Penske team in front again
WATKINS GLEN — Penske Racing’s Indy- Cars, with their red and white paint jobs and bold, black lettering, are very easy to spot.
Penske was in a familiar place at Watkins Glen International Saturday, as it remained the only team to win the pole position in IndyCar races at Watkins Glen International. But it wasn’t three-time pole winner Helio Castroneves — he was the guy asking fans if they could loan him a screwdriver.
Starting first in today’s Camping World Indy Grand Prix at The Glen will be Ryan Briscoe, a 26-year-old Australian who earned his second career pole in his first season with Penske. Briscoe’s final lap of 1 minute, 29.346 seconds (135.787 mph) edged Justin Wilson by about 4/100ths of a second for the pole.
“I’m having a lot of fun around here,” said Briscoe, who replaced Sam Hornish Jr. at Penske after the Indy 500 winner left for NASCAR. “Step by step, trying to get myself well-fitted within the team. . . . I’m just really excited to be here at Watkins Glen. [The race] is going to be super-competitive. The depth of this field makes it tough, especially on the road courses.”
An eventful qualifying session ended up with those Penske cars in the first and last starting
spots, former Champ Car drivers making their expected impact on historic road course, three-time defending champion Scott Dixon in a familiar front-running spot and Danica Patrick failing to advance past the first round of qualifying despite having one of the fastest cars in practice.
“It’s going to be exciting,” said Tony Kanaan, who will start sixth and has finishes of second, 11th and fourth at the Glen. “You have fast guys everywhere, all over the place.”
The qualifying session took place in three timed rounds: first the cars hit the track in two 13-car groups, with the top six in each advancing to the second round as those 12 cars hit the track. From that, the top six raced a final session.
Castroneves, who had been the only pole winner in the three years of this race at the Glen, didn’t even complete a lap due to a steering linkage problem which left him starting last in the 26-car field. He rolled his No. 3 car harmlessly into the shortcut that eliminates the portion of the track called “the boot” — a part of the track used by IndyCar but not NASCAR.
The driver now known by many as a winner of “Dancing with the Stars” hopped out of his car, ran to an infield fence from the infield and asked for — and received — a screwdriver from one of the ones who wasn’t snapping a picture with their phone.
“The throttle cable broke — it was just a shame, said Castroneves, who attempted to repair his car to no avail, then was finally towed to the pits when a caution flag flew with just a few minutes remaining in the session. “I could not even take the engine cover out.”
“[The fans] were very helpful — I asked for a screwdriver. With my helmet on, I was like ‘screw-driver,’ ” he said, making a twisting motioning with his hands. “I think that’s the universal sign for screwdriver.”
While Castroneves went to last place on the first lap, Briscoe went to first place on the last lap.
Wilson, the English driver who was the runner-up to current Formula One driver Sebastien Bourdais in the last two seasons of Champ Car, twice posted the fastest lap of the final round of qualifying, including his best time of 1:29.380 late in the 10- minute qualifying session.
“I started that lap and actually it was about a 10th [of a second] slower than I had been in the first sector,“ said Briscoe, who is eighth in the points race and who won in Milwaukee one week after famously firing up Patrick in a pit-lane incident at the Indianapolis 500. “They came on the radio and said, ‘You just jumped down to P2’ and told me what P1 time was. I knew that was the last lap. So I just sucked it in. . . . To come down to the last lap, that was nice for me.”
Ryan Hunter-Reay earned his best career starting position in third, followed by three-time defending Glen champion and series point leader Dixon. He has started fourth, fourth and second in his three wins here.
“As tracks go, it’s probably one of the easiest ones to pass at,“ said Dixon, who is trying to become the first IndyCar driver to win four straight races at the same track. “You’ve got long straights. If you trim out, you can pass people on the straights. We’ve done it in the past. Other people have done it to us in the past.”
Open-wheel racing is in its first unified season after 12 years of split leagues, and the drivers who raced exclusively on street and road courses on the former Champ Car series took four of the top 12 spots: Wilson, Oriol Servia (fifth) and Bruno Junqueira (11th) and Will Power (12th).
Patrick, who is fifth in the IndyCar points standings, failed to advance past the first round of qualifying and will start 14th despite posting the fourth-best practice lap after three sessions.
“I’m pretty disappointed,” she said. “We made really good progress all weekend — every session we got quicker and quicker and qualifying was the first session that we didn’t go quicker. I don’t know what happened.”
