ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (August 17, 2001) - Defending FedEx Championship Serieschampion Gil de Ferran added to Marlboro Team Penske's impressive recentrecord of success on permanent road courses when he topped Friday's speedcharts during testing for this weekend's Motorola 220 at Road America (1p.m. ET Sunday, live, ESPN).

De Ferran (Marlboro Honda Reynard), who earned the pole position andfinished runner-up to Marlboro Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves on thepermanent road course at Mid-Ohio last week, put together a lap of 144.207miles per hour (1 minute, 41.055 seconds) on the 4.048-mile road course tolead all drivers posting test laps for Sunday's 14th round of thechampionship.

De Ferran will be chasing his third pole of the season, his second in a row,and his third in the past five events when qualifying begins 2:45 p.m. ETSaturday. A 75-minute practice, beginning 11 a.m. ET, precedes thequalifying session.

Marlboro Team Penske and drivers de Ferran and Castroneves have claimed fourpole positions and four race victories in the past seven FedEx ChampionshipSeries contested on permanent road courses, dating to last year at Portland.

Castroneves (Marlboro Honda Reynard) was ninth fastest Friday at 143.050miles per hour (1:41.872).

Jimmy Vasser (Patrick Racing Toyota Reynard) of Patrick Racing postedFriday's second-fastest lap at 143.881 mph (1:41.284). He will be seekinghis first pole position since 1999 at Michigan when qualifying beginsSaturday afternoon.

Defending Motorola 220 champion Dario Franchitti (KOOL Honda Reynard) ofTeam KOOL Green was third fastest at 143.837 mph (1:41.315). He will belooking to become the fifth back-to-back pole winner in Road America historywhen qualifying begins Saturday afternoon.

Rounding out the top five practice speeds were Michael Andretti (MotorolaHonda Reynard) of Team Motorola, who was fourth fastest at 143.791 mph(1:41.347), and Roberto Moreno (Visteon Toyota Reynard) of Patrick Racing,who was fifth on the speed chart at 143.654 mph (1:41.444).

FedEx Championship Series leader Kenny Brack (Shell Ford Lola) of TeamRahal, who holds a one-point (104-103) lead over Castroneves in thechampionship, was 11th fastest at 143.026 mph (1:41.889). Target ChipGanassi Racing announced Friday that it had procured Brack's drivingservices for the 2002 FedEx Championship Series season.

Defending Motorola 220 champion Paul Tracy (KOOL Honda Reynard) of Team KOOLGreen was 24th at 140.561 mph (1:43.676).

The top 14 drivers were separated by less than one second on the 4.048-milepermanent road course.

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING

GIL de FERRAN, Marlboro Honda Reynard: "The car is handling very well here,as it was at Mid-Ohio. We had a smooth day, the car was good straightaway,but it's only Friday. We've got to keep working hard. Weekends like Mid-Ohio[where Marlboro Team Penske dominated virtually every session] are veryrare, they're certainly not the norm. I always expect it to be tight here.For example, I knew Dario was going to be quick here, and here he is."

JIMMY VASSER, Patrick Racing Toyota Reynard: "All credit to the engineeringstaff at Patrick Racing. They haven't been out to lunch, but they'restarting to understand the tires and everything. I've got all the respect inthe world for [technical director] Ed Nathman and the whole team. Theyreally know what [teammate] Roberto [Moreno] and I need. Roberto's runningvery well this weekend too, and he's going to be a contender. It's justFriday. Sometimes on our team we have science projects [on Fridays] and I'msure other teams do that, too. However, there are a lot of cars that arevery competitive. Thirteen cars within a second is indicative of that."

DARIO FRANCHITTI, KOOL Honda Reynard: "This morning was a very roughsession. It was a very tough start, but we got a reasonable balance. We madesome changes for this afternoon and the car got better straightaway, andwe're quite happy with the car. You're not going to win the championshipunless you win some races. I'm just thinking about winning races on Sunday.Today, I was just enjoying driving 'round here. This place is just awesometo drive, I still get a buzz every time I come here."

WHAT'S NOTEWORTHY

• Gil de Ferran (Marlboro Honda Reynard) will be seeking his 14thcareer FedEx Championship Series pole position when qualifying beginsSaturday afternoon. He has earned two of his previous 13 career poles onpermanent road courses, at Mid-Ohio in 2000 and 2001.
• Jimmy Vasser (Patrick Racing Toyota Reynard) will be looking for hiseighth career pole position and his first on a road or street course since1998 during Saturday's qualifying session. Vasser's last road- orstreet-course pole came at Cleveland in 1998. He has not won a pole positionon a permanent road course in his nine-year career.
• Dario Franchitti (KOOL Honda Reynard) is looking to become the fifthback-to-back pole winner in Road America history. He won last year's pole ata track record average speed of 145.924 mph (1:39.866). Previous Champ Cardrivers to have claimed consecutive poles at Road America are Mario Andretti(1983, '84), Danny Sullivan (1988, '89, '90), Paul Tracy (1992, '93, '94)and Michael Andretti (1998, '99). Franchitti owns 10 career pole positionsin his FedEx Championship Series career, three of them on permanent roadcourses, at Mid-Ohio (1998, '99) and Road America last year.
• Target/Chip Ganassi Racing announced Friday that current FedExChampionship Series points leader Kenny Brack (Shell Ford Lola) of TeamRahal has signed a contract to drive for the team in 2002. As part of thedeal, Brack will also compete for Target Chip Ganassi Racing at the 2002Indianapolis 500. "Kenny has quickly become one of the dominant drivers inthe CART series, and his skills, goals and attitude are perfect fits forTeam Target," said Chip Ganassi, owner of the only team ever to win fourconsecutive CART championships (1996-1999).

  "The addition of Kenny in 2002 will help our team stay on track fora fifth championship. We plan to wait until the end of the season to make adecision on our second driver. The team is now focusing on the rest of the2001 season and getting to Winner's Circle with [current drivers] Bruno[Junqueira] and Memo [Gidley]." Said Brack: "Team Target is one of the mosthighly respected team in all of motorsports, and they've proven they'recapable of winning championships. I'm thrilled to join this team next yearlook forward to working with them to accomplish their goals."

WHAT'S ON TAP

Qualifying for the Motorola 220 will air 1:30 a.m. Sunday on ESPN2.