INDYCAR (THE GLEN) - CASTRONEVES FASTEST ON DAY 1 AT THE GLEN

For the third consecutive year at Watkins Glen International, Helio Castroneves will select the order (straight up or inversed) for single-lap qualifying July 7. It’s the fifth time in eight IndyCar Series street/road course events that the driver of the No. 3 Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone topped the combined speed chart in first-day practice, earning the right to select the qualifying order. His quick lap of 1:30.1192 (134.622 mph) was faster than his previous record of 1:30.6688 (133.806 mph) in September 2005. Two-time defending Watkins Glen winner Scott Dixon was second fastest with a lap of 1:30.1587, 134.563 mph, while 2004 Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice’a fast lap of the morning session (1:30.2580, 134.415 mph) held for third on the speed chart. Under the IndyCar Series format, the quickest driver selects the qualifying order. The fastest six from single-car qualifying return for the 10-minute, all-car “Firestone Fast Six,” which determines the first three rows. Also on July 6, Wade Cunningham earned the provisional pole for the first race of the Corning Twin 100s Indy Pro Series doubleheader at Watkins Glen, topping the first of two 30 minute qualifying sessions. Cunningham lapped the 3.4-miles road course in 1:36.7418, 125.406 mph, nearly three seconds faster than his 2005 event record. The second 30-minute qualifying session is scheduled for Saturday morning followed by the first of two 29-lap races.

Medical update from Dr. Michael Olinger, Indy Racing League director of medical services: Sean Guthrie has been cleared to participate in practice and qualifying today. Guthrie sustained a non-displaced fracture of his left foot in an accident at Iowa Speedway on June 23. *** Indy Racing League founder and CEO Tony George will join crew members from Andretti Green Racing, Target Chip Ganassi Racing, Rahal Letterman Racing, Team Penske and Vision Racing for a special IndyCar Series Crew mini-sprint car race at Black Rock Speedway in nearby Dundee. The entry list includes: • Greg Baker, Vision Racing • Derek Davidson, Vision Racing • Chris Bennett, Vision Racing • Josh Junge, Vision Racing • Chris Hogue, Vision Racing • Kris Badger, Vision Racing • Didier Francesia, Target Chip Ganassi Racing • Blair Julian, Target Chip Ganassi Racing • Anton Julian, Target Chip Ganassi Racing • Adam Rogazzini, Target Chip Ganassi Racing • Jim Hamilton, Target Chip Ganassi Racing • Kyle Moyer, Andretti Green Racing • Nick Ford, Andretti Green Racing • Dave Sharpley, Andretti Green Racing • Ricky Campbell , Andretti Green Racing • Dave Popielarz, Andretti Green Racing • Mike Kranz, Rahal Letterman Racing • Jimmy Looper, Rahal Letterman Racing • Nick Looper, Rahal Letterman Racing • Will Cruz, Rahal Letterman Racing • Jamie Kootz, Team Penske • John Stainchina, Team Penske *** SAMAX Motorsport and driver Milka Duno released the following statement about not competing this weekend. MILKA DUNO: “When we originally announced the 10-race schedule in March, we had planned on racing at Watkins Glen. However, for various reasons that were not anticipated, we just ended up not having enough time to test and prepare for a road course race in July. Watkins Glen is one of my favorite race tracks, and I was very much looking forward to making my first road course appearance here as an IndyCar Series driver. Instead, my next race will be in Nashville on July 14, and I am expecting that my first road course race in an IndyCar will be at the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma on August 26." *** The wet weather in central Texas has been a big factor for four-time winner A.J. Foyt recently. Foyt owns a lake house on Lake Travis, near Austin, Texas, which has reached flood stage. Foyt and his son Tony had to clear the 8,500 square foot house of its furniture as the first level flooded last week. They returned earlier this week to clear the second level, where the main living quarters are. *** *** Firestone has made an additional set of Firehawk dry weather tires available to IndyCar Series teams due to the tire wear associated with the new paving in Turns 1, 5 and 6. The six cars participating in Saturday’s Firestone Fast Six qualifying will also be given an extra set of tires. *** Scott Mayer, who drove the No. 54 Mile High Motorsports car in the first Indy Pro Series practice session, aggravated a hairline fracture in his left hand and will not compete the remainder of the weekend. The team is working on finding a replacement driver for the Corning Twin 100s. SCOTT MAYER: "I've got a hairline fracture in my left hand, and I can't drive. I thought I'd be able to do it, but I can't." *** This weekend’s Indy Pro Series races, the Corning Twin 100s, will be broadcast live on espn360. ESPN360 is available free via a high-speed data connection on www.espn360.com. The video offered by ESPN360 is encoded at a high bit rate that enables a fast transmission for viewing high-quality video content. *** *** A.J. Foyt Racing Team Director Larry Foyt is not at Watkins Glen today as he is attempting to qualify a NASCAR NEXTEL Cup car for BAM Racing for Saturday’s Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway. *** Alex Lloyd hadn’t considered the significance, but a victory in the first of the Corning Twin 100s on July 7 (07-07-07) makes perfect sense. Lloyd will be seeking his seventh victory of the season in the No. 7 Lucas Oil/Isilon Systems/Sam Schmidt Motorsports car. “I’m not really a superstitious guy,” the Indy Pro Series points leader said. “No real superstitions of wearing certain clothes or the same socks for racing. (But the date) is something I’m more into, and that sounds like a day that should give us some good luck.” On the IndyCar Series side, Danica Patrick will seek to place her No. 7 Team Motorola car high on the starting grid July 7 for the Camping World Watkins Glen Grand Prix the next day. “Who knows? The stars may be completely in line with it being 7/7/07 and I could end up on the pole,” Patrick said. “I’m not really into the numerology thing, but I will definitely take the result if it works out that way.” Lloyd, however, changed his helmet design for the weekend, though he claims it was personal preference. “I had run an old helmet of mine earlier in the year because of a sponsor,” he said. “I didn’t really like the design so I decided I would for this weekend put the one I prefer on.” *** Medical update from Dr. Michael Olinger, Indy Racing League director of medical services: Richard Heistand, who was transported to Arnot-Ogden Medical Center in Elmira following an accident in Turn 8 in the Indy Pro Series practice session, has been diagnosed with a mild concussion and chest contusion. It is anticipated that he will be released later today. He will not be cleared to drive for at least seven days. *** CAMPING WORLD WATKINS GLEN GRAND PRIX POST-PRACTICE QUOTES:

HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone, fastest in practice): “Today was a good day. The times are definitely faster because of the improvements made on certain areas of the track surface. It's been great. Team Penske has been working hard and it's showing. Right now we're excited about the speeds from this afternoon, but tomorrow is still another important day.

SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “We struggled quite a bit this morning, as this is our first time here with the Dallara chassis, and we have quite a bit to learn and fine tune. We made a few changes, and it seemed to improve the car. We had a little bit of trouble towards the end, ran out of fuel, so we had to come in. After that, we did that one lap straight out of the box, so it does seem fairly decent. We just need to fine tune a little bit and hopefully pick up a little more speed for tomorrow." (Why does this race track suit you?): “Because there are right turns, I guess. I just love the road and street courses. Having won here at Watkins twice has been great, and it would be great to add a third win. It’s even more important for the points race in the championship. It’s been good to be consistent with four runner-up finishes and three fourth place finishes but I’m while I am second in the points, I’m the only one in the top six without a win. It be good to get one here again.”

BUDDY RICE (No. 15 Dreyer & Reinbold Dallara/Honda/Firestone, third fastest): “I think we are still rolling on some momentum from the two short ovals. Also, we were quite quick at the Mid-Ohio Open Test. Going into tomorrow, I hope we can be in the fast six and be a part of the Firestone Fast Six Shootout. That will give us a good starting position for Sunday, so that we can try to continue out the top five streak that we have going. It’s a little one, but it’s good for us right now.”

DARIO FRANCHITTI (No. 27 Canadian Club Dallara/Honda/Firestone, fourth fastest): “We had some good progress today for the Canadian Club car. I have to thank my guys because they made a lot of big changes while we were on pit lane. It was looking good there at the end of the second session. I messed up the last lap that was the lap for me. I am a little upset with myself for that. We’ll do a better job tomorrow.”

SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 6 Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone, fifth fastest): “We’re pretty happy with what we accomplished today. We were fifth fastest on the day and feel good about the Team Penske car, so hopefully we’ll qualify well tomorrow and give ourselves a good starting spot to bring home a solid finish. It’s going to be a long race, so we just need to concentrate on being patient and not making any mistakes.”

