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| The field's 25 drivers were covered by a mere .839 seconds in qualifying |
CICERO, Ill. (July 28, 2001) - Tony Kanaan earned the first pole positionin the history of Mo Nunn Racing Saturday when he topped all qualifiers forSunday's Target Grand Prix Presented by Energizer at Chicago Motor Speedway(4 p.m. ET, live, ABC-TV). Kanaan (Hollywood Honda Reynard) emerged from a tightly-packed field of 25drivers to claim his second career pole position and his first on an ovalwith a lap of 160.052 miles per hour (23.145 seconds) on the 1.029-mile ovallocated in suburban Chicago. Kanaan's lap held up when the day's final 10qualifiers were unable to improve upon it following a 44-minute rain delay,putting Kanaan on the pole for the first time since 1999 at Long Beach. The field's 25 drivers were covered by a mere .839 seconds in qualifying. Kanaan earned a championship point for the pole, the first in the two-yearhistory of Mo Nunn Racing. He stands 13th in the FedEx Championship Serieschampionship with 38 points heading into Sunday's 12th of 21 rounds in thechampionship. Starting on the outside pole is reigning Indianapolis 500 champion HelioCastroneves (Marlboro Honda Reynard) of Marlboro Team Penske, who will makehis sixth front-row start of the season following a lap of 160.031 mph(23.148 seconds). Castroneves enters Sunday's event ranked third in theFedEx Championship Series championship, with 75 points. Adrian Fernandez (Tecate/Quaker State/Telmex Honda Reynard) of FernandezRacing made it a Honda sweep of the top three positions by qualifying thirdat 159.652 mph (23.203 seconds). The start is his season best on an oval andis exceeded only by an outside pole at Cleveland. Memo Gidley (Target Toyota Lola) of Target Chip Ganassi Racing qualified acareer-best fourth at 159.528 mph (23.221 seconds) followed by Kanaan's MoNunn Racing teammate, two-time FedEx Championship Series champion AlexZanardi (Pioneer Honda Reynard), who was a season-best fifth at 158.885 mph(23.315 seconds). FedEx Championship Series championship leader Kenny Brack (Shell Ford Lola)of Team Rahal qualified eighth at 158.715 mph (23.340 seconds). He holds an84-81 lead over Dario Franchitti (KOOL Honda Reynard) of Team KOOL Greenentering Sunday's event. Franchitti qualified 10th Saturday at 158.342 mph (23.395 seconds). The Target Grand Prix Presented by Energizer is Round 12 of 21 in the 2001FedEx Championship Series. The series visits seven countries and fourcontinents during the season and climaxes with the season-ending Marlboro500 Presented by Toyota on Sunday, Nov. 4 at California Speedway in Fontana,Calif. Thanks to a partnership between Marlboro, Toyota, CART and CaliforniaSpeedway, the winner of the season finale will collect $1 million, one ofthe richest paydays in all of motorsports. Christian Fittipaldi (KmartToyota Lola) of Newman/Haas Racing is the defending event champion. Anadditional $1 million, as well as the prestigious Vanderbilt Cup, will beawarded to the driver who wins the FedEx Championship Series championship. WHAT THEY'RE SAYING TONY KANAAN, Hollywood Honda Reynard: "We've had a strong car all weekend.The team's been doing a good job, and [teammate] Alex [Zanardi] is helpingme a lot. We really work close together. [Team owner] Morris [Nunn] gives usequal capabilities and it's really up to us. I got lucky today. I knew whatHelio was capable of, but I told him, 'I root for you all the time, but Iwasn't rooting for you today!' I'm happy to give Morris his first poleposition. I gave him his first podium finish [third at Long Beach thisyear], his first pole, and now there's just one thing left. I'm going to tryto get that too." HELIO CASTRONEVES, Marlboro Honda Reynard: "I can't believe it. I can'tbelieve my guys did that to me. The fuel must have evaporated or somethingwhile we were waiting [for the rain delay]. I've got to thank my engineer,Andy Borme. He changed the car completely from this morning. When I saw23.13 on my warmup lap, I thought that was pretty damn good. I made a littlemistake on my first lap, and I thought, 'Just get through the second lap.'On the back straight, we were a tenth quicker, and all of a sudden the fuellight came on and the car started slowing down. I was thinking, 'No, no, no,no, no.' But I'm happy to be on the front row. I wasn't expecting that afterthis morning. Now, we just need to get through the first corner." ADRIAN FERNANDEZ, Tecate/Quaker State/Telmex Honda Reynard: "The car hasbeen very, very consistent all weekend long. It was just a matter of who gotit right for qualifying. You can go too loose or too much push. Inqualifying the car was pretty good, a little on the loose side, but I'mpretty happy to be in third place. I feel very good about the team. The teamis good, we just haven't had the results. We should be good in thechampionship, we just haven't had much luck. We're getting together better.On December 15, we had nothing. This team is going to be a good one in thefuture. It's exciting, it's great competition, and I'm very happy." WHAT'S NOTEWORTHY
WHAT'S ON TAP CART 2Day airs 11 a.m. Sunday on ESPN2, while ABC-TV's live race broadcastbegins 4 p.m. ET. Twenty of 21 FedEx Championship Series events are beingtelevised live on ABC-TV or ESPN and 18 are being televised on Eurosport, aEuropean network that reaches 250 million viewers in 54 countries. Sunday'srace will also air on the CART Radio Network and CART's official website, atwww.cart.com .
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