Ed Carpenter Delivers Surprise Pole Run for IZOD IndyCar's Kentucky Race

Photo Credit: Ron McQueeney

Competing in the second Saturday night race in a row, the IZOD IndyCar Series drivers are belting into their Dallara-Hondas for a high-speed battle at the Kentucky Speedway. At last week's race at Chicagoland Speedway, Target/Chip Ganassi Racing's Dario Franchitti rose late in the Peak Antifreeze and Motor Oil 300 to win the event scoring maximum points in closing on Penske's Will Power for the overall 2010 IZOD IndyCar championship. As important as the points race is to those two racers, many of the fans enjoyed the close finish at Chicagoland with the #4 Panther Racing car of Dan Wheldon almost able to steal a win on the run to the checkered flag. Perhaps appearing as the ovals could provide a equalization for IZOD IndyCar competition, teams eager flood south to Sparta, Kentucky.

When IZOD IndyCar qualifying concluded for the Kentucky Indy 300, a lesser known face to the 2010 IZOD IndyCar campaign prevailed. Driving his #20 Vision Racing in partnership with Panther Racing, Ed Carpenter used a 217.933 mile per hour run to take the pole position for the Saturday night Kentucky Indy 300. Having run only two races this season due to funding troubles, Carpenter's qualifying run around this 1.5 mile oval is by no means a fluke. This Kentucky Speedway also the scene of Ed Carpenter's best career IZOD IndyCar Series finish of 2nd place last year. In post race, a highly satisfied Carpenter commented on his approach to the limited schedule he was relegated to running after Vision Racing loss of full season funding for 2010. "I'm just having a lot of fun right now; the Panther team is going a great job in addition with the Vision Racing part of it. It's just a lot of fun." he said.

For what will be understood as an interesting top-10 from qualifying led by Ed Carpenter, the #20 car narrowly beat Penske Racing's Will Power by a recordedly slim 23/1000th of a second margin. Fighting low and windy conditions, Power was pleased to start the #12 Verizon Penske Racing car on the front row. Complementing the #20 car, the teammate #4 vehicle will also start well in front of the field. Second place finisher at the Chicagoland Speedway event Dan Wheldon rotated the Kentucky oval for a third fastest effort through the Friday session.

While the #9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car of Scott Dixon returned some IZOD IndyCar season-long norminality to the oval time trial session, 5th for Hideki Mutoh, 6th for Berthard Baguette, 7th for KV Racing Technology's Mario Moraes and 10th for Tomas Scheckter will continue to set a somewhat bizarre tone for the Kentucky Indy 300 race start. Driving for Conquest Racing, Baguette and Scheckter have brought some much needed excitement to the tightly-funded race effort.

Being a beneficial session for some smaller IZOD IndyCar teams, the Friday qualifying would see some normally pace-worthy cars of Andretti Autosport searching for speed. Marco Andretti accomplished the best effort for the team with a 15th best timed lap with Danica Patrick two spots lower. Tony Kanaan and Ryan Hunter-Reay will be starting from the tail end of the pack at Kentucky having the worst time finding competitive lap times. Planning to fight an uphill battle once the green flag drops, Ryan Hunter-Reay will be set last on the starting lineup in the #37 Andretti Autosport after crashing his primary car in a qualifying run.

With the Kentucky Indy 300 presenting another strong field consisting of 27 cars, it's fair to assume the action at Chicagoland Speedway should be replicated for the Kentucky Indy 300 set for television telecast at 8 P.M. Saturday night with the green coming around 8:30.


2010 IZOD IndyCar Series

Kentucky Indy 300
Kentucky Speedway
Starting Lineup


1. 20 Ed Carpenter/United States/ Panther/Vision Racing
2. 12 Will Power/Australia/ Penske Racing
3. 4 Dan Wheldon/England/ Panther Racing
4. 9 Scott Dixon/New Zealand/ Target/Chip Ganassi Racing
5. 06 Hideki Mutoh/ Japan/ Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
6. 36 Bertrand Baguette/Belgium/ Conquest Racing
7. 32 Mario Moraes/Brazil/ KV Racing Technology
8. 3 Helio Castroneves/Brazil/ Penske Racing
9. 6 Ryan Briscoe/Australia/ Penske Racing
10. 34 Tomas Scheckter/South Africa/ Conquest Racing
11. 10 Dario Franchitti/Scotland/ Target/Chip Ganassi Racing
12. 14 Vitor Meira/Brazil/ AJ Foyt Racing Enterprises
13. 77 Alex Tagliani/Canada/ FAZZT Race Team
14. 5 Takuma Sato/Japan/ KV Racing Technology
15. 26 Marco Andretti/United States/ Andretti Autosport
16. 22 Justin Wilson/England/ Dreyer and Reinbold Racing
17. 7 Danica Patrick/United States/ Andretti Autosport
18. 19 Alex Lloyd/England/ Dale Coyne Racing
19. 78 Simona De Silvestro/Switzerland HVM Racing
20. 2 Raphael Matos/Brazil/ de Ferran Dragon Racing
21. 67 Sarah Fisher/United States/ Sarah Fisher Racing
22. 8 EJ Viso/Venezuela/ KV Racing Technology
23. 24 Paul Tracy/Canada/ Dreyer and Reinbold Racing
24. 18 Milka Duno/Venezuela/ Dale Coyne Racing
25. 02 Graham Rahal/United States/ Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
26. 11 Tony Kanaan/Brazil/ Andretti Autosport
27. 37 Ryan Hunter-Reay/United States/ Andretti Autosport

