PENSKE RACING REPORT

Tire Troubles Haunt Penske Racing Trio at Indy

In a race that was plagued with tire issues and "competition cautions," Penske Racing drivers Ryan Newman, Sam Hornish Jr. and Kurt Busch finished 13th, 21st and 40th, respectively, in Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

During practice on Saturday afternoon, all the race teams began to notice that their car's right side race tires were severely worn after a few laps. When the green flag waved on Sunday afternoon, NASCAR informed the teams that there would be a "competition caution" period at lap 10 due to the tire wear issues. NASCAR also notified the teams that additional "competition cautions" may occur after teams had the opportunity to inspect tires.

Newman and the No. 12 Alltel Dodge team Newman started third for what the Indiana native and 2008 Daytona 500 winner deemed "the second biggest race of the season." Newman overcame a blown tire and ran a smart race, finishing 13th, which helped he and the team gain valuable points in the series standings. Newman is currently 16th in the 2008 NASCAR Cup driver point standings, a mere 144 points out of the 12th place "Chase cutoff" with six races to go until the NASCAR Chase for the Cup begins in September.

Hornish fought through tire wear throughout the race to secure 21st place while an early-race crash relegated Busch to a 40th-place finish at the Brickyard.

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Team Penske Takes Podium At Edmonton In First Try

Keeping himself solidly in the 2008 IndyCar Series championship hunt, Helio Castroneves, driver of the No. 3 Team Penske Dallara/Honda, led the most laps and scored a second-place finish in Saturday’s Rexall Edmonton Indy at Edmonton City Centre Airport – a course he’d only seen for the first time a few days earlier. Ryan Briscoe, driver of the No. 6 Team Penske Dallara/Honda, also had a solid points day. He scored a sixth-place finish, a spot he battled for after involvement in a mid-race incident that placed him in the back of the pack, but a combination of pit strategy and driving skill pushed him up to the front.

Although the 14-turn, 1.973-mile temporary airport course was new to both drivers, Briscoe started the 95-lap (scheduled, 91-lap actual/shortened for time) event on the pole position, with Castroneves only a step behind in second spot. This feat was the 50th one-two start in Penske Racing’s open-wheel history.

Castroneves’ podium finish was hard-fought as he hunted down IndyCar Series points leader and race winner Scott Dixon in the closing laps of the event, and he was able to get to within tenths of a second of making a pass for the lead. However, on lap 86, Castroneves made a slight bobble in Turn 1, which placed him a few seconds behind Dixon. “I was doing everything I could just to keep up [with Dixon],” said Castroneves, who remains second in the title chase, now 65 points out of first place in the championship point standings. “I was pushing and trying to put pressure on Dixon with every lap, but he never made a mistake.”