TEAM REPORTS (FORT WORTH) - PENSKE RACE REPORT

Penske Racing Race Report

IRL IndyCar Series

FORT WORTH, Texas (June 9, 2007) -- Team Penske's Sam Hornish Jr. fought off a stiff challenge from Tony Kanaan through the final 21 laps of Saturday night's Bombardier Learjet 550k to become the first driver to claim three victories at Texas Motor Speedway.

The No. 6 Team Penske Honda/Dallara finished 0.0786 second ahead of Kanaan to score the 19th victory of Hornish's IndyCar Series career. He won at Texas in 2001 and 2002, finished second in '05, third in '01, and fourth in '04 and '06.

"It's been unbelievable," Hornish said. "If you would have told me 10 years ago that I would ever win 19 IndyCar races in my career, I would have told you that you were crazy. I'm really thankful that I've been given so much. Sometimes I don't think I deserve it, but for whatever reason, I feel like I've been blessed."

While Hornish controlled the race, leading 159 of the 228 laps, Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves enc ountered trouble. The No. 3 Team Penske Honda/Dallara was caught in a multi-car crash on the 198th lap while Castroneves was battling among the lead-lap cars.

He wasn't injured, but the resulting 16th-place finish dropped Castroneves to sixth in the IndyCar Series standings.

"All I saw was smoke," Castroneves said. "My spotter said to go low, so I did. All of a sudden, bam! I was like, 'What was that?'"

The high-banked, 1.5-mile Texas oval has long been a Hornish and Penske trademark. This race, however, was a bit different. Officials lengthened it by 28 laps because earlier IndyCar races at Texas were thought to be ending too quickly.

"I was pretty upset at lap 200 when the yellow came out and I knew Tony was going to have a shot to catch back up to me when I had a 9-second lead," Hornish said. "I was under yellow and would have won (under the old format). I was like, 'Man, all I need now is a tire to go down or something to happen.'"

Ins tead, Hornish obtained the victory that had eluded him this season at the track that had always been good to him.

"We didn't necessarily have bad luck this season, but we just couldn't get things to go our way," said Hornish, who improved to fifth in the drivers' standings, 27 points off the pace. "I've said all season that we're right there. We're right on the edge, if only we can get things to go our way."

After a weekend off, the IndyCar Series resumes June 24 with its first visit to Iowa Speedway.

NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES

LONG POND, Pa. (June 10, 2007) - Rain during Sunday's Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway came just 4 feet too soon for Ryan Newman, robbing him of his first victory since September 2005 and forcing Kurt Busch to accept a 16th-place finish.

Newman, driving his Alltel Dodge Charger, was in the process of passing race leader Jeff Gordon when NASCAR waved the event's fourth and final caution flag for rain. NASCAR attempted to dry the 2.5-mile, triangle-shaped track after ordering the cars to pit road, but eventually had to call the race with 106 of the scheduled 200 laps completed. That left Gordon the winner and Newman, who led twice for 20 laps, the runner-up for the second straight week.

"Obviously, we were 4 feet short, but there is no controversy about it. In future reference, there was no way to get the race started back again," Newman said about the event that had its start delayed by about three hours due to rain.

"There were six or seven-and-a-half rain drops on my right-side windshield the lap before that. When I saw that I knew rain was coming. I saw rain in the distance. The 96 [Tony Raines] was holding the 24 [Gordon] up pretty good for both of us. Jeff cleared him in turn one and I had a run on both of them coming off. It just wasn't quite enough by the time I got to turn two. Jeff saw the rain for the first time the lap the caution came out. He checked up because he didn't know how hard it was raining. I just kept the pedal to the medal and came up 4 feet short."

Newman's third top-five finish in the last four races and his fifth top 10 in the last six moved him up to 13th in the point standings, just 22 points behind the 12th-place Mark Martin.

Newman, who earned his third straight pole on Friday, ran in the top five for most of Pocono's fifth rain-shortened race. He led laps 54-64 and 82-90, having to make his second green-flag stop of the day just before the halfway mark. After pitting for four tires and fuel on lap 92, Newman quickly made his way through the field.

On lap 99, Newman was second, 3.2 seconds behind Gordon, and gaining ground fast. Five laps later Newman was nearly door-to-door with Gordon when NASCAR threw the yellow flag for rain. After two laps of circling the track under caution, NASCAR ordered the cars to pit road and stopped the event. After nearly an hour under the red flag, NASCAR announced the race was official.

"Unfortunately, the rain came on the wrong lap," Newman said. "I'm not mad by any means. I won my first race because it rained out and got too dark. I guess it's only right I lose one that way at some point."

Busch, who started 27th in his backup Miller Lite Dodge Charger after crashing his primary car in practice on Friday, said his team could have finished higher if the race had gone the distance.

"We needed more laps to get the car just right," Busch said. "At times we were as fast as the leader. At other time we weren't quite as quick. Track position is important and we kept getting a little bit at a time. We were a little tight in the tunnel turn. I think that's what hurt some of our momentum; otherwise, we're maintaining our pace. I wish it [the rain] was just before halfway so we'd have all day tomorrow."

Still, Busch's 16th-place finish allowed him to gain one position in the standings. He is now 16th, 132 points behind 12th.

This weekend, the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup circuit moves to the 2-mile Michigan International Speedway for the Citizens Bank 400. TNT and MRN Radio will provide coverage with the race scheduled to receive the green flag at 2 p.m.