Wheldon finds solace with Kansas Lottery pole
Dan Wheldon found an outlet for his frustration over England’s World Cup loss and his struggles on the racetrack.
He hopped in his car and hit the accelerator. Hard.
The English driver watched his country lose a penalty kick shootout to Portugal after a scoreless 120 minutes, then went out Saturday and attacked his qualifying laps at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., to earn his first Indy Racing League pole of the season.
“Whenever England goes to penalties, they don’t do very well at all – and yet they always play in that conservative mode,” the defending series champion said. “I’m going to do the opposite. From lap one tomorrow, I’m going to attack it and see where it gets me.”
Wheldon’s top qualifying speed of 213.536 mph was the slowest in the track’s six-year history.
“I think even though it was the slowest qualifying, you’re going to see one of the best races you’ve seen here in a long time,” said Sam Hornish Jr., who won last week at Richmond and will start on the outside of the front row in today’s Kansas Lottery Indy 300.
Hornish had a top qualifying speed of 213.732 mph on the 1.5-mile tri-oval to earn his fourth front-row start this season.
Scott Dixon will start third, with points leader Helio Castroneves on the outside of the second row – giving Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Marlboro Team Penske, who have combined to win the first seven races of the season, the top four spots.
Danica Patrick, who won her first career pole here last year, fell well off the pace early in qualifying and will start 12th.
NASCAR trucks
Terry Cook used pit strategy to his advantage to take the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway.
Cook took the lead with 40 laps to go in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 250, staying out while most of the leaders chose to take fuel and tires. He stretched his lead to as much as 4 seconds over Rick
After leading a lap earlier in the race, Kelly Sutton spun and struck the infield wall on the backstretch, setting the dry grass on fire. Officials red flagged the race for more than nine minutes, stopping the field on pit road while crews cut the top off Sutton’s Chevrolet to remove her and extinguished the fire.
She was taken from the infield care center to the University of Kansas Hospital, where she was admitted in fair condition and was to be kept overnight for observation.
Dodge plans to stay
The chairman of DaimlerChrysler denied a widespread rumor that Dodge is pulling out of NASCAR, and pledged his commitment to America’s top racing series.
Dr. Dieter Zetsche, attending his first race of the season in Daytona Beach, Fla., said NASCAR is a successful platform for DaimlerChrysler and he has no plans to pull Dodge out.