INDYCAR SERIES NOTES

1. Team Penske takes over at Sebring: Team Penske took over at Sebring International Raceway where Tony Kanaan and Andretti Green Racing left off. Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves led a half day of an Open Test on a 1.7-mile, 11-turn course as eight drivers completed 456 laps.

Kanaan and Andretti Green Racing swept a day and a half of testing March 3-4. The second set of drivers are testing March 5-6.

Briscoe’s best lap, 52.7757 seconds, 113.916 mph, was faster than Kanaan’s best lap from March 4 by 0.0852 of a second.

“The track seemed to clean up really quickly during the afternoon and the rubber that the guys laid down the last couple of days is still there,” Briscoe said. “It's just a bit tough here sometimes, because you're chasing the track conditions. Overall, we're really happy with the work we got done today on the Team Penske car. We did a lot of setup work, just trying to build a database of tools we can work with when we go to St. Petersburg.”

Castroneves best lap was 113.465 mph. Dan Wheldon, Scott Dixon, Buddy Rice, Darren Manning, Vitor Meira and Milka Duno rounded out the time sheet.

The final day of testing is scheduled for 9 a.m.-5 p.m. March 6. *** 2. In Case You Missed It: Kanaan, Matos teleconference: IndyCar Series driver Tony Kanaan and Indy Pro Series driver Raphael Matos were guests on today’s Indy Racing League teleconference.

Background on Tony Kanaan: Tony Kanaan is competing in his seventh full season in the IndyCar Series, all of them with Andretti Green Racing. He drives the No. 11 Team 7-Eleven entry. a. Age: 33 (Birthday is Dec. 31, 1974) b. Career Starts/ 2007 starts: 81 / 17 c. Career Victories/2007: 12 / 5 (Motegi, Milwaukee, Michigan, Kentucky, Belle Isle in 2007) d. Career Top-Five Finishes/2007: 55 / 12 e. Career Top-10 Finishes/2007: 64 / 13 f. Career Poles/2007: 8 / 2 (Kansas, Kentucky in 2007) g. Career Highlights: Won IndyCar Series championship in 2004, completing every lap of every race. h. 2007 Highlights: Led IndyCar Series with five victories. Finished third in the championship i. Off the track: Celebrated the birth of his first son, Leonardo, during the offseason. *** He said what...? Listed below are select quotes from today’s teleconference, with the approximate time code from the audio MP3 in parentheses.

Q. What's different about this year, do you think the changes in the team, do you think that will enhance you or the same old grind as getting out there and competing against everyone? TONY KANAAN (25:00): Well, obviously I have a big responsibility, and the bigger responsibility on the team now just because, you know, I have three young guys there two young guys and a girl, let me rephrase that, otherwise Danica will get mad at me. They are probably relying on me a lot more than I'm relying on them, but they are very experienced.

I mean, Danica and Marco I think can get the job done, and Hideki (Mutoh) is learning pretty quick. I lost my wing man, Dario (Franchitti). So for me, it's a transition time, but I don't think it's a huge deal. I just think that I'm going to have to work a little more and take a little bit more time to adjust.

Q. It sounds like you guys put in a lot of hard work over the winter to prepare for the test and prepare for the road and street courses entirely. With that in mind and thinking about the Homestead test, how important will be getting a strong start to the season be on such completely different tracks? TONY KANAAN (26:30): Well, it's always important to start strong, especially with a series like the IndyCar Series, that every result counts. You've got to be very consistent. Even (last year), I won five races and did not win the championship. It's always important. But we can't think about it. We can only do what we did, work over the winter, translate that to the race track and go from there, because racing is so unpredictable. There's so many factors that have to fall in place for you to be able to win a race or even to be a championship contender.

So right now, what we've got to do, nothing different than we did in the past, it's just take our time and wait till the season starts and compare ourselves when we get down to Homestead and then after that just go after whoever is better or if we're better than everybody else, just manage the advantage.

Q. And how has being a new father, has that affected your mindset when you get behind the wheel at all? TONY KANAAN (23:45): I think if you look at the lap times yesterday, I would say no. People expecting me to slow down, I don't think so. I've been saying, I've probably got to win more races to pay for his diapers than any other time in my life.

It's a joy, but once I'm in the race car, I don't think about anybody else besides myself and my team and winning a race. So I don't think it's probably a very selfish way of thinking, but that's the only way you can still have the mind set to go win races.

Background on Raphael Matos: Raphael Matos will drive in the Indy Pro Series for AFS Racing/Andretti Green Racing. He won two races in four starts for Guthrie Racing in 2006. Last year, he won the Champ Car Atlantic title, recording six victories. a. Age: 26 (Birthday is Aug. 28, 1981) b. Career Starts: 4 c. Career Victories: 2 (St. Petersburg 1 & 2 in 2006) d. Career Top-Five Finishes: 3 e. Career Top-10 Finishes: 3 f. Career Poles: 1 (St. Petersburg in 2006) g. Career Highlights: Won Skip Barber rookie of the year honors in 2002. Won Formula Dodge national championship in 2003. Won Star Mazda championship in 2005. Won two of four Indy Pro Series starts in 2006. h. 2007 Highlights: Won Champ Car Atlantic championship with six victories.

