IndyCar Series: Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Preview
The 35th edition of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach started this afternoon with two practice sessions for the IndyCar drivers. One noticeable difference between today’s activities and tomorrows will be the activity surrounding the pit stall of Team Penske, which has reloaded with some additional firepower. Helio Castroneves will be taking back the helm of the #3 machine with Will Power moving to the #12. Will Power had been hired to fill in for HCN while he dealt with his tax evasion case that wrapped up earlier today. Ryan Briscoe maintains the #6 machine and Team Penske beefs up to three drivers for the weekend.
Under beautiful track conditions today the top five drivers overall were:
Will Power at100.424mph / Scott Dixon at 100.255 mph / Raphael Matos(R) at 100.033 mph / Dan Wheldon at 99.922 mph and Mike Conway(R) at 99.789 mph.
For Power, being at the front in Long Beach should come as no surprise. He won the event last year which was the last race ran under the CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) banner before the merger of the Indy Racing League and CART. In the IndyCar Series (the flagship of the IRL), it was this weekend one year ago where Danica Patrick made history in Japan to become the first woman to win a major open wheel auto race. The race in Japan was at Twin Ring Motegi, an oval, and because of the time it took for drivers to make the trip to the far east, there was no way anyone could compete in both races.
For most of the legacy IndyCar Series drivers this is likely there first time to the famed circuit in Long Beach.
TV times are as follows:
ONLY ON 
Qualifying show: Saturday April 18th @ 6pm EDT
LIVE Race: Sunday April 19th @ 3:30pm EDT
Check back Monday for a race recap and a special posting about the 2009 Indy 500.
During the race you can set your twitter radars here for live updates throughout Sundays race.
Tags: Danica Patrick, Grand Prix, Helio Castroneves, indy 500, IndyCar
---------------
If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing with your friends:
