From: Michael Powell 

CHEVY 500/DREAMERSCANDLES.COM 100 DAY 1 NOTES

De Ferran Wins MBNA Pole for Chevy 500; Luyendyk Jr. Wins Pole for Pro Series Race 

FORT WORTH, Texas, Friday, Oct. 10, 2003 - Gil de Ferran, who will retire
following the Chevy 500, won the pole for the Chevy 500 with a lap of
23.5031 seconds, 222.864 mph in the No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske
Dallara/Toyota/Firestone.

***

MBNA QUALIFYING NOTES: 

ˇde Ferran won his fifth career MBNA Pole. His last MBNA Pole came at
Gateway in August 2002.

ˇThis is the first MBNA Pole for Marlboro Team Penske on a 1.5-mile track
in the IRL IndyCar Series. 

ˇde Ferran won the MBNA Pole by .0009 of a second over Scott Dixon. The
margin is the second closest in IRL IndyCar Series history. The closest was
a tie between Greg Ray and Sam Schmidt in August 1999 at Pikes Peak. 

ˇMarlboro Team Penske has won nine MBNA Poles in the IRL IndyCar Series. 

ˇde Ferran's lap of 23.5031 seconds, 222.864 mph was a track record. The
previous track record was 23.5415 seconds, 222.501 mph, set by Buddy Rice
on Lap 200 of last year's Chevy 500. 

ˇScott Dixon has started on the front row nine times this season, more than
any other driver. 

ˇde Ferran won the MBNA Pole using a Toyota engine. Toyota has won 11 MBNA
Poles this season, more than any other engine this season.

ˇTeam Penske has won 144 Indy-style poles. 

GIL DE FERRAN (No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Toyota/Firestone):
"It is certainly a great place to start, I guess, but we can't get too
carried away here. Because the qualifying is certainly very important, but
the race is going to be another game altogether. So far, it's been a dream
weekend for me. Helio (Castroneves) came here to test a couple of weeks
ago. We, as a team, decided too concentrate on Helio mostly for the
championship, because he's got a much higher chance mathematically to win
the championship than I do. He came here did two days of testing, and he
came up with a setup that has been absolutely fantastic. I started driving
the car this morning, and I told Helio, 'Great job. The car is great. It's
easy to drive, and it's fast.' So, this afternoon we came out with
qualifying trim, and the car was good in qualifying. For qualifying, my
engineer, Tom German, he really just picked the right gear. It was perfect,
just that little bit extra that we always try to squeeze for qualifying. I
don't want to get to emotional here. I still have a couple of days of work
to do. I look at this in a totally different light. The one-and-a-half mile
ovals have not been a great strength. Both Helio and I, and all the
engineers, everybody have been really working, thinking, cracking our heads
trying to figure those things out. For me, it's very rewarding on my very
last race on this type of race track to say 'OK. Ah, we finally found
something that's good and it works.' You have to have a car in this type of
racetrack that you can run flat out. I'm not in search of an ego boost,
because I don't feel like I need one. The car handled well this morning
when we ran race trim, and I guess I can tell you a little bit more about
it after the two sessions tomorrow. We'll see, race trim is one thing,
qualifying trim is another. It's a good indication that we'll have good
speed on both setups."

***

Arie Luyendyk Jr. won the pole for the Menards Infiniti Pro Series
dreamerscandles.com 100 with a lap of 28.1186 seconds, 186.282 in the No. 5
Dallara/Infiniti/Firestone. 

***

MENARDS INFINITI PRO SERIES POLE QUALIFYING NOTES: 

ˇThe starting line-up for the dreamerscandles.com 100 consists of 17 cars,
the second-largest field for a Menards Infiniti Pro Series race. The record
is 19 at the Freedom 100 in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 

ˇArie Luyendyk Jr. won his third career Menards Infiniti Pro Series pole.
His last pole came in July at Michigan.

ARIE LUYENDYK JR. (No. 5 Dallara/Infiniti/Firestone): "I feel great.
This is our second pole of the year. The car really felt good. It was good
when we rolled it off the trailer. I've got to give thanks to my crew and
Mark Moore, my engineer, for setting up the car. It was perfect to drive,
and I hope we can stay up front tomorrow. Our chances for tomorrow look
pretty good right now. We've got the car to beat. It is great in traffic.
Hopefully, we can stay in the lead all day. The car is planted. It's great.
This is a great track to race at. I am sure there will be a lot of passing
going on, but hopefully, we can stay up front. The Infiniti Pro Series is a
great development series. It's good to develop drivers for the IndyCar
Series. I've learned a lot. It taught me to drive well on the ovals. I am
excited, and hopefully, I can get to the IndyCar Series next year."

***

Michael Andretti drove the Indy Racing two-seater yesterday at Texas Motor
Speedway with his wife, Leslie, as the passenger. It was Andretti's first
time driving a race car since the 87th Indianapolis 500-Mile Race.

LESLIE ANDRETTI: "It was really exciting. I'm a little too small for
these cars, though, because I was moving around in the seat. You don't
really know how fast they're going until you're in one of the cars. I think
Michael was going a little bit faster than he should have been though, to
give me an even better ride."

***

The IRL now will been seen on network TV and heard on radio in Brazil
through the major Brazilian media group "Grupo Bandeirantes de
Comunicacao" The five-year agreement will put the IRL on two national
networks, BAND and Rede 21. Both networks reach more than 92 percent of
Brazil, which represent more than 150 million viewers. 

The minimum cumulative TV exposure per event on a race weekend will exceed
three hours. 

In addition, Brazil's leading radio network, "Radio
Bandeirantes." will be giving year-long exposure to the series.

***

Indy Racing League teams and officials raised $2,615 today for the Susan G.
Komen Breast Cancer Foundation as a part of Lee Nation Denim Day. In its
eighth year, Lee National Denim Day(R) is the world's largest single-day
fundraiser for breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment
programs. Employees of the League and teams made a $5 donation in order to
wear jeans to work today. 



--- Internet Rex 2.29