Power Leads Opening Day of Practice in Milwaukee
June 18, 2011
Photo courtesy of Steve Swope
WEST ALLIS, Wis. (June 17, 2011) – Will Power led the way for Team Penske by recording the fastest lap of the first practice Friday for the Milwaukee 225 at The Milwaukee Mile.
Driving the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Dallara/Honda, Power recorded a top lap of 167.648 mph around the historic one-mile oval. Teammate Helio Castroneves had the third-fastest lap, while Ryan Briscoe finished 18th in the opening practice of the weekend.
"The Verizon car was great right out of the box,” said Power, the IZOD IndyCar Series championship leader who is looking to build on the momentum of his first oval victory last Saturday night in Texas. “We laid down a quick lap straight-away and then went to work on full-tank runs. It felt great to be back on track here in Milwaukee. That was really a pretty solid session. We didn't even make any changes. We will look at our data and keep working on our race car."
Castroneves was clocked at 167.368 mph in the No. 3 Guidepoint Systems Team Penske Dallara/Honda.
“So far so good with the Guidepoint Systems Team Penske car,” said Castroneves. “The test we did here really helped us and gave us a good place to start. Today was just the first practice so we still need to get with our teammates and figure out what we need to do to improve. Hopefully we can continue this performance tomorrow and have a solid qualifying result.”
Briscoe was clocked at 163.614 mph in the No. 6 Transitions Adaptive Lenses Team Penske Dallara/Honda.
“We still have a bit of work to do,” said Briscoe. “The Transitions Team Penske car definitely looks good out there, and we were able to do a lot of race preparation work in practice, but we still need to find a better balance on the set-up. We’ll get there and continue to improve tomorrow, for sure.”
Team Penske has a strong record at Milwaukee, having won twice in the last five races at the venerable track. The team also has won the pole position four of the last five times at The Mile.
After two more practice sessions on Saturday, qualifying is scheduled to begin at 5:45 p.m. ET. ABC’s live coverage of Sunday’s Milwaukee 225 will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET.
Driving the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Dallara/Honda, Power recorded a top lap of 167.648 mph around the historic one-mile oval. Teammate Helio Castroneves had the third-fastest lap, while Ryan Briscoe finished 18th in the opening practice of the weekend.
"The Verizon car was great right out of the box,” said Power, the IZOD IndyCar Series championship leader who is looking to build on the momentum of his first oval victory last Saturday night in Texas. “We laid down a quick lap straight-away and then went to work on full-tank runs. It felt great to be back on track here in Milwaukee. That was really a pretty solid session. We didn't even make any changes. We will look at our data and keep working on our race car."
Castroneves was clocked at 167.368 mph in the No. 3 Guidepoint Systems Team Penske Dallara/Honda.
“So far so good with the Guidepoint Systems Team Penske car,” said Castroneves. “The test we did here really helped us and gave us a good place to start. Today was just the first practice so we still need to get with our teammates and figure out what we need to do to improve. Hopefully we can continue this performance tomorrow and have a solid qualifying result.”
Briscoe was clocked at 163.614 mph in the No. 6 Transitions Adaptive Lenses Team Penske Dallara/Honda.
“We still have a bit of work to do,” said Briscoe. “The Transitions Team Penske car definitely looks good out there, and we were able to do a lot of race preparation work in practice, but we still need to find a better balance on the set-up. We’ll get there and continue to improve tomorrow, for sure.”
Team Penske has a strong record at Milwaukee, having won twice in the last five races at the venerable track. The team also has won the pole position four of the last five times at The Mile.
After two more practice sessions on Saturday, qualifying is scheduled to begin at 5:45 p.m. ET. ABC’s live coverage of Sunday’s Milwaukee 225 will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET.