March 23, 2003
TOYOTAS FINISH 2-3-4 AT PUREX DIAL INDY 200 AT PHOENIX
- Helio Castroneves was the top finishing Toyota with a second at today's Purex Dial Indy 200 at the Phoenix International Raceway. Fellow Toyota drivers Felipe Giaffone (Hollywood Toyota) and Al Unser Jr. (Corteco/Bryant Toyota) followed Castroneves in third and fourth-place, respectively, to give Toyota three of the top-four finishers today.
- With his second today, Helio Castroneves (Marlboro Toyota) has now finished in the top five in 15 of 19 IndyCar Series events.
- On his way to his third-place finish today, Felipe Giaffone led 52 laps and dominated the second-quarter of the race. The placement is his best of the season.
- Al Unser, Jr. made the biggest run through the field today, climbing from 20th and moving through the field to a fourth-place finish.
- Scott Sharp (Delphi Toyota) made it two Kelley Racing entries and four Toyota-powered cars in the top seven with a seventh-place finish. That follows up a strong fifth-place finish at Homestead in the season opener.
- After winning the season-opener at Homestead, Scott Dixon led the first 34 laps today before retiring due to gearbox problems shortly after a Lap 40 re-start for a 20th-place finish. Dixon also registered the fastest lap of the race on Lap 13.
- Shigeaki Hattori (Epson Toyota) earned his first top-10 finish of the year with a 10th today. Overall, five Toyota-powered cars finished in the top 10 today.
Jim Aust, Toyota vice president of motorsports: “We know that it’s going to be a long, hard season. We had cars running up front all afternoon, but yellow flags played an important part in the ultimate outcome of the race. Today they went against us, next race they may be on our side. That’s racing.”
#21 Felipe Giaffone, Hollywood Toyota: “I think we had the best car in the race early on. The Toyota engine was very strong and we were getting good gas mileage. We just had a different race strategy today and had 110 laps on our tires at the end of the race.”
Toyota Drivers Start/Finish
Helio Castroneves 4/2
Felipe Giaffone 2/3
Al Unser, Jr. 20/4
Scott Sharp 11/7
Shigeaki Hattori 18/10
Gil de Ferran 7/14
Tomas Scheckter 9/15
A.J. Foyt IV 21/18
Scott Dixon 3/20
Tora Takagi 13/22
Next Race: Indy Japan 300, Twin Ring Motegi, April 13, ABC 1 p.m. (Tape)
March 22, 2003
TOYOTAS TAKE THREE OF TOP FOUR AT PUREX DIAL INDY 200
- Felipe Giaffone (Hollywood Toyota) qualified on the outside of the front row to lead three Toyota-powered cars in the top four in qualifying for tomorrow’s Purex Dial Indy 200 at the Phoenix International Raceway. Giaffone’s second-place showing marks his all-time best IndyCar Series starting position.
- Scott Dixon (TargetToyota) and Helio Castroneves (Marlboro Toyota) swept the second row to give Toyota three of the top four qualifiers today. Dixon, the series points leader, will be looking for his second consecutive IndyCar Series triumph, while Castroneves is the defending Phoenix champion and will look for his second straight in the Valley of the Sun tomorrow.
- Gil de Ferran (Marlboro Toyota) and Tomas Scheckter (Target Toyota) will start seventh and eighth tomorrow, giving Toyota five of the top eight highest qualifying cars. Coincidentally, the Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Marlboro Team Penske cars qualified next to each other to comprise both the second and fourth rows for tomorrow’s 200-mile event.
- Toyota will belooking for its second consecutive IndyCar victory tomorrow after Scott Dixonled a 1-2-3 Toyota sweep at the Toyota Indy 300 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.
- Felipe Giaffone’ssecond today is the highest qualifying position for a Toyota in two Indy Racing League IndyCar Series events. Helio Castroneves had set the previous standard with a fourth at Homestead.
FELIPE GIAFFONE, #21Hollywood Toyota: “Today was probably the first time so far this season that I had the car right the way I wanted it to be. We struggled all through the weekend at Homestead and fought really hard for a ninth-place finish. If all goes well tomorrow, it should be a much, much betterday. We made a change that we thought would help the car right at the end of the practice session this morning, but we ran out of time and never had a chance to see if it was going to work for us. But we decided to stick with it and it turned out to be just what we needed for qualifying. I’m really happy with the work of all the guys on the Hollywood Toyota team. Tomorrow is going to be a long day, so it will be important to stay on top of the changing conditions and to stay out of trouble. I think we have a really good shot at it.”
