GLADEVILLE, Tenn. — Nashville Superspeedway works the Music City angle whenever possible, and that goes all the way down to the trophy. Everyone who races there and wins takes home a Gibson guitar designed by Sam Bass.
Helio Castroneves, who will start on the pole Saturday night for the Firestone Indy 200, wants to add one to his collection. It hasn’t been easy seeing the guitar won by former Penske teammate Gil de Ferran in 2003.
“I know I can drive a car. I know I can dance. I don’t think I can play guitar. I don’t care. I’ll learn maybe if I can win this,” Castroneves said.
Castroneves will have a good chance at winning a guitar because he will start from the pole on a track where passing is difficult.
“The only thing I can promise is I’m going to do my best, my team’s going to do their best,” he said.
Not if Danica Patrick has anything to say about it. She will start beside Castroneves on the front row, and the woman who made history by winning in Japan wants nothing more than to add a second trophy to her display case. And yes, a guitar would be special.
“It’s more of a unique thing to display, as well, you know,” Patrick said. “I’d like to think I’d get a cool case for something like that. ‘Do you know a rock star? No, I won at Nashville.’ Yeah, it’s cool to have different kinds of trophies to have around.”
FLYER MILES: Marco Andretti is trying to squeeze as much racing into this weekend as possible.
The 21-year-old driver qualified 11th Friday for the IndyCar Series’ Firestone Indy 200 after practicing in both sessions at the Nashville Superspeedway for Andretti Green Racing. But he’s also driving AGR’s car at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut on Saturday afternoon before hopping back into a plane to return to Tennessee in time for driver introductions.
Andretti, who has one career victory and ranks fifth in the IRL points race, said the decision was all his.
“I would drive 10 cars a day if I could physically do it,” he said. “I should be physically up to it, and after that we’ll go have some fun. I’ve had some success at Lime Rock in the past, and I think the track is fantastic. There will be some challenges during the weekend, but I only look at those as motivation.”
But he wasn’t very happy with where he will start Saturday night, blaming cooler temperatures for slowing down his car with too much drag and downforce.
“This is a track where position is key, so hopefully we can do something with strategy,” Andretti said. “I know if the car can get to the front, it can stay there. We’ve spent the entire time working on the race setup, so we should be good.”
QUICK RECOVERY: A.J. Foyt heard all the warnings to wear goggles when he raced, and the four-time Indianapolis 500 champion didn’t listen.
He is back with his IndyCar Series team at the Nashville Superspeedway despite having a cataract removed from his left eye Wednesday. He had the surgery in Texas, and this came four years after he had a cataract taken from his right eye.
Foyt said he used to have 20-15 vision when he raced but his left eye got so bad that bright sun bothered him, and he doesn’t like to wear sunglasses.
“I always ran without goggles, and they always used to tell me at the (Indianapolis Motor) Speedway, ‘A.J., you really shouldn’t do that. Your eyes are too important.’ When you’re younger, I didn’t worry about it. As you get older, you start worrying about your eyes. It was nothing urgent,” Foyt said.
COOLING OFF: Tony Kanaan is showing he knows how to make do under tough conditions.
Lightning blew out the circuitry at his motor coach Wednesday night at the Nashville Superspeedway. Faced with roughing it with temperatures reaching into the 90s or heading to a hotel a little too far away from the track for comfort, Kanaan went shopping.
“We actually managed to stay in the bus. I bought a portable air conditioner at Best Buy, and we ran a tube out the window. I have no TV. Just a refrigerator, the curtains are up. We just have power in the bedroom, but everything in the front of the bus doesn’t work,” Kanaan said.
This is the second straight week Kanaan has had trouble cooling off. His air conditioning went out last weekend at Watkins Glen. It didn’t hurt as he started sixth and finished third. He qualified seventh at Nashville, a track he won at in 2004, as the first driver out on the track.
“That’s the draw you get, so you can’t complain. I was so lucky at Richmond to be one of the last guys, so what goes around comes around,” he said.
NEW TEAM: Veteran manager Larry Curry has joined Dreyer and Reinbold Racing for his third team this season. He spent more than three seasons with Vision Racing and had worked with Roth Racing between May through Watkins Glen last weekend.
Co-owner Dennis Reinbold said they hope the move helps them become even more competitive. Curry had worked with co-owner Robbie Buhl when Buhl was driving and won at New Hampshire in 1997.
“What I’m hoping for is adding consistency to where we’re not good one week and bad the next, but we are competitive and start chipping away at getting closer to the front and carry what we learn this year into next season,” Curry said.
EXTRA LAPS: The Team Penske cars of Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe have a special decal at Nashville in memory of employee Bill Passwater. The transportation coordinator for the team’s NASCAR Sprint Cup teams died Wednesday, leaving his wife and an infant daughter. … Enrique Bernoldi qualified 19th for the Firestone Indy 200, and Indy Lights driver Cyndie Allemann 19th out of 20 cars Friday for the Sunbelt Rentals 100. Both were re-evaluated Thursday at the infield care center and cleared to drive following incidents at Watkins Glen last weekend.
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