Q. You're with one of the powerhouse teams on the IndyCar side. What's it like to have the opportunity to work with Tony and Danica (Patrick) and Marco (Andretti), too. What exactly are you doing with Tony? You both are based in Miami; what are you guys doing to work together? RAPHAEL MATOS (4:30): Well, to arrive in the Indy Pro Series with the best (IndyCar Series) team, it's just the opportunity I believe that every driver is looking for. Having a guy like Tony, and Danica, they have so much experience, and now the engineering side, as well, and Michael Andretti, as well.

So I'm hoping to get all the information this year and try to use it as IndyCar ride next year. Basically, Tony he helps me a lot and gives me a lot of tips about setting up the cars and driving wise, as well.

I try to be as close as I can to the debriefing, to try to learn the communication with the engineers. I think that's the best thing to do, trying to suck out the information from the drivers. And every one on the team, they have been very, very helpful and they have been very open and that's a great thing for me, I believe, in order to prepare me for next year.

There’s more: The complete transcript and complete audio recording in MP3 format are available at www.indycar.com/media. Please contact IRL PR for log-in information if necessary. *** 3. Season Preview: Panther Racing: Panther Racing enters the 2008 season with a renewed sense of invigoration.

The team returns with veteran driver Vitor Meira behind the wheel of its Dallara and with Delphi as co-primary sponsor. The invigoration comes from the addition of the National Guard as co-primary sponsor and the addition of technical director Henri Durand.

"As a team, Panther has done everything we can this off-season to contend for our third championship," said John Barnes, co-owner of the team that has 15 race victories in IndyCar Series competition. "We've spent multiple hours working on our research and development initiatives, and our new Technical Director (Henri Durand) has overhauled our entire technical operation and made some major improvements. He's quickly proven himself as a key addition to our team. We feel like this is going to be a special year for our team, sponsors and fans."

Durand is entering his first year with Panther after spending 20 years in Formula One, including 11 years at McLaren F-1, where he was Chief Engineer of Aerodynamics. During his tenure there, McLaren won four F1 World Championships with driver Ayrton Senna (1990-91) and Mika Hakkinen (1998-99).

The changes are exciting to Meira, who enters his seventh season of IndyCar Series competition with 25 top-five finishes in 76 starts.

“I’m really excited,” said Meira. “We’ve been working so hard the whole offseason. It’s really good to have Delphi and the National Guard on board. That kind of support will help take me to Victory Lane.”

Panther Racing Capsule Car Number: 4 Driver: Vitor Meira, 30, Brasilia, Brazil Team Manager: Ron Catt Technical Director: Henri Durand Race Engineer: Brent Harvey Chief Mechanic: Dan Miller

2007 Review Starts: 36 Victories: 0 Top 5: 5 Top 10: 15 Poles: 0 Laps Led: 88 Best Start: 6th (Milwaukee) Best Finish: 4th (Homestead-Miami, Michigan) Running at Finish: 22 *** 4. IndyCar Series races to air on XM Satellite Radio: XM Satellite Radio, the nation’s leading satellite radio service, will open its fourth year as the official satellite radio network of the Indy Racing League with the GAINSCO Auto Insurance Indy 300, the first race of the IndyCar Series’ 2008 season. The race will be broadcast live on XM’s IndyCar Series Racing channel (XM 145).

The entire 2008 IndyCar Series season, including the 92nd Indianapolis 500 on May 25, will be broadcast live nationwide on XM. Motorsports fans will be able to hear pre-race programming, including interviews and commentary, as well as live wheel-to-wheel action on the track as presented by the IMS Radio Network. With the recent unification of open-wheel racing, the IndyCar Series will be expanding its schedule to 18 races, offering a mix of short oval, super speedway and road/street events, making it the most diverse schedule in all of motorsports.

XM is a major associate sponsor of Andretti Green Racing’s No. 7 Honda-powered Dallara driven by Danica Patrick, 2005’s Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year. The AGR team, featuring IndyCar Series drivers Danica Patrick, Marco Andretti and Tony Kanaan as well as team co-owner and open wheel racing legend Michael Andretti, will launch the second season of "The Andretti Green Racing Hour," a one-hour show airing exclusively on XM. The show will begin airing in its weekly time slot March 25 at 7 p.m. ET on XM Sports Nation (XMSN), channel 144.

“XM is committed to bringing fans the full experience of open-wheel racing, from the prep in the pits to the wheel-to-wheel action on the track,” said Kevin Straley, XM senior vice president of news, talk, and sports programming. “This is an especially exciting year for IRL as it joins forces with Champ Car, and fans across the country can hear all the races on XM.”

“Being the leaders in open-wheel racing and satellite radio respectively, the IndyCar Series and XM Satellite Radio form a natural partnership,” said John Lewis, vice president for marketing and league development, Indy Racing League. “XM provides satellite radio listeners with a behind-the-scenes look at every race, and the best in coverage from the track.” *** The 2008 IndyCar Series season begins under the lights with the GAINSCO Auto Insurance Indy 300 on March 29 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The 2008 schedule, one of the most diverse in all of motorsports, features races on ovals, permanent road courses and temporary street circuits, all broadcast worldwide through a comprehensive, long-term agreement with ESPN. All races in 2008 will be telecast in High Definition. The 2008 Indy Pro Series season also begins on March 29 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The 16-race schedule, which features eight ovals and four road/street course doubleheader weekends, will be televised by ESPN2.