R14 IndyCar, Chicagoland Speedway 28nd Aug

[Muzza]

Peak Antifreeze and Motor Oil Indy 300 Joliet, IL

Race Preview

Adjacent to its sister track, Route 66 Raceway, Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., is a $130  million, 1.5-mile, D-shaped, tri-oval speedway that annually hosts the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, ARCA RE/MAX Series, Firestone Indy Lights™ and IndyCar® Series. Chicagoland Speedway sits on 930 acres of land and provides 500 acres of free parking for more than 50,000 vehicles.

The banking of the track in all 4 turns is at 18 Degrees. The height of the grandstands is 15 stories tall and 2,480 ft long with a seating cap of 75,000

Chicagoland Speedway hosted the IZOD IndyCar Series championship deciding race from 2006-2008.

This is the tenth event at Chicagoland Speedway. The winning driver at Chicagoland has won the championship three times (Sam Hornish Jr. (2002), Dan Wheldon (2005) and Dario Franchitti (2007).

In 13 seasons, three drivers have won the 14th race of the season en route to winning the championship. Sam Hornish Jr. won at Chicagoland in 2002, Scott Dixon won at Kentucky in 2008 and Dario Franchitti won at Infineon in 2009.

Local Event Timings:

Friday 27th

9:15 > 10:15 – 1st Practice
1:00 > 2:15 – Qualifying
5:00 > 5:30 – 2nd Practice

Saturday 28th

7:00 Night Race (200 laps)

ESPN broadcast time in AEST is Live 9:00am Sunday morning the 29th and replayed at 10:00pm that Night

Current time and weather in Chicago is HERE 17 hrs behind AEST

For Live Timing/video log on to: RACE CONTROL

LINK to IndyCar website for more information

[Muzza]

Sydney’s Ryan Briscoe has taken pole position for tomorrow’s PEAK Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway.

The Penske driver will share the front row of the 14th round ofthe IndyCar Series with Dario Franchitti from Chip Ganassi Racing.

Briscoe earned the PEAK Performance Pole Award for the third consecutive year at Chicagoland Speedway with a two-lap average of 350.485 km/h (50.5857 seconds) for the 200-lap race under the lights.

The Team Penske driver outpaced Scott Dixon by 0.0077 of a second to win in ’09 – the fourth-closest margin of victory in IZOD IndyCar Series history. In fact, five of the top 10 closest finishes have occurred at the 1.5-mile, high-banked oval.

Briscoe, who posted his third pole start of the season (all on 1.5-mile tracks), is fourth in the championship standings, 130 points behind teammate Will Power, but confident of making his move over the final four races of the year.

“The car today was just spot on,” said Briscoe.

“I didn’t want to be overconfident, but I was thinking after that run, ‘Man, that has to be hard to beat.’  I knew we were fully trimmed out and the car felt really solid.

“It was a great qualifying run and I’m just really hoping that we can follow through tomorrow and have another good race.

“We’ve been strong here the last couple of years and I really enjoy racing around here. It’s always exciting.  It’s a completely wide track that’s really smooth.  It really promotes good racing so I always get excited to come back here.”

Franchitti, also seeking to close the championship points gap on Power, recorded his 10th consecutive top-five start. Power, entering the race with a 59-point cushion will join Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves  on the second row.

The 29-car field is separated by one second.

Power notched his 12th top-five start of the season, though the third starting position ended his streak of six consecutive races starting from the front row.

“Our car is fast in race trim and this track is all about the racing,” said the Toowoomba driver.

“I am looking forward to tomorrow night. We have been knocking on the door on some of the earlier oval races and we are due for our first oval win.”

The race will be run at 9am Australian Eastern Time tomorrow.

Full Starting grid and times: http://www.indycar.com:8080/var/assets/PEAKAntifreezeandMotorOilIndy300startinglineup.pdf

[WilliamsF1]

Was gutted for Will Power

[Muzza]

It was a shame that a simple mistake got him a 16th after a very good race to that point.
For those that don't know Will had to repit in the last few laps due to a fuel issue. The refuller didn't connect propley so not enought fuel was taken on in the final round of stops.

Dario took the win and is was only 23 points behind.