Toyota Phoenix Qualifying:
2. Felipe Giaffone
3. Scott Dixon
4. Helio Castroneves
7. Gil De Ferran
8. Tomas Schecter
11. Scott Sharp
13. Tora Takagi
18. Shigeak Hattori
20. Al Unser Jr.
21. A.J. Foyt IV
Purex Dial Indy 200, March 23, ABC, 3:30 p.m. EST
March 17, 2003
2003 Indy Racing League IndyCar Series FAST FACTS
PUREX DIAL INDY 200
March 23, 3:30 p.m. EST, ABC (Live)
Phoenix InternationalRaceway
200 laps on the one-mile oval
TOYOTA LOOKS FOR SECOND STRAIGHT IRL VICTORY –After registering a one-two-three finish in its debut race in the Indy Racing League (IRL) IndyCar Series at the Toyota Indy 300, Toyota will be looking to make it two straight victories when the IRL moves on to the Phoenix International Raceway, March 23. Scott Dixon led the Toyota contingent at Homestead with his first IndyCar Series victory, followed in order by Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves in second and third, respectively. Scott Sharp made it four Toyotas in the top-five with a fifth-place performance.
TOYOTA’S RETURN TO PHOENIX –The Purex Dial Indy 200 will mark Toyota’s first return to the Phoenix International Raceway since the manufacturer won the final IMSA GTP race ever run on Oct. 2, 1993. P.J. Jones took that historic checkered flag, the last of 17 straight Toyota IMSA GTP victories.
DÉJÀ VU FOR TEAM PENSKE? – After repeating a second and third-place finish at Homestead in the IRL season-opening Toyota Indy 300, Marlboro Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves will certainly be hoping for another 2002 repeat at Phoenix where he won last season. The two-time defending Indianapolis 500 champion led 62 laps in leading teammate Gil de Ferran across the finish line for a one-two Penske finish in the Valley of the Sun a year ago.
ACCUSTOMED TO BEING ON TOP – Scott Dixon is back in a comfortable position -- leading a series points chase. Since receiving a special exemption to begin racing cars against adults at the age of 13, the 22-year-old phenom has won five auto racing championships -- in New Zealand Formula Vee,Formula Ford Class II, Formula Ford Class I, Australian Formula Holden (F3000) and Indy Lights.
RIGHT ON TARGET – In winning at Homestead, Scott Dixon became the fifth different Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver to win in either IRL or CART competition in just over three seasons since the team began using Toyota power in 2000. Dixon joins Juan Montoya, Jimmy Vasser, Bruno Junqueira and Kenny Brack as Target Toyota winners. Tomas Scheckter will be looking to become number six at Phoenix, a mark barely missed by Memo Gidley, who finished second with the team twice in 2001.
FAST LEARNER – By winning his first-ever Indy Racing League event, Scott Dixon matched Juan Montoya and Buzz Calkins (in the series first-ever race) as the only drivers to win in their debut start in the IndyCar Series. Dixon also holds the distinction of being among the three quickest winners in CART history as well. Both he and Montoya won in their third series start behind only Nigel Mansell, who won in his first race in the CART series. In addition, Dixon has won as a rookie in every form of open-wheel racing he’s ever competed.
TEST IN THE WEST REVISITED – If last month’s IndyCar Series Test in the West at the Phoenix International Raceway is any indication, Toyota-powered cars should fare well in this weekend’s Purex Dial Indy 200. Helio Castroneves was the fastest driver in Friday’s first day of testing, with fellow Toyota drivers Felipe Giaffone and Tomas Scheckter giving Toyota-powered entries three of the top four spots.
Saturday’s second day of testing also saw three Toyota-powered cars in the top four with Scott Dixon, Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves placing second through fourth, respectively. Overall, five different Toyota drivers from three different teams were in the top-four at least once in the two days at PIR.
Toyota IndyCar Series Driver Line-Up and Points Position Entering Phoenix:
Car # Driver Car SeasonPoints Standing
#9 ScottDixon Target Toyota(Panoz/G-Force 1st
#6 Gilde Ferran Marlboro Toyota(Dallara) 2nd
#3 HelioCastronves Marlboro Toyota(Dallara) 3rd
#8 ScottSharp Delphi Toyota(Dallara) 5th
#10 TomasScheckter Target Toyota(Panoz/G-Force) 8th
#21 FelipeGiaffone Hollywood Toyota(Panoz/G-Force) 9th
#12 ToraTakagi Pioneer Toyota(Panoz/G-Force) 12th
#31 AlUnser, Jr. Corteco/BryantToyota (Dallara) 13th
#14 A.J.Foyt IV Conseco Toyota(Dallara) 17th
#5 ShigeakiHattori Epson Toyota(Panoz/G-Force) 18th
“Quotes”
Jim Aust, Toyota vice president of motorsports: “We had a terrific start to the season by finishing one-two-three at Homestead and we’d like to keep the momentum going at Phoenix. We had some very good tests there, but we know that there are probably 15 cars capable of winning this weekend.. Phoenix is known as a handling track so it’s going to take every aspect of a team to come together to win there – driver, team, chassis and engine.”