Bodine Parties in Bluegrass State; Wins NASCAR Truck Race

Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/ Getty Images for NASCAR

By Lee Montgomery


Special to the Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
(September 3, 2010)
SPARTA, Ky.—Todd Bodine is rolling toward his second NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship, but he didn’t drive like it Friday night in winning the Built Ford Tough 225 at Kentucky Speedway. And his team didn’t act like it, either.
Bodine spun while battling Kyle Busch for the lead on Lap 81, but that trouble helped set up a fuel-mileage gamble for the No. 30 Germain Racing team.
“Our misfortune turned into our fortune because that’s what gave us a little extra fuel that we needed to get to the end,” Bodine said.
Johnny Sauter finished a distant second, with Aric Almirola third, Jason White fourth and Ricky Carmichael fifth. Timothy Peters, Busch, Ryan Sieg, polesitter Austin Dillon and Matt Crafton completed the top 10.
After a restart on Lap 80 of the 150-lap race, Busch and Bodine raced side by side for the lead in Turn 3 when Busch charged around on the outside lane. Bodine’s Toyota snapped sideways and spun in front of the field, though he didn’t hit anything.
A panel in the truck’s bed flew off, and Bodine made a couple of extra stops under that caution for his team to repair the damage. He restarted 25th.
The yellow flag waved again on Lap 91, and crew chief Mike Hillman Jr. brought Bodine to pit road again to top off the fuel tank as nine drivers stayed on the track.
Busch was one of them, and he pulled away to a 3-second lead before pitting on Lap 127. After rookies Austin Dillon and Justin Lofton also pitted under green, Bodine assumed the lead.
Conserving fuel, Bodine raced the final 55 laps under green on one tank of fuel.
“I pedaled pretty hard with about 20 laps to go,” Bodine said of saving fuel. “About the last 10 laps, I went around here about half-throttle.”

After taking the checkered flag, Bodine chastised Busch for “dirty driving,” claiming Busch intentionally pushed Bodine low on the track to cause him to spin. Busch also came to victory lane to have words with Bodine.
“It was the weather, how good the track is,” Bodine said jokingly of their conversation. “It’s two drivers who didn’t care what the other said or the other did, and we had words about it. That’s good, hard racing. I’ve always had a lot of respect for Kyle. Slowly but surely I’m, losing it. That’s a shame.”

Bodine led twice for 18 laps, far short of Busch’s race-high 73 laps. Bodine, though, extended his points lead to 261 over Almirola.
“We were two laps short (on fuel),” Hillman said. “That proves that we’re not points racing. If we were points racing, being two laps short we would’ve come in and splashed a couple gallons of gas and finished seventh or eighth.”

Weekend Racing Weather Forecast: Sept 3rd-5th, 2010

Sparta, Kentucky
Kentucky Speedway
IZOD IndyCar Series/ Firestone Indy Lights Series/ NASCAR Camping World Truck Series

Friday: 40% chance of thunderstorms and rain in the late morning hours possibly able to affect on-track activities. Skies clear in afternoon with sun and light clouds. Daily high temperature is 27 degrees Celsius with night time temps. likely to drip below the mid- teens for the evening truck race. Winds will be strong at up to 28 kilometers per hour.
Saturday: Excellent racing weather throughout the day but night will become very chilly. From the daily high of 22 degrees Celsius, lows will fall at only 9 degrees. Fans are suggested to bring a jacket or wear a warm shirt for the late afternoon Firestone Indy Lights race or the IZOD IndyCar night race starting past 8 PM.


Hampton, Georgia
Altanta Motor Speedway
NASCAR Sprint Cup/Nationwide Series

Friday: Hot! 34 degree Celsius will be reached as a daily high. Qualifying for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is going to be sunny with cloudy skies occasionally blowing past the speedway. Winds will also be noticeable during qualifying coming from the West at 22 kilometers per hour.
Saturday: Hot! The cooler of the three days will be a daily high of 28 degrees Celsius. NASCAR Nationwide qualifying runs within the mid-afternoon heat. Unfortunately, the NASCAR Nationwide series race (which runs on the same day) will take place after 7 PM where temperatures are certain to drip into the lower 20s or higher teens. 
Sunday: Hot! 30 degree Celsius high will fortunately not have much of an effect on the 500 mile race scheduled at night. With only a 10% chance of precipitation, racing will take place in lower 20 degree weather.

Du Quoin, Illinois
DuQuoin State Fairgrounds
Arca Racing Series

Monday: Popular Labour Day dirt race will be run under hot 30 degree Celsius weather but promises no chance of precipitations for the one day ARCA show. Sunscreen well-advised for those attending the event.