Penske Trio Tops Opening Day At Edmonton

EDMONTON, Friday, July 24, 2009: Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe ended the opening day of preparations for the Rexall Edmonton Indy in a familiar position.

The Team Penske drivers were 1-2 on the time chart for practice. That's where they started last year's race.

Castroneves posted a quick lap of 1 minute, 1.5467 seconds (115.405 mph) on his 13th - and final - lap of the afternoon session. Briscoe, the polesitter in the inaugural IndyCar Series race last year on the 1.9773-mile, 14-turn Edmonton City Centre Airport circuit, had posted the quickest lap of the day (1:01.9820; 114.595) six minutes earlier.

Will Power, driving the No. 12 Penske Truck Rental car for Penske Racing, was first in the morning session and third overall (1:02.0853), and defending race winner Scott Dixon was fourth (1:02.3164). Rookies Raphael Matos (1:02.3383) was fifth in the No. 2 US Marines Luczo Dragon Racing car and Mike Conway was sixth (1:02.4343) in the No. 24 Charter Media/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing car.

Early in the afternoon session - when the ambient temp was 88 degrees (F) and the track 112 degrees - Dan Wheldon's No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing car spun exiting Turn 3 and made front-end contact with the concrete barrier in Turn 4. The incident collected the No. 7 Boost Mobile/Motorola car driven by Danica Patrick. Both drivers were uninjured.

Also on July 24, J.R. Hildebrand won the pole for the Firestone Indy Lights Grand Prix of Edmonton. Hildebrand, the Firestone Indy Lights championship point leader, posted a quick lap of 1 minute, 5.9065 seconds (107.771 mph) to earn his fourth pole start of the season. He will be joined by first-time front-row starter Richard Philippe in the 50-lap Grand Prix of Edmonton on the 1.96-mile, 14-turn Edmonton City Centre Airport circuit July 25.