June 6 newsstand: Texas qualifying

It's almost Texas race day.

We'll have a race-day installment with quals stories, but here is Friday's wrapup (of both AM and PM stories).

28 cars are set to take the green flag ... here is the lineup. The green flag drops at 9:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage on radio and IndyCar.com. ESPN2's broadcast will be slightly tape-delayed.

Today's news
Eddie Gossage always has something to say. And this time, I almost agree with him. He says the IRL's schedule should be 80% oval. Meanwhile, guys from Champ Car are calling for it to be no more than 33% ovals, and it seems the IRL is headed toward 50%. Gossage says the American public will not accept Euro-style road racing and calls the increased amount of road courses "baggage" from the merger.

Anyway, Eddie always has a point to make, so let's let him make it: "IndyCar officials have to understand that it will take 80 percent ovals to truly succeed. Otherwise, this is nothing more than a niche sport. If they're comfortable with that, fine, but I don't think they are. The Indy 500 and high-speed ovals like TMS are why the IRL won this war."

Eddie blasts out at the minions from Champ Car that want the IRL to morph into CC: "They lost this fight. ... They need to look back and see that model is failed history. There's a littered battlefield left behind them from USAC to CART to Champ Car. You have to learn from that."

Of course, there is a reaction from the drivers, sought out by Speed's Jeff Olson.
Says TK: "If somebody who has such good vision and can organize a race as good as this thinks we should be racing on 80 percent ovals, he isn’t looking out for the series’ best interests."
Says Vitor Meira: (Ovals are) where we have been successful and NASCAR has been successful. We’ve proven that the American fan likes it, and that’s our fan base. It’s more entertaining. I’m talking only about the business side of it. I’m taking myself out of the equation, because, man, it’s dangerous."


Read down in today's Indy Star notebook for a glimpse into the future. IRL officials are planning to visit Houston, Mexico City and Cleveland. Hopefully, the former is just a favor to A.J. Foyt, because the last thing this series needs is more street races. Cleveland and Mid-Ohio will struggle to co-exist, but Cleveland is a fun race. Especially when Paul Tracy does his annual wipeout of half the field on the first corner.

IndyCar racing is brought up in a Q&A with the new president of Charlotte (er, sorry, Lowe's) Motor Speedway in the Greensboro News-Record. Says Marcus Smith: "I'll never say never, and we have a great relationship with the IRL with our events in Sonoma and Texas. We'll continue to be open to those discussions. We're excited about reunification. We think that's going to be a big plus for open-wheel racing and look forward to seeing them climb the charts on their popularity." The story also mentions SMI's attempt to bring a Sprint Cup race to Kentucky. Hopefully, that won't affect the IRL's date there, largely because the track is the most convenient non-Indy venue to get to from Indy on the schedule (and a really nice track to catch a race).

Arizona Republic: IndyCar to take a look at 2011 cars
Former CART PR guru Michael Knight pimps turbocharged engines, among other things.

Texas previews
Dallas Morning News: Danica doesn't like the limited practice time
Danica also wants Milwaukee to remain in its traditional date. Eddie Gossage wants the date after Indy status, and fires away: "If Danica and the league think running in front of 28,000 people in the 34th largest market in the country is more important than running in front of 90,000 in the fourth largest market in the country, they're definitely making the right decision."

Will Power: Texas is the toughest

Qualifying stories
AP: Dixon, Castroneves 1-2
Other quals stories: Speed TV, IndyCar.com
Says Scott: "Yesterday we were fast out of the box, but today we lost that. I didn’t think the car was capable of running a speed like that, and I didn’t think it was good enough to stay there. That’s a credit to the guys for getting the car back on top."

Wheldon crashes coming out of T4 in practice, flips, suffers a "sore" ankle, then goes out and qualifies his backup car: AP, Indy Star, Dallas Morning News, ESPN, IndyCar.com

Today's Daily Trackside Report (which has everything you need to know) from the track.

Driver features
St. Petersburg Times: John Andretti wants full-time ride somewhere
He also said he'd like to run the Brickyard in Indy. He's already become the first person to run the 24 Hours of Daytona, the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500 in the same year.

John qualified seventh for this race. He and Marco are making starts No. 1001 & 1002 for the Andretti family tonight.

IndyCar.com also has a feature on Andretti and his qualifying run.
Says JA: "There's a lot of experience on the team and it's gaining more experience, but as a group it's all still new - and especially with me."

Dallas Morning News: Never a dull moment for Wheldon
Says Dan: "I really like the track. It's a very close, intense race. It's fast. You can get to the front pretty quickly if you have a good car. It's under the lights, and there's always a very good energy here."

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Milwaukee win has Briscoe moving forward
Ryan looks back at the win, the Indy pit-lane crash and being hired by the Captain.

Indy Star: Texas looms large for Meira
A great feature on the guy who's always in the mix, and always (seemingly) second. Says Vitor, who got his "pilot wings" from the Indiana National Guard after his flight at Milwaukee: "I think people follow me for things like that, but second, because I try to treat them right, the way I'd like to be treated as a fan. I think that's why they wish me more even though I'm not in the spotlight all of the time."

ESPN: Meira hunting for first win
Says Graham Rahal of Vitor: "If you want talk about an all-around good guy, that's him. He's been close so many times; I don't even know how many second-place finishes he's had. Eventually, some day, he's going to win and then all the wins will start pouring in."

Boston Herald: Return to TMS good for Kanaan
An update on TK's season as he heads into the home of 7-11.

New Zealand Herald: Dixon shows no signs of slowing
Not much here, but something from the Kiwi press.

AP: Castroneves wants to win a race, title
Says Helio: "Finishing top five every race seems to be the key for us. When the car gets right, we're going to go for the win."

Dallas Morning News: Fans fall in step with Castroneves
Ryan Briscoe is noticing a big turnout for his teammate: "I asked what made them come out, and they said they watched Helio on TV and wanted to see what his day job was like. What fans find out is, that personality and fun guy they saw on TV is the way he is all the time. That's not an act."

AP: Danica excited, disappointed about unified series
Danica asks for better marketing. "It's very exciting from the inside. There's more drivers, there's more fans, there's more media, there's more excitement. But when it hits mainstream America, I don't think that it's had enough of an impact yet."

FemmeFan.com: Rahal new face of IRL
OK, this is the first time FemmeFan.com has been on this site -- before or after hiatus.

Notebooks
Ottawa Sun: Danica wants more marketing
This mentions the same stuff as the AP story above, but it also mentions Kimi Raikkonen is considering retiring from F1.

And finally
Sam Hornish Jr. tells Helio (and anyone else) that no IRL driver should ever complain about the schedule being too long.

While we're on the subject of NASCAR, SI wonders why Ganassi's team hasn't been producing.