TONY KANAAN (No. 11 Team 7-Eleven Dallara/Honda/Firestone, sixth fastest): “I was pretty happy with the Team 7-Eleven car today. It’s always difficult to setup a car on a road course because you have to decide which corners you are going to gain a lot of time in and try to set the car up for those. You are never going to have a good car all around. We gained speed in the afternoon session and hopefully we’ll be able to find more before qualifying tomorrow.”

MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 26 NYSE Group Dallarra/Honda/Firestone, 10th fastest): “I thought the NYSE car was better in the afternoon than it was in the first session, so we definitely made progress today. We were fighting the same issues the other drivers were in that we just couldn’t find a lot of grip in the turns. We’ll work on it tonight with our teammates and hopefully be able to find some more speed.”

CORNING 100 POST-QUALIFYING QUOTES:

WADE CUNNINGHAM (No. 27 Automatic Fire Sprinklers, Inc., provisional pole sitter): “It's good to have a quick time today, just in case it rains tomorrow. With our (sticker) tires allocation, it was a bit of gamble. We had four sets of tires - two practice and two qualifying sets. There's a bit of strategy with conservation and we're not sure where the other teams did. We've used one set of (stickers) for qualifying and that puts us in a pretty good position for tomorrow.”

ALEX LLOYD (No. 7 Lucas Oil/Isilon/Sam Schmidt Motorsports, qualified second): “We started off this morning struggling in the first practice. We really made huge improvements in the limited amount of track time we've had since then, which is a positive. We got everything we could out of the car. It wasn't enough for provisional pole, but we put a good lap together. Tomorrow, weather permitting, should be a quicker session. If we can make a few adjustments and see if we can find that missing time, then we've got a good shot at the pole. At the moment, Wade (Cunningham) seems to have a bit of an edge on us, so we'll see if we can close that down a bit.”

DANIEL HERRINGTON (No. 44 SpeedWorks/SSM, qualified third): “Practice went pretty well. We were third quickest in practice. We tested here a few days ago, so I felt I had a pretty sense for the car. Our gears were apparently way off. We didn’t find that out until late. So we switched them for qualifying and that made a world of difference. The track had rubbered up a lot from the IndyCar Series cars. They put down a lot of rubber so we could go down on our wings a bit to get some of our straight line speed back. It’s really about putting a lap together. I was trying to stay out of lapped traffic. My fast one was one of my very last ones. I guess that’s the way to do it.

HIDEKI MUTOH (No. 55 Panther Racing, qualified fourth): “Today was my learning day and I was busy getting used to the course. It is a pretty hard course so I drove carefully and just concentrated very hard on every lap. I wish there were less yellow during the sessions and I wanted to run little longer. Although I made couple mistakes during qualifying, the time is not too bad. I will just do my best not to make mistakes and set a better time for the second qualifying tomorrow.”

PHIL GIEBLER (No. 12 Playa Del Racing, qualified fifth): “Overall, for the Playa Del Racing team, and me, it’s been a pretty good day but we just lost a lot of practice time. I know this track well, but it’s still a new team and they’re new here. They gave me a good car right out of the box and I felt comfortable. I had about ten laps in both practices combined. That didn’t set us up too well for qualifying. We have another qualifying tomorrow, so that’s another thing we are keeping in the back of our heads. We’re going to study tonight and see what we can come up with. I’m feeling pretty good out there. I was really surprised that I ended up fifth in qualifying, because the car felt really good. I was surprised at some of the lap times that some of these guys were pulling out. It’s interesting and we’ve got our work cut out for us. If we’re in the top three rows, I’m sure we can battle for the win and certainly the podium. We’re just looking to better ourselves tomorrow and give ourselves a great shot for tomorrow’s race. The track feels really good. They’ve smoothed out some sections. It feels better to me in Turn 5 and 6 I think. My timing was off a little in qualifying a little bit and I got caught up on my last two laps.” *** The 2007 IndyCar Series season continues with the Camping World Watkins Glen Grand Prix at 3:30 p.m. (ET) on July 8 at Watkins Glen International. The race will be televised live by ABC and broadcast by the IMS Radio Network. The next Indy Pro Series event is the Corning Twin 100 doubleheader on July 7-8 at Watkins Glen International. The race will be televised by ESPN2 on July 12.