INDYCAR (LEXINGTON) - ANDRETTI GREEN TEAMMATES LEAD FIRST DAY AT MID-OHIO

Andretti Green Racing teammates Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan paced the opening day of preparations for the inaugural Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio presented by Westfield Insurance at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car course. Franchitti, a two-time pole winner on the 2.258-mile, 13-turn circuit as a driver in CART, recorded a fastest lap of 1 minute, 7.3629 seconds, 120.672 mph in the No. 27 Canadian Club Dallara/Honda/Firestone. Kanaan was second fastest with a lap of 1:07.5476, 120.342 mph in the No. 11 Team 7-Eleven car. Team Penske teammates Helio Castroneves, a two-time winner at the track, and Sam Hornish Jr., were third and fourth, respectively. Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver Scott Dixon, who is attempting to tie a series record with his third straight victory, was fifth. Rounding out the top 10 were Marco Andretti, Vitor Meira, Danica Patrick, Darren Manning and Buddy Rice. Single-lap qualifying followed by the Firestone Fast Six rally session are scheduled for Saturday. Also on Friday, Cheever Racing's Richard Antinucci led preparations for the Mid-Ohio 100 Indy Pro Series race. Antinucci turned a fast lap of 1:14.2590, 109.466 mph. Wade Cunningham, the 2005 series champion, was second quick while Daniel Herrington, Andrew Prendeville and Bobby Wilson completed the top five. Qualifications will take place Saturday.

DAY 1 NOTEBOOK:

