BELL AND BARRON SCORE TOP-10 FINISHES FOR CHEVY IN MILWAUKEE

    MILWAUKEE, July 25, 2004 - Although Townsend Bell was a late addition
to the Team Chevrolet roster in the IRL IndyCar Series, he has emerged as a
most valuable player. Bell finished sixth today in the Menards A.J. Foyt
Indy 225 on the challenging Milwaukee Mile in his third race with Panther
Racing's Menards/Johns Manville Chevrolet Dallara. Alex Barron crossed the
finish line stripe just .023 seconds behind Bell to post a seventh-place
finish for Chevy and the Red Bull Cheever Racing team. Dario Franchitti won
the 225-mile race in a Honda Dallara.

    The 1-mile Milwaukee oval proved to be a formidable opponent as
drivers and teams fought for grip on its low-banked turns and wide-open
straightaways. Handling was paramount as the IRL IndyCar Series held its
first event at this historic venue.

    Among the other Chevrolet-powered drivers, Ed Carpenter achieved his
goal by finishing 11th in Red Bull Cheever Racing's Chevrolet Dallara.
Felipe Giaffone persevered through handling problems to finish 13th for
Team Purex/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. Jacques Lazier was uninjured in an
encounter with the wall in Patrick Racing's Chevrolet Dallara on the 205th
lap, and Tomas Scheckter encountered misfortune in Panther Racing's
Pennzoil Chevrolet Dallara, finishing 21st with a broken gearbox.

    Bell started 12th, climbed as high as fifth, and declared his
overall satisfaction with the long day's work.

    "Everything was going smoothly until we had a miscommunication on a
pit stop and I went to the back," Bell said. "We picked off a couple guys
and I was happy with our pace in traffic. Then we had a great pit stop and
the guys got me some positions.

    "I tucked in and ran with the top guys," he continued. "I got into
the marbles in Turn 1 and just barely kept it off the fence. After the
final yellow flag, everyone was slipping and sliding. At the end I was able
to hold off Barron, but couldn't get around the lapped car in front of me."

    Barron had the advantage of five previous starts on The Milwaukee
Mile, and he used that experience to advance from 15th at the start to
seventh at the finish.

    "I learned a lot when I raced here before," he said. "That played a
big part in knowing when to be aggressive and when not to. It's slick, and
the driving style in qualifying is entirely different from how you drive in
the race.

    "Our strength today was that we kept pushing and pushing,"
Barron observed. "We had really good pit stops and our fuel strategy worked
great. We worked as hard as we could every moment of the race."

    Ed Carpenter's 11th place finish in Red Bull Cheever Racing's
Chevrolet Dallara was his best result of the season.

    "Finishing the race was the first objective," Carpenter said.
"It's amazing how much more you learn when you run to the checkered flag.
It was a tough race; you saw cars go forward and cars go backward. My car
got the job done today and I did what I needed to do. The engine ran great
and the car handled as well as I needed. I'm satisfied, and I'm ready to go
to the next race."

    Felipe Giaffone wrestled with handling problems but brought the
Team Purex/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet Dallara home in 13th place.

    "Historically this is always a tough track," Giaffone said. "We
started well, but then faced a really loose car on longer runs. I think
this was one of the toughest races of my life in terms of keeping the car
out of trouble. We had the same loose problems we had at Nashville, almost
feeling like a flat tire or broken suspension again, so we want to go back
to the shop and see what we can figure out."

    Tomas Scheckter's run of bad luck continued as he was sidelined by
a transmission problem after 32 laps.

    "We lost fourth gear early in the race, and the gear teeth went into
the pump and through the filter," Scheckter explained. "The Panther guys
pulled it behind the wall and we were thinking about changing the gear
cluster, but the gearbox was overheating badly and we called it a day. It's
a shame for everybody on the Pennzoil Panther team and Chevrolet."

    Jaques Lazier made a green-flag pit stop on the 15th lap to replace
a punctured tire on Patrick Racing's Chevrolet Dallara, and then worked
hard to regain the lost ground. His day ended when he encountered the wall
20 laps from the finish.

    "I went into Turn 1, and the car snapped loose real quick," Lazier
said. "I caught it, but by that time you're in the marbles, and then you're
just a passenger in the car."

    After back-to-back short-track races, the IRL IndyCar Series will
return to a superspeedway on August 1 at Michigan International Speedway's
fast 2-mile oval. The Michigan Indy 400, the 10th round of the 16-race
IndyCar Series, will start at 3 p.m. EDT and will be televised live on ABC.

RACE SUMMARY
Track: The Milwaukee Mile, 1-mile oval
Winner: Dario Franchitti, Andretti Green Racing Honda Dallara
Margin of Victory: .6590 seconds
Average Speed: 128.272 mph
Pole: Vitor Meira/Honda, 169.338 mph
Fastest Lap: Dario Franchitti/Honda, 160.229 mph

RESULTS
Pos./Driver/Engine/Laps
1. Dario Franchitti/Honda, 225
2. Buddy Rice/Honda, 225
3. Sam Hornish Jr./Toyota, 225
4. Tony Kanaan/Honda, 225
5. Vitor Meira/Honda, 225
6. Townsend Bell/Chevrolet, 225
7. Alex Barron/Chevrolet, 225

11. Ed Carpenter/Chevrolet, 223
13. Felipe Giaffone/Chevrolet, 221
17. Jaques Lazier/Chevrolet, 205 (accident)
21. Tomas Scheckter/Chevrolet, 32 (gearbox)

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (After 9 of 16 events)
Driver/Engine/Points (victories in parentheses)
1. Tony Kanaan/Honda, 357 (3)
2. Buddy Rice/Honda, 293 (2)
3. Dan Wheldon/Honda, 276 (2)
4. Helio Castroneves/Toyota, 260
5. Sam Hornish Jr./Toyota, 235 (1)

Manufacturer/Points (victories in parentheses)
1. Honda, 87 (8)
2. Toyota, 64 (1)
3. Chevrolet, 47

NEXT EVENT
August 1, Michigan Indy 400, Brooklyn, Mich., 2-mile oval
TV: ABC, 3 p.m. EDT