Peak Performance Pole Qualifying Notes:
1. This is Ryan Briscoe’s fourth PEAK Performance Pole Award of 2009 and the eighth of his IndyCar Series career. His last pole came at Mid-Ohio earlier this month.
2. This is Briscoe’s second consecutive pole at Chicagoland Speedway. He earned his first IndyCar Series pole on an oval here last year.
3. Briscoe, the IndyCar Series points leader, earned a point for winning the PEAK Performance Pole Award. He now leads Dario Franchitti by five points.
4. This is Team Penske’s 47th pole in the IndyCar Series and the eighth this season.
5. Helio Castroneves qualified second, marking Team Penske’s third 1-2 start this season. It is Castroneves’ third front row start of the season.
6. Oriol Servia qualified a season-best ninth.
Peak Performance Pole Qualifying Quotes:
Ryan Briscoe (No. 6 Team Penske, PEAK Performance Pole Award winner):
“It’s important for the point. As far as what’s going to happen in the race, it doesn’t matter where you start. Helio (Castroneves) won the race from the last position last year. It’s exciting. A Team Penske front row means the team is working well. We have strong cars and hopefully we can carry that into the race. I’ve had a few first this year so hopefully I can have my first win from the pole. It’s going to be a tough race. There are probably 10 or 12 cars that can win, so it should be a pretty exciting race for the fans. I think we’re going to see a lot of pack racing, running two- or three-wide all night long. Hopefully we can stay out of trouble, stay in the front and bring it home in front.”
Helio Castroneves (No. 3 Team Penske, qualified second)
“It’s pretty close between the two Team Penske cars. I’m happy to be on the front row, and we’ll do everything we can to get Ryan (Briscoe) more points for the championship.”
Dario Franchitti (No. 10 Lifelock, qualified third):
“Qualifying was pretty uneventful, for the driver anyway. This qualifying format has more to do with what the engineers do and the way the cars are going. The balance of the car was very good. I was very happy with that but the car as a whole wasn’t fast enough. We’ve got to keep working on that and keep pushing since we’ve got another two 1.5-mile tracks after this weekend. The car felt pretty good this morning and whether it’s good enough, we’ll find out tomorrow.”
Tony Kanaan (No. 11 Team 7-Eleven/Oscar Meyer Big Bite, qualified fourth):
“We have a good car, and if the weather cooperates with us, we will have another practice session later today. We got the 7-Eleven/Oscar Meyer Big Bite car back to where it needs to be. It’s going to be a great race tomorrow.”
Scott Dixon (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing, qualified sixth):
“My qualifying run wasn’t too bad. As Dario (Franchitti) said, there’s not much going on in qualifying. You just follow the white line and hold the pedal flat and see what you come up with. I think we’re all right but we’re not great. A little more work needs to be done on the #9 car although I think the #10 car is pretty close compared to the polesitter, but we’re a little ways back. We’ve got a little work to do. The car felt great this morning in traffic, especially with the weather conditions. It was pretty cold and there was a lot of downforce on the car. I’m not sure if you’ll see the cars going off as much as you did in the past.”
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