Five Indianapolis 500 champions are expected to participate in the Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio presented by Westfield Insurance: Helio Castroneves (2001, 2002), Buddy Rice (2004), Dan Wheldon (2005), Sam Hornish Jr. (2006) and Dario Franchitti (2007). *** Five IndyCar Series champions are scheduled to participate in the Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio presented by Westfield Insurance: Scott Sharp (1996 co-champion), Sam Hornish Jr. (2001, 2002, 2006), Scott Dixon (2003), Tony Kanaan (2004) and Dan Wheldon (2005). *** Drivers entered in the Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio presented by Westfield Insurance have combined for 83 IndyCar Series victories, 79 IndyCar Series pole positions and 1,221 IndyCar Series starts. *** The Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio presented by Westfield Insurance is the third of five road/street course races in the 2007 season. Other events in 2007 that have taken place on road and street courses include the April 1 event on the Streets of St. Petersburg won by Helio Castroneves and the July 8 event at Watkins Glen International won by Scott Dixon. The IndyCar Series will also race at the permanent road course at Infineon Raceway (Aug. 26) and the temporary street course at the Raceway at Belle Isle (Sept. 2). *** Sean Guthrie’s car carries its familiar yellow paint scheme and sponsorship from Trace Die-Cast Car Crafters on the sidepods this weekend, but a closer look shows the unfamiliar No. 12 on the rear wing instead of the usual No. 4. The change is the result of an agreement this past week between Guthrie Racing and Playa Del Racing – one small team helping another. Guthrie Racing, which is owned by Sean Guthrie’s father Jim, the 1997 IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year, has fielded two cars throughout the 2007 season while Playa Del Racing has fielded one. The teams agreed to run Sean Guthrie in the No. 12 car this weekend after Playa Del Racing’s car was damaged beyond repair in an accident at Nashville Superspeedway on July 14. Sean Guthrie continues to drive with a displaced fracture of his left foot that he suffered in a crash at Iowa on June 23. The No. 12 Playa Del Racing entry ranks ninth in entrant points coming into this weekend while Guthrie Racing’s No. 4 car ranks 16th. Tom Wieringa will drive the No. 4 car this weekend instead of the No. 40, which ranks 24th in points. GARY SALLEE (Co-owner, Playa Del Racing): “Our car was destroyed at Nashville, so it was impossible to have a car of our own ready for this weekend. I worked with Jim (Guthrie) during the ’98 Indy 500, and it’s great to have a chance to work with him again. You never know, this could lead to collaboration that could last for a while.” JIM GUTHRIE (Owner, Guthrie Racing): “This should be a great opportunity for everyone concerned. This will give us an opportunity to share data and work with another small team to really level the playing field out there. I worked with (PDR co-owner) Gary (Sallee) when I was driving, and I’m glad we could find a way to work together again.” *** Cincinnati native Brad Jaeger is in the midst of three “hometown” races. The Indy Pro Series rookie began the stretch July 14 in his adopted hometown of Nashville, Tenn., where he graduated in May from Vanderbilt University. This weekend, he returns to Mid-Ohio where he has raced many times previously. The stretch will continue Aug. 11 at Kentucky Speedway, a 1.5-mile oval in Sparta, Kentucky. BRAD JAEGER (No. 3 Brian Stewart Racing): “Cincinnati is about three and a half hours away from here. (Mid-Ohio) is the first track that I started racing cars on. This has sort of been my home track since the get go. Every year, I have friends that come up here and watch me race. I’ve raced Star Mazda, F2000, Sports 2000, SCCA and some other cars here, and I’ve had some good results, a couple wins. Hopefully, I can get into the top 10 this weekend.” *** Selected quotes from Ryan Hunter-Reay’s media availability: RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 17 Rahal Letterman Racing Team Ethanol Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “It’s been a crazy couple of days. It was a late-minute deal. I understand the team is in an awkward position with it. I’m thrilled about it. I look to take the opportunity to run with it. I had been talking to Bobby (Rahal) and Scott (Roembke) since the end of the 2003 season, and we’ve gotten close to a couple of deals here and there. We’ve always been in contact and it’s always been a good relationship. I was talking to (Rahal) at the beginning of the season.” (About his immediate work): “I had been racing the (Grand Am) Rolex Series. We have a lot of work to do. I want to learn from all the experience on this team, which is one thing I’ve never had to learn from. My teammate in ’03 was Jimmy Vassar, who drove for this team, but since then I haven’t had a lot of experience to draw from. I can learn a lot and gradually make progress.” (About expectations): “The biggest thing for me is making progress, mostly on the ovals. I’ve had great success on ovals in the past, but this is a new situation that I have to treat with respect and I have to go out and learn everything I can. I haven’t been in one of these cars in two years and we were a couple of tenths out of the top 10 (in first session). When it comes to Mid-Ohio and racing Indy cars, this is what it’s all about. I’m so happy to come back.” *** Robbie Pecorari, who earned his first Indy Pro Series victory July 14 at Nashville, is not the only member of his family racing at Mid-Ohio. Pecorari’s brother Adam drives the No. 19 entry in the SPEED World Challenge Touring series. Robbie drives the No. 13 Cabo Wabo Tequila car for Team KMA in the Indy Pro Series. ROBBIE PECORARI (No. 13 Cabo Wabo Tequila): “It’s pretty cool. He’s quite busy, and I’m driving in the Indy Pro Series, so the whole family is coming over. It’s not often that something like this happens.”