Scott Dixon, #9 Target Toyota: Winning at Homestead was a great way for us to start the season. Now we have to keep the momentum rolling when we get out to Phoenix. The win has given everyone at Team Target lot of confidence. We set some goals at the beginning of the season, and one of them was to win the championship. We have a long way to go, but we started off in the right direction. At the Test in the West in Phoenix we ended up second overall, so I think that we'll be competitive there. I think we have one of the better packages, especially for the high-speed tracks and shorter ones like Phoenix. The Toyota engine is great. It’s definitely going to be hard to beat this year”
March 02, 2003
DIXON LEADS TOYOTA 1-2-3 FINISH AT TOYOTA INDY 300
- In his first-ever IRL event, Scott Dixon led Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves in a one-two-three Toyota sweep at the IndyCar Series season-opening Toyota Indy 300 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. The one-two-three comes in Toyota’s first-ever IRL event and gives Toyota back-to-back one-two-threes after sweeping the top three spots in the manufacturer’s final CART event at Mexico City last year. Toyota had four one-two-three finishes in CART competition last season.
- Today’s victory is the first for Toyota in IndyCar Series competition and comes in the manufacturer’s first IRL event. Toyota won 10 races in CART last year and 21 over its final three seasons in CART –the most of any manufacturer during that time period.
- Scott Dixon (TargetToyota) earned his first IndyCar Series victory in his first-ever event at today’s Toyota Indy 300. The win is Dixon’s second with Toyota power, having become the youngest winner in major open-wheel racing history when he won the CART event at Nazareth in 2001 at the age of 20 years, 9 months. The triumph is Dixon’s first with Target Chip Ganassi Racing.
- With Scott Dixon’s victory today, he becomes the fifth different Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver to win since the team moved to Toyota-power in open-wheel competition in 2000. He joins Juan Montoya, Jimmy Vasser, Bruno Junqueira and Kenny Brack as Target Toyota winners.
- Gil de Ferran (Marlboro Toyota) placed second today, giving him his 12th top-five finish in 17 career IndyCar Series starts – a 70.5 percent average.
- Helio Castroneves (Marlboro Toyota) placed third in today’s Toyota Indy 300, giving him his 14th top-five finish in 18 IndyCar Series events – a phenomenal 77.7 percentage. With Castroneves placing third, it gave Marlboro Team Penske two cars in the top three today.
- Scott Sharp (Delphi Toyota) made it four Toyota-powered cars in the top five with a fifth-place finish today, despite having been forced to switch to the back-up car after a minor incident on Saturday. The Jupiter, Florida resident registered his 25th career IndyCar Series top-five.
- Tomas Scheckter (Target Toyota) and Felipe Giaffone (Hollywood Toyota) finished eighth and ninth, respectively, to give Toyota six of the top-nine finishers today in its debut performance. Scheckter’s eighth combined with Dixon’s victory to give Target Chip Ganassi Racing two of the top eight cars today. Four different Toyotateams finished in the top nine today – Target Chip Ganassi Racing, Marlboro Team Penske, Kelley Racing and Mo Nunn Racing.
Toyota Drivers Start/Finish
Scott Dixon 12/1
Gil de Ferran 5/2
Helio Castroneves 4/3
Scott Sharp 6/5
Tomas Scheckter 9/8
Felipe Giaffone 15/9
Tora Takagi 14/12
Al Unser, Jr. 11/13
A.J. Foyt IV 17/17
Shigeaki Hattori 20/18
Next Race: Copper World Indy 200, Phoenix, March 23, ABC
March 01, 2003
CASTRONEVES TOP TOYOTA IN QUALIFYING FOR TOYOTA INDY 300
- Helio Castroneves, of Miami, was the top qualifying Toyota with a fourth today in preparation for Sunday’s Toyota Indy 300 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. He was joined in the top five by Marlboro Team Penske teammate Gil de Ferran.
- Scott Sharp made it three Toyotas in the first six with a sixth today, despite having to switch to his back-up car after an incident in the morning practice session. The Delphi Toyota driver was the fastest in Friday practice.
- A victory in tomorrow’s Toyota Indy 300 would make Scott Sharp the only driver in IRL history to win races in seven consecutive seasons.
- Tomas Scheckter (Target Toyota) gave Toyota a fourth car in the top 10 today with a ninth in today’s qualifying. Scheckter will be making his first start for the Target Chip Ganassi Racing team this weekend.
- Sunday’s race will mark Toyota’s first-ever IRL IndyCar Series event.
- Tomorrow’s Toyota Indy 300 will mark the fourth different major South Florida racing event that Toyota will serve as either the title or presenting sponsor in the last 10 years. Previously, Toyota had sponsored the downtown IMSA GTP Toyota Grand Prix in 1993, as well as the presenting sponsor for the downtown CART race in 1995 and the CART events at Homestead beginning in 1996.
Toyota Indy 300 Qualifying:
4. Helio Castroneves
5. Gil de Ferran
6. Scott Sharp
9. Tomas Scheckter
11. Al Unser Jr.
12. Scott Dixon
14. Tora Takagi
15. Felipe Giaffone
17. A.J. Foyt IV
20. Shigeaki Hattori
Toyota Indy 300, March 2, ABC, 1:00 p.m. EST