Team Penske was strong throughout Sunday’s Iowa Corn Indy 250 at Iowa Speedway, but a series of yellow flag periods at the end of the race combined with tire trouble saw the day end with a seventh place finish for No. 6 Team Penske Dallara/Honda driver Ryan Briscoe and a 14th place finish for No. 3 driver Helio Castroneves.

Both cars were among the fastest in the field during the race, but three caution periods in the final 62 laps allowed other teams to stretch their fuel windows to finish ahead of the No. 3 and 6 machines.

Despite leading the most laps of the day (92 of 250 total), Castroneves was forced to the pits inside the last 20 laps due to a leaking right-front tire and finished 14th. “Today just wasn’t our day,” Castroneves said. “The Team Penske car was great, and we led the most laps, but after our final pit stop I felt a change in the way the car was handling and thought we might have a tire problem. The guys looked into it, and we were losing pressure slowly.”

Castroneves remains second in the 2008 IndyCar Series driver championship standings, 48 points behind leader Scott Dixon. “Fourteenth is not the result we deserved today,” Castroneves continued. “All we can do now is look forward to a better result in Richmond.”

Ryan Briscoe and his No. 6 machine also had a challenging day, and despite setting fastest lap of the race, ended up in seventh place. “It was tough out there today,” Briscoe said. “We needed more downforce and also struggled to find grip. But my guys made adjustments throughout the day, and toward the end of the race we had a solid car. The good news is we were able to salvage a fairly decent finish.”

Briscoe is currently sixth in the driver championship standings, only four points out of fifth spot.

Posted: 06|22|08 at 9:40 pm. Filed under: Helio Castroneves, Iowa Speedway, Ryan Briscoe, Team Penske.
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