Penske, Ganassi shift rivalry into overdrive

IndyCar Series car owners Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi will watch today as their drivers rattle sabres at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, taking their shots at the pole position for the 90th Indianapolis 500.

Make no mistake, when the pole position is determined late this afternoon, weather permitting, it is likely a Penske or Ganassi driver will sit atop the speed chart after everyone has posted a four-lap, 10-mile qualifying attempt.

Will it be Sam Hornish Jr., the Marlboro Team Penske driver who has had the fastest Dallara-Honda since the track opened for practice? Will it be Dan Wheldon, the defending Indy 500 and IndyCar Series champion who left Andretti Green Racing for greener pastures with Target Chip Ganassi Racing? Will it be Helio Castroneves, the two-time Indy 500 champion who will be looking to give Team Penske, winner of an unprecedented 13 Indy 500s, its 13th Indy 500 pole?

The spirited competition between the camps was evident during an open test session April 5 at the Speedway, where Ganassi driver Scott Dixon topped the charts with a fast lap of 226.012 miles per hour. Hornish was second at 225.355. ''I guarantee you," Wheldon said afterward, ''Penske and Ganassi were going at one another very, very hard."

And that was back in April. At an open test, no less.

Now that it is May, and the stakes have been raised considerably, you can guarantee Penske and Ganassi will be shifting into overdrive to win not just the pole but, more importantly, the May 28 race.

''Going into the season, everyone was asking me, 'Who's your biggest competition going to be?' Outside of Helio, it'll be the Ganassi guys," said Hornish, who posted the fastest lap of the month with his tour of 226.789 m.p.h. around the Brickyard's 2 1/2-mile oval during Thursday's rain-delayed practice.

Wheldon was second fastest (226.088) while Castroneves was third (225.547) and Dixon fourth (225.309).

Since Toyota pulled up stakes, leaving Honda this season as the sole engine supplier for the IndyCar Series, Team Penske has made the quick adjustment to a new power plant. Ganassi, meanwhile, has had to adapt to a new chassis-engine package, going from Panoz-Toyotas to Dallara-Hondas. The result is that the Penske boys have seemingly gained a leg up on the Ganassi gang, with Hornish topping the speed charts in the first three practice days at the Brickyard and Castroneves winning the last two IndyCar Series races, at St. Petersburg, Fla., and Motegi, Japan.

''Helio's really had a dream beginning to the season like I've had a dream beginning to the month of May," Hornish said, referring to the wins that vaulted Castroneves to a 42-point lead over Wheldon (146-104) in the standings. ''We've worked so hard over the past two years. We could also see Ganassi doing the same thing. They've been working hard at it. They picked up Dan in the offseason along with my [former] engineer from Panther [Racing], Andy Brown, so I know how good he is. They switched to Dallaras, as well. They're out there working just as hard as we are.

''Right now, we're holding a bit of an advantage. We're making sure the car is good for four laps because we know that's the one thing that's really different from what we have at any other racetrack that we run. This is 10 miles of qualifying. It's quite difficult to keep the car handling the same way for that run, especially when you've got it right on the edge."

And you've got the guys from Ganassi nipping at your wheels.

Leave it to the legendary A.J. Foyt, the four-time Indy 500 winner, to pour a little cold water on the ''unretirement" efforts of former 500 winners Al Unser Jr. and Eddie Cheever, and Michael Andretti, who won the 500 last year as a car owner. Much to Foyt's apparent dismay, all have come out of retirement in an attempt to land a spot in the 33-car field.

''I drove my last laps here at Indianapolis Motor Speedway," said Foyt, who made an impromptu but emotional exit from the sport at the Speedway May 15, 1993, when he climbed into his car, drove a few ceremonial laps, then tearfully parked it for good. ''The way I felt when I got out, it's not that I don't have the urge to get back in, but I know better. To me, for them to come back, I think they're kidding themselves.

''I hope they do good. But, you know, to do good, I don't care what it's in -- playing golf, riding horses, riding bicycles -- you got to do it all the time. It's hard to just come back in and think you're going to be very competitive against people that run every day, because you're not."

Terry Labonte, the retiring NASCAR Nextel Cup driver, will make his final go-rounds at Darlington Raceway in tonight's Dodge Charger 500. Parting ways with the egg-shaped, 1.366-mile oval in South Carolina will be such sweet sorrow for Labonte, who recorded a number of personal milestones at Darlington. Labonte recorded his first career Cup start there Sept. 4, 1978, notched his first career win there Sept. 1, 1980, and won the most recent of his 22 career victories in the final Southern 500 Aug. 3, 2003. ''It was a tough place back then and still is," Labonte said, recalling his fourth-place finish in his first career start. ''The coolest thing was after the race, after I'd finished fourth, Bobby and Donnie Allison came over and congratulated me. To have those two guys, both stars in the sport, do that was pretty neat, I thought." . . . Kasey Kahne qualified fastest yesterday for the Dodge Charger 500, his third pole in the past four events at Darlington. Kahne's Dodge sped through the layout with a speed of 169.013 m.p.h., edging Ryan Newman and Clint Bowyer for the top spot. Greg Biffle, looking to defend his title and hoping to make the Chase for the Championship, qualified ninth. ''I think for sure I can win this race," he said. ''I have at least a top-five car." Biffle is 20th in the standings, 522 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson. But Biffle thinks he's still got a chance to make the season-ending Chase. He's got 16 races left to race his way into the top 10 or cut his deficit to 400 points or fewer to be eligible . . . NASCAR officials came down hard on Richard ''Slugger" Labbe, crew chief of Dale Jarrett's No. 88 UPS Ford, after inspectors uncovered violations in postrace inspection at last weekend's race in Richmond, Va. Labbe, a native of Saco, Maine, was hit with a $25,000 fine and suspended until the June 4 race at Dover, Del. Car owner Robert Yates, who along with Jarrett was docked 25 owner points, is planning an appeal . . . Driver Kevin Lepage, 43, of Shelburne, Vt., will be back behind the wheel of a Nextel Cup ride tonight when he takes over for released rookie Brent Sherman in the No. 49 BAM Racing Dodge . . . NHRA Top Fuel points leader Melanie Troxel broke a barrier of sorts last week when she was recognized as the first woman in the 40-year history of the Driver of the Year Award program to win a quarterly title. Troxel, 33, is the first Top Fuel driver in NHRA history to reach the final round in the first five events. She reached her sixth final round in seven NHRA national events in Atlanta last Sunday. ''To be rewarded with this kind of honor in my first full season of Top Fuel competition is incredibly exciting," she said . . . Pete Hamilton, the 1970 Daytona 500 winner from Dedham, is expected to appear at the second annual Norwood Arena Celebration/Reunion June 4 at 11 a.m. at Bezema Buick.

Material from various sanctioning bodies, track publicity departments, race teams, sponsors, and the Associated Press was used in this report.