INDYCAR (SONOMA) - FRANCHITTI WINS POLE FOR MOTOROLA INDY 300

IndyCar Series point leader Dario Franchitti earned his second AAMCO Transmissions Pole Award of the season, earning the top spot for the Motorola Indy 300 presented by Jackson Rancheria Casino & Hotel at Infineon Raceway. Franchitti recorded a lap of 1 minute, 16.7017 seconds (107.951 mph) on the 2.26-mile, 12-turn circuit in single-car qualifying. No one could top it in the Firestone Fast Six, though teammate Danica Patrick came closest. Driving the No. 7 Motorola car, Patrick improved four positions with a lap of 1:17.1486 (107.325) to match her career-best starting spot on a road/street course. She was the only driver to improve their time from single-car qualifying. Tony Kanaan will start third in the No. 11 Team 7-Eleven car. Helio Castroneves, who topped each of the practice sessions in the No. 3 Team Penske car, will start fourth. Scott Dixon, driving the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car, and Sam Hornish Jr. in the No. 6 Team Penske car will share Row 3. Also on Aug. 25, Alex Lloyd clinched the Indy Pro Series championship in proper fashion – with a victory in the Carneros 100 at Infineon Raceway. Lloyd, driving the No. 7 Lucas Oil/Isilon Systems car for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, passed pole sitter Richard Antinucci at the exit of Turn 1 of Lap 1 and went on to a 0.8927 of a second victory in the 14th of 16 races. Mike Potekhen finished third in the No. 53 Apex Racing car and Stephen Simpson in the No. 24 Kenn Hardley Racing car was fourth. *** CARNEROS 100 POST-RACE NOTES: • This is Alex Lloyd’s eighth win of the season, a series record, and his 10th Indy Pro Series win, extending his series record. • Alex Lloyd has pulled an eight, which will invert the top eight finishers for today’s race. • This is Sam Schmidt Motorsports’ 21st win in the Indy Pro Series. • Richard Antinucci finished second, his third top-five finish of the season. • Mike Potekhen finished third, his second top-five finish of the season.

CARNEROS 100 POST-RACE QUOTES:

ALEX LLOYD (No. 7 Lucas Oil/Isilon/Sam Schmidt Motorsports, winner Carneros 100 and 2007 Indy Pro Series champion): “It's been an amazing day. We really wanted to win the championship by winning the race. That was the way we wanted to do it. We had a big lead, but we didn't want to fall behind and win it through the fact that we just had a big lead from the beginning of the season. We wanted to show that we were dominant from the beginning and finish that way as well. Today was a tough day. The car changed a lot during the race. We started off really strong and then it kind of fell apart a little bit in the middle of the race. I was struggling a little bit and Richard was catching back up. After the yellow, the car cooled down, the tires cooled down and the car was great again. Big thank you to the team, Lucas Oil, Isilon Systems, everybody has done a great job all year. It's a great testament to how great this team is to the results we've been able to do this year. It's been a dream year for me, it really has. Hopefully I can carry this momentum into next year." (About his cars struggles midway in the race) "We were good through the quick stuff and were pulling away, but when we got to the tighter stuff I was struggling stopping the car, struggling turning the car through the hairpin. It was just understeering wide. I was getting a little bit concerned at that point. I had done all the adjustments on the car that I could, and it just wasn't helping. When the yellow came out, I was really happy. that's just the way racing is. You can start off with a good car, it can change halfway through the race and then come back to you. You just have to be patient and not make any mistakes. In my situation, keep the car in the lead while you're going through that bad patch and then push through and keep the lead."(About driving for Sam Schmidt) "Sam's just a great guy. He runs a great team, but he's an inspirational guy to many, many people, including myself. He was a great driver, and now going through what he's gone through and keeping the positive frame of mind. I can learn a lot from him for sure."

RICHARD ANTINUCCI (No. 51 Cheever Racing, finished second): “It was a good race. It's always disappointing when you start on the pole and then finish lower than that, but we finished as close to it as we could. We lost a little bit at the beginning and that determined the race. We had a good car and I think we were succeeding quite well mid-race. The yellows gave Alex (Lloyd) a little bit of a breather for the way his car was setup and that really helped him. We'll have to go look at the video - on the start, I got on the power earlier and had the gear where it needed to be but I just got killed. It was pretty obvious. He (Alex) just drove around me. Before we go on an oval, we definitely have to fix whatever that is. Thanks to my team. They've built a really good car. Even with the little deficit, we still managed to be as quick as anyone out there. I'm proud of my guys.”

MIKE POTEKHEN (No. 53 AvenueCommunities.com, finished third): “We had a great car but it was kind of lead-follow out there. It was nice to have a chance to test here and it really helped. My team is coming on strong. It's good to build this momentum going into next season. We really need that. It's great for the guys. They've been working so hard all year. We've been behind but our foundation is here. It's been an amazing effort and I have to thank everyone who has supported it.”

STEPHEN SIMPSON (No. 24 Kenn Hardley Racing, finished fourth): “It was a tough race. The car wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. I tried correcting it as much as I could from inside the car to get it to do what I wanted it to do. But at the end of the day, we got some good points out of it. It’s not where I wanted to finish so we have some work still to do for tomorrow’s race. We just have to put our heads together. We still have to find half a second on the guys in front of us.”

JAIME CAMARA (No. 11 Osofresh, finished fifth): “I am really happy with AFS Racing and Andretti Green Racing because they gave me a really good car. It was a really tough race with only one set of tires for the entire 30 laps. The conditions were different today. It was much cooler, so it was difficult to get the cars up to temperature. I gained two positions on the track and maintained my distance from the guy behind me. I didn’t have the car to win. I needed to stay in fifth place today to gain some points in the championship. Now we’ll go and set up the car for tomorrow’s race. I hope we gain positions for the start of the race when they do the draw for starting positions so we can finish up front in the Osofresh car tomorrow.”

J.R. HILDEBRAND (No. 15 RLR/Andersen Racing Formotion): “I was hit by Bobby Wilson in Turn 11. It broke the front suspension. We were three laps down. Hardly worth going out again.”

MOTOROLA INDY 300 POST-QUALIFYING NOTES: • This is Dario Franchitti’s second pole of the season and the fifth pole of his IndyCar Series career. It is his third consecutive front row start. • Franchitti earned the pole for the second time on a road/street course in the IndyCar Series. He won the pole at St. Petersburg in 2006. • This is Andretti Green Racing’s fourth earned pole this season and its 18th pole position in the IndyCar Series. • Danica Patrick qualified second, her second front row start this season. Patrick matched her career-best qualifying effort on a road/street circuit. She also started second at Mid-Ohio in July. • Three drivers improved their lap times in Firestone Fast Six. Only Danica Patrick improved her qualifying position.

MOTOROLA INDY 300 POST-QUALIFYING QUOTES: DARIO FRANCHITTI (No. 27 Canadian Club Dallara/Honda/Firestone, AAMCO Transmissions Pole Award winner): “It feels good. The track conditions changed a lot from this morning, but they've been fast all weekend. We did it when it counted. It's great to have my teammate up there as well. That should be an advantage at the start.”

DANICA PATRICK (No. 7 Motorola Dallara/Honda/Firestone, qualified second): “Like I said at Mid-Ohio, these 10-minute sessions really suit what I'm still doing better than normal. We were close to not making it in, but then once we got out there, I took advantage of having the time. It seemed to work out. It wasn't a pretty lap. I think there was still some time left out on the track. All in all we're sitting on the front row again, and it's a long way from where I have been on road courses and from at the beginning of the weekend. I was 12th. I'm glad to be sitting on the front row for the Motorola race.”

TONY KANAAN (No. 11 Team 7-Eleven Dallara/Honda/Firestone, qualified third): “It’s going to be tough to get to the front tomorrow but it was a good effort today by AGR starting ‘1-2-3.’ The Team 7-Eleven car is definitely good enough to win the race tomorrow. We’ll try to help out Dario (Franchitti) since he’s in a better position but we’re still going to try and win tomorrow. There’s no pressure on me. They (Franchitti and Scott Dixon) have to worry about the championship. Whether I finish third or fifth or eighth in the championship is not going to change my life, so I’m going out and trying to win each of the remaining races and see what happens.”

SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 6 Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone, qualified sixth): “We had a lot more in the Team Penske car today, but we just couldn’t quite keep the back end under us during qualifying. It’s been a little frustrating out there, but I’m very happy with how hard the team has been working. They’ve really stuck with it this weekend and we’re starting in the top-six. Tomorrow is the day that counts, so we’ll try and get it done then. While our results haven’t quite shown it, we’ve made a lot of improvements on road courses this season and hopefully we’ll be able to put that all together for the race.”

RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 17 Rahal Letterman Racing Team Ethanol Dallara/Honda/Firestone, qualified seventh): “It's a shame because two-tenths of a second would have been enough to get us in the Firestone Fast Six. As we have done everywhere, we have been getting quicker and quicker throughout the weekend and the guys gave me a good car today. It's a long race tomorrow and we are in a pretty good spot. Passing opportunities will be hard to come by here, but we'll be ready to take advantage any time we get a chance.”

MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 26 NYSE Dallara/Honda/Firestone, qualified eighth): “As soon as I started thinking, ‘OK, don’t screw this up,’ I actually went to the brakes earlier than I had all weekend in the final turn, and I just messed it up. The car was really loose throughout the run, but I think we had enough to make it into the shootout until the last corner. It was total stupidity on my part. The NYSE car has been good all weekend, but we’ll have to work to get to the front tomorrow.”

BUDDY RICE (No. 15 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, qualified ninth): “It was OK. I just don’t know why we’re struggling. We’ve been quite quick on the road courses in the past, and we’ve been knocking on the door to make the Firestone Fast Six, but I don’t think that’s going to happen here today. We need to have a car that races really well here to make a strong run. We’ll have to see, but I think we can definitely do better. We’re the only team that didn’t come out and test so we’re testing right now. We obviously made some changes for qualifying and it’s definitely helping us somewhat. We just need to get a little bit better but we have tomorrow morning.”

HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone, qualified fourth): “The Team Penske car has been really quick all weekend, but when we came out for qualifying, the wind had picked up. We knew it would affect our times a little bit, but it seemed to affect us the most. After seeing the practice speeds, we knew the pole would be difficult to capture because there are a handful of drivers that were really close. Since the top cars were so close in qualifying, I’m expecting a very competitive race. We’re going to try our best to keep the car on the track tomorrow, but we’re also going to be pushing very hard to pick up our second win of the season.”

SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, qualified fifth): “The whole weekend, we've really been struggling with it. We decided to go test at Sebring instead of Sonoma with the Indy Pro Series (bonus) test, so that may have hurt us. Hopefully what we did there is going to help us in Detroit. We've just missed it all weekend. It's really hard to get a lap together; the car is pretty inconsistent. Maybe with full tanks and a few changes we'll be a little bit better in the race. At least three guys and girls up front have it pretty covered in their cars.”

DAN WHELDON (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, qualified 10th): “I think we just overdrove our lap a little bit. It was unfortunate. The car is reasonably good. It was good in today's practice session. We just have to make sure we move forward in the race.”

SUNDAY’S SCHEDULE: 8:30 – 9 a.m. IndyCar Series warmup 10:20 a.m. Valley of the Moon 100 (30 laps/69 miles1 hour time limit) ESPN2 (taped, 2 p.m., Aug. 31) 12:30 p.m. Motorola Indy 300 presented by Jackson Rancheria (80 laps/180.8 miles) ESPN & IMS Radio Network (live) *** The next IndyCar Series event is the Motorola Indy 300 presented by Jackson Rancheria Casino & Hotel at 3:30 p.m. (ET) on Aug. 26 at Infineon Raceway. The race will be televised live by ESPN and broadcast by the IMS Radio Network. The next Indy Pro Series event is the Carneros 100/Valley of the Moon 100 doubleheader on Aug. 25-26 at Infineon Raceway. The race will be telecast at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 31 by ESPN2.