Castroneves captures IndyCar Long Beach pole (AFP)
Brazilian Helio Castroneves will start from pole in Sunday’s IndyCar Grand Prix of Long Beach after a record-setting lap in final qualifying. The Team Penske driver became the second pilot Saturday to lower the track record with his run of 1min 6.6294sec in the Fast Six final phase of qualifying in the California sun. The record for the 1.968-mile (3.17 km) road circuit configuration, first used in 2000, had been set by Sebastien Bourdais at 1:06.882 back in 2006, when the Frenchman went on to win the race. Brazilian Tony Kanaan broke that mark in the first round of qualifying, with a time of 1:06.7442.