Castroneves crashes into wall a week after Indy 500 triumph

L.A. Times Archives

May 31, 2009 12 AM PT

Associated Press

This was not what Helio Castroneves had in mind for the week after the most important victory of his career.

Castroneves spent the last few days celebrating his third Indianapolis 500 win and talking about his next challenge -- hanging on to the momentum and going after his first IndyCar Series championship.

The concrete wall in Turn 2 at the Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wis., took the edge off the celebration and made things a little more difficult for the Penske Racing driver, who hit the barrier during qualifying for today’s A.J. Foyt 225 and will have to start last.

“We tried something different out there in qualifying from what we ran in practice,” Castroneves said.

Teammate Ryan Briscoe had a four-lap average of 168.394 mph to give him his fifth career pole and first of 2009.

Graham Rahal, the 20-year-old second-year driver for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, had a four-mile qualifying run of 168.117 that was only 0.277 mph slower than Briscoe.

Nationwide

Brad Keselowski raced to his first NASCAR Nationwide Series victory of the season, taking the lead during a restart with two laps left at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.

Kyle Busch led most of the second half and appeared on the way to his third win of the season. But he seemed to have tire trouble off the restart that came after the caution with seven laps left. Busch also was nudged from behind by Joey Logano and both cars went up the track, giving Keselowski space to pass.

Trucks

Brian Scott won the Camping World Trucks race at Dover, Del., for his first victory in any NASCAR series.

Dennis Setzer had a season-best second-place finish in the caution-filled race, and Ron Hornaday Jr. and Kyle Busch were derailed by tire woes.

Irwindale

Tim Huddleston of Agoura Hills started from the pole and led the entire race, winning the NASCAR Auto Club Late Model 50-lap feature race at Toyota Speedway in Irwindale.

Huddleston’s victory was his third consecutive and moved him to within eight points of division leader Nick Joanides.