Penske Racing NASCAR Trio Finds Strategy Tough at Sonoma

SONOMA, Calif. – On Sunday, Penske Racing drivers Ryan Newman, Sam Hornish Jr. and Kurt Busch finished seventh, 31st and 32nd respectively in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 NASCAR Cup Series event at the 1.99-mile, 11-turn Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.

Newman qualified the Alltel Dodge in ninth place at Sonoma and remained in the top 10 until green flag pit stops began at lap 25. As the team prepared to pit under the green flag for the first stop of the day, an untimely caution flag waved at lap 30. Under the caution, the No. 12 hit pit road. Because several other cars had already pitted under the green flag prior to the caution and did not have to stop during the yellow, Newman restarted in 14th place.

The same green/yellow flag situation occurred again later in the race, which took Newman from the third position to 22nd on lap 74. Once Newman got back on track, however, he was able to fight his way through the field. On lap 105, a multi-car incident directly in front of the 12 car in turn 7 helped Newman gain even more ground - up to the eighth spot. Newman was able to pick up one more position on the final lap of the race to finish solidly in seventh place.

"Our strategy got off a little bit, and we had to pass a whole lot more cars than we should have had to," said Newman after the event. "There at the end we got a little help to gain some ground with the wrecks. We're happy with the finish - it's a top 10, and that's what we need right now. All in all, it was a good day, and we are looking forward to New Hampshire next week."

Newman's No. 12 Alltel Dodge team is currently 16th in the NASCAR Cup driver point standings, 105 points shy of the 12th place cutoff for the 2008 NASCAR Chase for the Cup, while Busch and the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge crew sit 22nd in the series rankings after Sunday's results. Hornish and the No. 77 Mobil 1 team remain in 33rd in the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series owner point standings, just 15 points out of 30th place, following his 31st-place finishing on Sunday.

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Ryan Briscoe Finishes Seventh, Helio Castroneves 14th for Team Penske at Iowa

NEWTON, Iowa – Team Penske was strong throughout Sunday's Iowa Corn Indy 250 at Iowa Speedway, but a series of yellow flag periods at the end of the race, combined with tire trouble, saw the day end with a seventh-place finish for No. 6 Team Penske Dallara/Honda driver Ryan Briscoe and a 14th-place finish for No. 3 driver Helio Castroneves.

Both cars were among the fastest in the field during the race, but three caution periods in the final 62 laps allowed other teams to stretch their fuel windows to finish ahead of the No. 3 and 6 machines.

Despite leading the most laps of the day (92 of 250 total), Castroneves was forced to the pits inside the last 20 laps due to a leaking right-front tire and finished 14th. "Today just wasn't our day," Castroneves said. "The Team Penske car was great, and we led the most laps, but after our final pit stop I felt a change in the way the car was handling and thought we might have a tire problem. The guys looked into it, and we were losing pressure slowly."

Castroneves remains second in the 2008 IndyCar Series driver championship standings, 48 points behind leader Scott Dixon. "Fourteenth is not the result we deserved today," Castroneves continued. "All we can do now is look forward to a better result in Richmond (next weekend)."