Andrew Prendeville hopes Mid-Ohio will be good to him one more time. The Indy Pro Series rookie has recorded five victories and eight podium finishes in 11 starts at the facility. A victory on July 22 would be his first in the Indy Pro Series. Prendeville’s biggest victory at Mid-Ohio came in 2002 when he won the SCCA Formula Continental national championship at the Valvoline Runoffs. The 25-year-old served as an instructor at the Mid-Ohio School in 2005, living in Columbus for the year, and has logged more than 2,500 laps on the circuit. ANDREW PRENDEVILLE (No. 5 RLR/Andersen Racing): “It is nice to come back. Maybe aside from Watkins Glen, Mid-Ohio is the place that me and the Andersen Racing team have been tons of times. I’ve got a couple thousand laps around here. I enjoy racing here. The fans are always good at this event. I’ve been successful here, so I’m looking for the same. I used to live in Columbus for a year. I’ve got a couple of cousins, an uncle and aunt there, so it’s kind of like home.” *** No matter where he finishes, Andrew Prendeville’s racing will pay dividends for Best Friends Animal Society, a not-for-profit organization which operates the largest no-kill animal sanctuary in the United States. Through a Web site he developed called www.racinglapsforbestfriends.com, fans can pledge monetary donations to Best Friends based on the number of laps he completes in each Indy Pro Series race with his RLR/Andersen Racing/Best Friends Animal Society No. 5 car. At $1 per lap for a 40-lap race such as Sunday's Indy Pro Series race at Mid-Ohio, the donation would be $40. If the car would only complete 25 laps, then the donation would be $25. Donations in any amount from 25 cents and higher per lap can be pledged using the Web site and a major credit card. Other ways to contribute include calling the sanctuary at (435) 644-2001, extension 4801. Best Friends has been working with Mark Kumpf, director of the Montgomery County Animal Resource Center in Dayton, Ohio, on the statewide issue of breed-specific legislation, which will affect the entire state. Best Friends is trying to move the focus from breed-specific legislation to instead address the issue of problem dogs, regardless of breed.Ohio ia also one of the states that was of great assistance to Best Friends in taking Katrina animals it had rescued from the New Orleans area. One shelter, Tender Loving Care in Medina, Ohio, fostered and found homes for animals from Tylertown, Miss., which is north of New Orleans. There were several other shelters throughout the state that also helped foster and find homes for Best Friends' Katrina rescues. *** Indy Pro Series driver Ryan Justice also has won at Mid-Ohio. Justice recorded the victory in last year’s Star Mazda event at the facility. RYAN JUSTICE (No. 38 Lifelock/Lucas Oil/Sam Schmidt Motorsports): “We tested fairly well here, and Mid-Ohio is a place where I’ve won a lot of races and poles so I definitely know my way around there. I feel like I need to redeem myself after crashing out of Race 1 in Watkins Glen. Definitely a lot of motivation, and I’ll be pushing hard. Hopefully, even if the car’s not perfect, I’ll be able to pick up that last little bit and pick up stronger results because we had a good run going for a little bit in the last couple of races, and then I hit a bit of a slump that’s absolutely unacceptable for me. I’m definitely looking to get out of it, and this is a great place for me to get back in the right direction.” *** INDY PRO SERIES POST-PRACTICE QUOTES: RICHARD ANTINUCCI (No. 51 Cheever Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, fastest of the day): “The time was quick. Every lap we did was faster the one before. We were penalized for the pass under yellow, so we were held back for five minutes after everyone else. But once we started going, we were quick. We should be in good shape for qualifying.”

WADE CUNNINGHAM (No. 27 Automatic Fire Sprinklers, Inc., second-fastest): “This morning was really tough, going out at 8:45 the condition of the track was terrible. The street cars had been on the track, totally incompatible rubber, and no temperature at all, so it was just a struggle to stay on the track. It really gave no bearing on what the cars were like later on in the day. The car was reasonable. We were trying to get a lot done in that short, 30-minute session. A little bit too much to do and not enough time. I'm reasonably happy with the car. We were quicker at the test, so there's more time to come. It probably won't come tomorrow in qualifying because again it's going to be the same conditions as the morning. So who knows what's going to happen tomorrow." *** HONDA INDY 200 POST-PRACTICE QUOTES:

DARIO FRANCHITTI (No. 27 Canadian Club Dallara/Honda/Firestone, fastest in practice): “We started off this morning with a very similar car to the one we tested here (in June). I don't think the words undriveable are too strong. It wasn't very good. We had a lot of work to do and the track changed a lot as we put rubber down. We made some changes on the car and now we're pretty happy. We made changes that went along as the track seemed to pick up a lot of grip and I think will continue to do so all weekend, which as Tony (Kanaan) just said, its going to be physically a very, very tough race.”

TONY KANAAN (No. 11 Team 7-Eleven Dallara/Honda/Firestone, second-fastest): “It was OK. We had a pretty good morning session. We made a couple of changes in the car in the afternoon, and we improved, but we couldn't improve the lap time. The team is doing OK. Dario (Franchitti) and myself are pretty strong right now, so we're definitely looking good for tomorrow."

HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone, third-fastest): “Obviously we'd like to be a little faster today, but we're happy with being in the top-three for now. The Team Penske car isn't quite dialed in yet, but I think with a little more work tomorrow morning we should be good to go for qualifying."

SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 6 Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone, fourth-fastest): “On the whole, we’re pretty happy with what we accomplished today. We weren’t really happy with the setup of the Team Penske car during the morning session, but we feel much better about it following our afternoon run. It seems that everyone is trying to push their cars as much as possible to see what kind of speed they have, but we haven’t been working too much on that. We’ve been focusing a lot on our race setup. The key to this race is going to be track position, so we’ve trying to get the car to handle well through the corners in order to minimize tire wear. We’ll just come back out tomorrow and work on fine tuning things a bit with the goal of making into the top six.”

DANICA PATRICK (No. 7 Motorola Dallara/Honda/Firestone, eighth fastest): “Today is definitely the best start to a road course weekend that we’ve had. I said coming into the weekend that how you start the weekend is really representative of the rest of it. We came out of the box well. My engineer (Martin Pare) set me up with a good car that was easy to push. I feel like the whole weekend is now about fine-tuning than it is about a ‘where do we go from here’ kind of thing. I think everybody on Team Motorola is doing a good job.”

RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 17 Rahal Letterman Racing Team Ethanol Dallara/Honda/Firestone, 13-fastest): “It was a good first day for the Ethanol car. Having never driven an Indy Car (Series car) until today and being just a couple tenths out of the top 10 is pretty decent. We have a lot of info from today that we need to go over tonight, we’ll make some changes and see what we can come up with for tomorrow’s qualifying.”

MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 26 NYSE Group Dallara/Honda/Firestone, sixth-fastest): “It was a pretty good day for the NYSE boys today. We were trying different things and between the four AGR cars, I think we’ve found something that is going to make us all very competitive. Our goal tomorrow is to get into the Firestone Fast Six and anything can happen from there.”

SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, fifth-fastest): “The day started out all right. The first session, we had a little bit of understeer. The second session was bit of a nightmare. We didn’t improve the car whatsoever. We didn’t really make any changes to improve it, which I think was a waste. When we did make our sticker run, I wanted to run more laps, but the radio wasn’t working, I don’t know how much fuel I had on board. All in all, the second session was terrible. The first session was OK. I still think we have enough speed to be in the top-six.” (About chances to win third-straight race at Mid-Ohio): “We haven’t given up hope of trying to (win). It’s nice coming to a road course with a chance to win a third-straight race. It’s going to be tough. The AGR guys are running good. There are four of them in the top nine. It’s going to be a tough between those guys. All we can do is try to go as fast as we can tomorrow, and if we’re not on pole, try to go around them on Sunday.”

VITOR MEIRA (No. 4 Panther Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, seventh-fastest): “I’m happy with today. From the first practice to the second practice we made improvements to the car, and I improved myself, too. That’s what you want, to go out every session and get better and better. If we keep improving like we are, the Delphi car is going to be in front come race time.”

BUDDY RICE (No. 15 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, ninth-fastest): “We were fast all morning long, and then we had a problem with the gearbox, which forced us to miss the last 20 minutes of the session. That kept us out of the group we need to be in. It makes a lot of difference being in that group. It will hinder us in qualifying. Our car is still being pretty quick and the road course setup is quite consistent. It’s disappointing that a self-inflicted wound kept us out of the fast group.”

SATURDAY’S SCHEDULE: 7 a.m. – 8 p.m. IndyCar Series and Indy Pro Series garage opens 8:25 – 8:50 a.m. Indy Pro Series SWE Pole Qualifying (all cars) 9 – 10 a.m. IndyCar Series practice #3 (two groups) 11:10 – 11:35 a.m. Indy Pro Series practice #3 (all cars) 11:50 a.m. – 1:20 p.m. IndyCar Series AAMCO Transmissions Pole Qualifying (single-car, single lap followed by Firestone Fast Six shootout) 7 a.m. – 8 p.m. IndyCar Series and Indy Pro Series garage opens NOTE: Schedule subject to change.

*** The next IndyCar Series event is the Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio presented by Westfield Insurance at 1:30 p.m. on July 22 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The race will be televised live by ABC and broadcast by the IMS Radio Network. The next Indy Pro Series event is the Mid-Ohio 100 on July 22 at Mid Ohio Sports Car Course. The race will be telecast at 5:30 p.m. on July 26. ESPN2’s coverage of the Sunbelt Rentals 100 will be televised by ESPN2 at 5 p.m. on July 18.