Published: April 04, 2008 11:57 pm            

Castroneves going for third straight win at St. Petersburg

Helio Castroneves goes for three in a row Sunday in the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the second IndyCar Series event of the season.

The Team Penske driver has won the last two races run on the street course in the Florida city. He was fourth in the season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

With more cars in the field, a new qualifying format will be used today for the race with the field of expected 26 cars divided into two groups for two 20-minute sessions.

The fastest six cars in each group then will advance to another round of qualifying. Those 12 cars then will be in another 15-minute session with all previous times erased.

The fastest six from that session then will be in the Firestone Fast Six shootout to determine the PEAK pole winner and positions in the first three rows of the 40-lap race.

Ryan Briscoe is beginning his second full season in the Indy Racing League. He’s with Team Penske now and was with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2005.

He competed in the American Le Mans Series for Penske last year and won a race at St. Petersburg. He is familiar with the new qualifying format.

He still prefers one-car qualifying but notes the new system will allow drivers to face the same track and weather conditions.

He was running well in the first race of the year until being hit by another car and knocked out of the race.

“We took it conservatively and ran with the leaders. We just wanted solid results,” he said of the opener.

He and Castroneves make up the Penske lineup in the IRL this year. “Helio has been great. I got to know everyone last year,” said Briscoe on a teleconference this week.

Briscoe is replacing Sam Hornish Jr., now with NASCAR, in the series. He feels no extra pressure in filling that seat.

“There is always pressure on you as a driver. It was a huge opportunity for me to get the ride. Sam was an amazing driver and I have a special feeling replacing him,” said Briscoe.

Dan Wheldon failed in his bid to win four in a row at Homestead but finished third after starting last due to a crash in qualifying.

Wheldon, now with Ganassi Racing, won the first IRL race run at St. Petersburg in 2005 but was ninth in 2007 and 16th in 2006.

Graham Rahal should compete in his first IndyCar Series race. He missed the opener after crashing in a practice run; his car could not be repaired in time.

Sunday’s race will be carried by ESPN with coverage starting at 2:30 p.m. Next race will be April 20 in Japan with some drivers from the Champ Car Series competing in at Long Beach.

        

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