It feels great to be on the pole," Hornish added. "I just hope we
didn't come in first on the wrong day."

    Hornish practiced at a 217 mph pace that left him 15th on the speed
chart. He turned it up in qualifying when it counted, picking up more than
2 mph.

    "We were working on our race setup in practice, and then we took
downforce off the car for qualifying," he revealed. "We know the race car
is more important than the qualifying car. That's what we work on in
practice."

    Robbie Buhl turned just 90 practice laps with the new Gen IV Chevy
engine before making his qualifying run. The Belterra Casino Indy 300 is
the first event in which all Chevrolet drivers are using the new version of
Chevy's IndyCar engine.

    "I'm just excited to be able to go racing and have some fun," said
Buhl. "We've got some steep learning curves and variables that we'll have
to deal with, but we can be a part of the game."

    Sarah Fisher won the pole last year at Kentucky Speedway, and turned in
a solid performance in her first outing with the Gen IV Chevy package
today.

    "It feels great!" said the series' most popular driver. "We are
still working on the race car. Chevy can give us all of the horsepower they
want to, be we have to have a car that can match that."

    Buddy Lazier has won twice with Hemelgarn Racing at Kentucky Speedway,
and he is optimistic about his chances for a third victory in the
team's Delta/Life Fitness Chevrolet Dallara. His qualifying speed was
slower than expected, but he knew why.

    "We had a miscommunication on the radio and I couldn't hear the crew
tell me to change the fuel setting to the qualifying map," Lazier reported.
"We know that's worth a couple of miles an hour, so it would have been a
solid 217.

    "You feel the power everywhere," he noted. "Power is enormous, it
changes all the setups. The engine has tremendous potential. Everything is
set very conservative now because we're just rolling out the new engine,
but you can feel its awesome potential. It's pretty exciting."

    One of Chevy's front-running drivers was sidelined when Vitor Meira,
whose 219.449 mph lap was the third fastest speed during practice, spun and
hit the wall in Team Menard's Johns Manville Chevrolet Dallara. Meira
suffered a fracture to his right wrist. The Brazilian was not cleared to
drive and he will be re-examined when he returns to Indianapolis. Team
Menard has decided not to run the car in tomorrow's race with a replacement
driver.

    "It's kind of bittersweet because we were good and we were quick,"
said Meira. "The crew did a great job putting everything together for the
Gen IV Chevy V8 engine. We were doing our final qualifying simulation. I
was trying hard and just spun."

    The Belterra Casino Indy 300 will start at 2 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug.
17. The 200-lap, 300-mile race will be televised live on ABC and broadcast
on the IMS Radio Network.

BELTERRA CASINO INDY 300 QUALIFYING SUMMARY:
Pos./Driver/Engine/Speed
1. Sam Hornish Jr., Chevrolet, 219.614 mph
2. Scott Dixon, Toyota, 219.358
3. Helio Castroneves, Toyota, 219.309
4. Gil de Ferran, Toyota, 219.297
5. Greg Ray, Honda, 218.622
6. Robbie Buhl, Chevrolet, 218.461

9. Sarah Fisher, Chevrolet, 217.911
10. Buddy Rice, Chevrolet, 217.765
20. Buddy Lazier, Chevrolet, 214.860

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  E-mail from: Rick Voegelin, 16-Aug-2003