Nashville's Gibson guitar unique trophy

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"I know I can drive a car. I know I can dance. I don't think I canplay guitar. I don't care. I'll learn maybe if I can win this,"Castroneves said.
Castroneves will have a good chance at winning a guitar because hewill start from the pole on a track where passing is difficult.
"The only thing I can promise is I'm going to do my best, my team'sgoing to do their best," he said.
Not if Danica Patrick has anything to say about it. She will startbeside Castroneves on the front row, and the woman who made historyby winning in Japan wants nothing more than to add a second trophyto her display case. And yes, a guitar would be special.
"It's more of a unique thing to display, as well, you know,"Patrick said. "I'd like to think I'd get a cool case for somethinglike that. 'Do you know a rock star? No, I won at Nashville.' Yeah,it's cool to have different kinds of trophies to have around."
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FLYER MILES: Marco Andretti is trying to squeeze as much racinginto this weekend as possible.
The 21-year-old driver qualified 11th Friday for the IndyCarSeries' Firestone Indy 200 after practicing in both sessions at theNashville Superspeedway for Andretti Green Racing. But he's alsodriving AGR's car at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut on Saturdayafternoon before hopping back into a plane to return to Tennesseein time for driver introductions.
Andretti, who has one career victory and ranks fifth in the IRLpoints race, said the decision was all his.
"I would drive 10 cars a day if I could physically do it," he said."I should be physically up to it, and after that we'll go have somefun. I've had some success at Lime Rock in the past, and I thinkthe track is fantastic. There will be some challenges during theweekend, but I only look at those as motivation."
But he wasn't very happy with where he will start Saturday night,blaming cooler temperatures for slowing down his car with too muchdrag and downforce.
"This is a track where position is key, so hopefully we can dosomething with strategy," Andretti said. "I know if the car can getto the front, it can stay there. We've spent the entire timeworking on the race setup, so we should be good."
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QUICK RECOVERY: A.J. Foyt heard all the warnings to wear goggleswhen he raced, and the four-time Indianapolis 500 champion didn'tlisten.
He is back with his IndyCar Series team at the NashvilleSuperspeedway despite having a cataract removed from his left eyeWednesday. He had the surgery in Texas, and this came four yearsafter he had a cataract taken from his right eye.
Foyt said he used to have 20-15 vision when he raced but his lefteye got so bad that bright sun bothered him, and he doesn't like towear sunglasses.
"I always ran without goggles, and they always used to tell me atthe (Indianapolis Motor) Speedway, 'A.J., you really shouldn't dothat. Your eyes are too important.' When you're younger, I didn'tworry about it. As you get older, you start worrying about youreyes. It was nothing urgent," Foyt said.
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COOLING OFF: Tony Kanaan is showing he knows how to make do undertough conditions.
Lightning blew out the circuitry at his motor coach Wednesday nightat the Nashville Superspeedway. Faced with roughing it withtemperatures reaching into the 90s or heading to a hotel a littletoo far away from the track for comfort, Kanaan went shopping.
"We actually managed to stay in the bus. I bought a portable airconditioner at Best Buy, and we ran a tube out the window. I haveno TV. Just a refrigerator, the curtains are up. We just have powerin the bedroom, but everything in the front of the bus doesn'twork," Kanaan said.
This is the second straight week Kanaan has had trouble coolingoff. His air conditioning went out last weekend at Watkins Glen. Itdidn't hurt as he started sixth and finished third. He qualifiedseventh at Nashville, a track he won at in 2004, as the firstdriver out on the track.
"That's the draw you get, so you can't complain. I was so lucky atRichmond to be one of the last guys, so what goes around comesaround," he said.
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NEW TEAM: Veteran manager Larry Curry has joined Dreyer andReinbold Racing for his third team this season. He spent more thanthree seasons with Vision Racing and had worked with Roth Racingbetween May through Watkins Glen last weekend.
Co-owner Dennis Reinbold said they hope the move helps them becomeeven more competitive. Curry had worked with co-owner Robbie Buhlwhen Buhl was driving and won at New Hampshire in 1997.
"What I'm hoping for is adding consistency to where we're not goodone week and bad the next, but we are competitive and startchipping away at getting closer to the front and carry what welearn this year into next season," Curry said.
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EXTRA LAPS: The Team Penske cars of Helio Castroneves and RyanBriscoe have a special decal at Nashville in memory of employeeBill Passwater. The transportation coordinator for the team'sNASCAR Sprint Cup teams died Wednesday, leaving his wife and aninfant daughter. ... Enrique Bernoldi qualified 19th for theFirestone Indy 200, and Indy Lights driver Cyndie Allemann 19th outof 20 cars Friday for the Sunbelt Rentals 100. Both werere-evaluated Thursday at the infield care center and cleared todrive following incidents at Watkins Glen last weekend.


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