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2005 INDYCAR IRL - MICHIGAN

2005 INDYCAR - July 24, 2005 The Milwaukee Mile, West Allis, 1 mile oval

RACE: JULY 31, 2005 - Firestone Indy 400

COURSE:

• Michigan SuperSpeedway
• 2 mile asphalt oval; d-shaped; fats and wide
• LAST YEAR'S RESULT
• 1 Buddy Rice, Rahal, G Force-Honda 200 laps
• 2 Tony Kanaan, Andretti Green, Dallara-Honda +0.07
• 3 Dan Wheldon, Andretti Green, Dallara-Honda +3.6
• 4 Sam Hornish Jr. +3.68
• 5 Vitor Meira +3.69
• 6 Bryan Herta +4

RACE RESULT

• 1 Bryan Herta, Dallara-Honda, 200 laps
  "I feel very relieved. I haven't won since 2003, so I have been dying to get this win in. We've accomplished what the team wanted this year, which was to have all four drivers win a race. We've accomplished what I wanted, which was to get a win this year in the XM Satellite Radio car, so we really feel good right now. The team gave me a dominant car and a better one than I've ever had on a superspeedway. This is a great day for the entire team and I can't thank them enough for all the work they've done."
• 2 Dan Wheldon +0.03
  "It was a very, very good team effort by the Klein Tools/Jim Beam crew and by the AGR team as a whole. It was very close; that's the way racing should be, no doubt about it. My car wasn't the greatest today. I seemed to lack overall speed and that's something we have to work on."
• 3 Tomas Scheckter +0.14
  "For sure, this was another great run for us. We got caught out with a pit speed limiter problem early in the race. We got lucky and finally caught a yellow that we needed very badly. The end of the race was crazy though. I was sideways, I was under-steering, but everybody had the same problems. Still, we've collected a lot more points. Chevrolet and Pennzoil gave us yet another great car. Everyone put in a great effort on this crew and hung in there. For sure, I would have liked a win, but I can't complain about scoring another Top Three."
• 4 Tony Kanaan +0.23
  "I got boxed in on the last couple of laps but when you're racing your teammates you don't want to hit them and look stupid. Bryan had the strongest car out there today and he deserved the win. I might have had a second-place car today, but I got caught in the middle of the mess and couldn't move forward. But, we did the job, AGR won again and Team 7-Eleven is up to third in the championship."
• 5 Sam Hornish Jr. +0.46
• 6 Buddy Lazier +0.52
• 7 Scott Sharp
• 8 Dario Franchitti
• 9 Patrick Carpentier
• 10 Ryan Briscoe
• 11 Barron 12 Foyt IV 13 Kite 14
• DNF: Dixon, Patrick, Castroneves, Rice

QUALIFYING

GRID

• 1. Bryan Herta, Dallara-Honda 32.856, 219.141mph
• 2 Tomas Scheckter +0.006
"The run, I think was all I had. We had a good car and I'm happy with that. I think we look very good for the race "
• 3 Buddy Rice +0.034
• 4 Scott Dixon +0.037
"Things started out pretty decent for us this weekend ... you could see pretty clearly the gains they have made. The car is pretty comfortable on the high line so we're expecting to do well here tomorrow."
• 5 Buddy Lazier
• 6 Scott Sharp
• 7 Dario Franchitti
"That was all she had but I think we've got a bit more in race conditions. I'm surprised how little grip there is here today; it's going to be a challenge to run behind anyone in this race so we've got to get the balance right for the whole run,"
• 8 Danica Patrick
• 9 Vitor Meira
• 10 Townsend Bell
• 11 Dan Wheldon 12 Kosuke Matsuura 13 Sam Hornish Jr. 14 Tony Kanaan
• 15 *Jaques Lazier 16 Helio Castroneves 17 Ryan Briscoe 18 Roger Yasukawa
• 19 Patrick Carpentier 20 Alex Barron 21 Jimmy Kite 22 A.J. Foyt IV 23 Ed Carpenter

*Lazier replaces Manning who has been dumped by Ganassi Racing.

• GANASSI: "We were very glad that a driver of Jaques Lazier's caliber was available to the Target team this weekend. We look forward to working with him on a race to race basis and getting him to the front."
• LAZIER: "Being given the chance to drive for Target Chip Ganassi Racing is obviously a dream come true. Since the first day they joined the Indy Racing League it was a team you looked at with a degree of envy. I'd always wanted to be part of a team like this and I feel like the first 45 races of my career have been the testing ground for this kind of opportunity. It's not often that I have been in a situation to be able to share information with teammates and be part of something bigger. I look forward to being a team player and hopefully I can help ignite a spark to get momentum back on the team's side. I hope to make the best of this chance the team has given me here at Michigan."

RACE PREVIEW

• RICE (2004 WINNER): "Winning the MIS race last year proved to be a very satisfying win, because we stayed right behind Tony (Kanaan) and played a waiting game. It is always tough for a driver to sit back and wait because you want to go to the front and lead if you have the car to win. We had a strong car and played out the strategy just right. You can't always do that in racing. We need that kind of performance again this week. I expect us to have another good race for our team. I think Vitor, Danica and I will be factors at the end on Sunday."
• "It has been frustrating this year, but you can't take anything for granted in racing. Fortunately for me this week I really like the track at MIS. It is wide and very fast. MIS is pretty special for me because my mom's (Nancy) side of the family is from Lansing and we have a good group come to that race. I have had very good runs there including my IRL debut in 2002. MIS was a good place for my IRL debut. It is wide and a driver can make a mistake and he won't pay for it. Even with all the difficulties we haven't changed the way we are going about things. We are doing the exact same things we did a year ago when we were winning races and the pole. I know that one of these weekends we are going to catch a break and the success will come. We just have to keep putting in the effort."
• WHELDON: "Michigan is always a very close race and one that always ends with a close finish, so you have to make sure you're in the right place at the end of the race. After the Kansas race, I'm not sure that would be the low line, it might be the high line. Whatever the circumstances, I'm sure the Klein Tools/Jim Beam team will feature strongly. It's been six races since we've been in victory lane so it will be our intent to get back there in Michigan."
• FRANCHITTI: "The ArcaEx team has been very fast all season long, including the superspeedways, so we'll go to Michigan and see what happens. Our results over the past four races have certainly improved our position in the point standings, but we're still a fair distance behind Dan. We just need to keep working as we have towards getting the ArcaEx car back into victory circle."
• KANAAN: "Team 7-Eleven has been strong on the superspeedways this year and, looking back to last season, we were very strong at Michigan. So I would expect us to be strong this weekend as well. The points race is becoming very tight, so we need to work on cutting into Dan's lead."