INDYCAR (MILWAUKEE) - KANAAN GOES BACK-TO-BACK AT MILWAUKEE

Tony Kanaan claimed his second consecutive win at The Milwaukee Mile, winning the ABC Supply/A.J. Foyt 225 presented by Time Warner Cable. Kanaan inherited the lead when Helio Castroneves’ No. 3 Team Penske car unexpectedly spun multiple times exiting Turn 4 and made contact with the inside retaining wall on the frontstretch. Kanaan, who started third in the No. 11 Team 7-Eleven Dallara/Honda/Firestone, went on to a 2.5707-second victory over Andretti Green Racing teammate Dario Franchitti. It was Kanaan's second consecutive victory at The Mile, and ninth career in the IndyCar Series. Dan Wheldon finished third and Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon was fourth. Delphi Panther Racing's Vitor Meira was fifth. The turn of events took both Kanaan and Castroneves by surprise. Castroneves, the pole sitter for the second year in a row, has not scored a top-10 finish in four IndyCar Series races at The Mile. Castroneves led Kanaan by 2.1228 seconds on Lap 200 when the short-oval rear wing element collapsed, which caused the car to veer out of control.

DAY 2 NOTEBOOK: Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti will be a guest on the “Late Show with David Letterman” on June 4 on CBS. Letterman, an Indianapolis native, is celebrating his 25th year in late-night television. Check local listings for time and channel. *** As part of his Indianapolis 500 winnings, Dario Franchitti will have the use of a Bombardier Learjet 45 to travel from his home near Nashville, Tenn., to Fort Worth for the Bombardier Learjet 550k. *** ABC SUPPLY/A.J. FOYT 225 PRESENTED BY TIME WARNER CABLE POST-RACE NOTES:

• This is Tony Kanaan’s second win of the season and his ninth IndyCar Series victory. His last victory came at Twin Ring Motegi in April. • This is Tony Kanaan’s second consecutive win at the Milwaukee Mile. He is the first IndyCar Series driver to repeat at Milwaukee. • This is the Andretti Green third win of the season and its 26th win in the IndyCar Series, most of any IndyCar Series entrant. Three of AGR’s wins have come at Milwaukee (Dario Franchitti in 2004, Kanaan 2006 and 2007). • Dario Franchitti finished second, his fifth consecutive top-five finish. It is the 21st 1-2 finish by teammates in the IndyCar Series. It is AGR’s ninth 1-2 finish. ABC SUPPLY/A.J. FOYT 225 PRESENTED BY TIME WARNER CABLE POST-RACE QUOTES:

TONY KANAAN (No. 11 Team 7-Eleven Dallara/Honda/Firestone, winner ABC Supply/A.J. Foyt 225 presented by Time Warner Cable): “Sometimes it’s not always the best car that wins the race. We could say that many times. I just hung there all day. It was a difficult race. We had a couple of misfortunes. I didn’t hit my marks and I made my guys waste precious time, but when I make mistakes, they make up for them. When they make mistakes, I make up for them. That’s what makes this team so strong. I definitely had to race this race, apart from the last five laps. Before that I had to be on the charge. Next is Texas. I’m excited to go there.”

VITOR MEIRA (No. 4 Delphi Panther Dallara/Honda/Firestone, finished fifth): “The car really came alive during our last two stints. John Barnes made a great call to go with a fuel-only stop late in the race that put us in a position to finish like this. When JB made the call I wondered if it was the right thing to do, but he's been doing this so long that I should know better. He's one of the best out here. At Panther, we did so much work this offseason it's great to see it pay off like this. No other IndyCar Series team has more wins than Panther at Texas, and now we're going to go try to get another one."

ED CARPENTER (No. 20 Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, finished seventh): “It was OK. It was a typical Milwaukee race as these races are pretty tough. This is a tough track that changes a lot during the race which makes it difficult. We faded a lot early on because my car wasn’t very good at the start and once the track took on more rubber, the car just kept coming to us. It’s good to get back into the top 10 and to finish a race again. We kind of got lost on a bad streak of not finishing races so it’s good to get the momentum back and head on to Texas. We had awesome race cars at Texas last year so it’s just good to get some momentum going again for the whole team.”

SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 6 Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone, finished ninth): “Today was a tough day for all of Team Penske. We struggled with some car handling problems early in the race, but we were lucky enough to still be at the front late in the race. Then, less than 20 laps from the end of the race, something went wrong with our rear wing. This is the same problem that Helio had. It’s pretty strange that this happened to either one of us, let alone both of us. It’s the kind of thing that almost never happens. It’s pretty frustrating since we both had a chance to win the race. We’ll go back and check the cars over thoroughly to figure out what broke and try to rebound in Texas next weekend.”

HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone, finished 16th): “I had the race won - it's a shame that something so odd happened there at the end. The car just started spinning when my rear wing broke. I'm not exactly sure what went wrong. It's unfortunate because the Team Penske car was fantastic all day. The car was getting better and better throughout the race. I just have to laugh it off. It's amazing that I have such bad luck at this place. Now we just have to forget about this and move on to Texas."

JEFF SIMMONS (No. 17 Rahal Letterman Racing Team Ethanol Dallara/Honda/Firestone, finished 10th): “The car was really good early on, the guys gave me great pit stops all day but at the end we just couldn’t get anywhere. We didn’t make any changes and I don’t know what the difference was after our last stop, but it was a totally different car and we couldn’t make up any ground.”

DAN WHELDON (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, finished third): “It was a calculated gamble not to take tires on the final stop. It is impossible to know, but it was a chance we decided to take. We were so close it would only be a guess to say we would have been better.”

SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, finished fourth): “We had a balance problem all race. We were OK in Turns 1 and 2, but I think we had a damper problem coming off of Turn 4, which made it very hard to pass. Still, we finished fourth, so I’m very happy.”

SCOTT SHARP (No. 8 Patron Sharp Rahal Letterman Racing, finished sixth): “Today was one of those never-give-up days. We started and were fighting tire pressures early, a couple guys got underneath me and I got off my rhythm. We weren’t keeping pace, and I thought it was going to be a long day. We got some timely yellows and the guys kept working on the car. Jeff Britton and the guys kept making it better and when we put the last set of tires on, it was a different race car. We had a lot more grip with the tire pressure changes we made and I could run right with the quick guys.”

DARIO FRANCHITTI (No. 27 Canadian Club Dallara/Honda/Firestone, finished second): “We had too much understeer to start in the Canadian Club car. We expected a slower pace for the race with more stop and start. It was hard to get positions on the restart with the heavy traffic, but when we got caught back up, my car was very good. It was very quick on its own and we worked very hard at each stop to make it better. By the end, the car was quite good. To finish second to Tony (Kanaan) is great. He drove a fantastic race to come back from where he did and I am really proud of the team to get a 1-2 today."

MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 26 NYSE Group Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “I got anxious. I knew I was going to have a good shot at moving forward and I knew I was the only one in the field that had the tires. I got to antsy about taking advantage of it. I apologize to the NYSE team because we had a car that could have driven through.” *** UNOFFICIAL INDY CAR SERIES POINT STANDINGS:

1. Dario Franchitti 221 -- 2. Dan Wheldon 218 -3 3. Scott Dixon 216 - 5 4. Tony Kanaan 201 -20 5. Helio Castroneves 188 -33 6. Sam Hornish Jr. 173 -48 7. Tomas Scheckter 143 -78 8. Scott Sharp 138 -83 9. Vitor Meira 133 -88 10. Danica Patrick 133 -88 *** Dario Franchitti leads the IndyCar Series point standing for the first time in his career. He ranked a previous best 2nd after winning Milwaukee in 2005. *** DAN WHELDON: (About contact with Danica Patrick): “I don’t know (what happened). I think she had a run on Dario, and I think she thought she was alongside me. Unfortunately for her, she wasn’t. As she got out of it, I don’t know what happened. She spun or dropped to the back. She’s a little disgruntled, but as Brian Barnhart says, what goes around, comes around. She nearly put me in the pit wall at Indianapolis, and I certainly have no problems with anyone else on the track. She’s probably feeling the pressure of not winning races when her teammates are. It’s unfortunate for her.” (Did you know she was there): “I’ve been in this business long enough to know when someone is there and when somebody is not. Maybe it’s a bit of inexperience there on her part. Certainly, everyone else that was alongside me got by, no problem. I thought it was a real clean race.” (What happened after the race?): “She’s just feisty. There’s a lot of pressure on her because she has not won a race, and her teammates are (winning). I think in a situation like that, sometimes you get desperate. It’s never nice to come into contact with somebody.” (Did she shove you?): “She’s just being Danica. She’ll be fine when she calms down. She’s messing with the wrong person if she wants to get feisty. I’m a lot tougher than she is on track.” *** The next IndyCar Series race is the Bombardier Learjet 550k at 10 p.m. (ET) on June 9 at Texas Motor Speedway. The race will be televised live by ESPN2 and broadcast the IMS Radio Network. The next Indy Pro Series event is the Liberty Challenge doubleheader on June 16-17 on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The race will be televised by ESPN2 on June 21.