Catchfence

Team Started in Back Due to Qualification Penalty, Moved Up During 200-lap Oval Event

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – (May 1, 2010) – National Guard Panther Racing driver Dan Wheldon climbed 10 positions from his starting place Saturday during the Road Runner Turbo Indy 300 at Kansas Speedway, and finished in the 15^th position.  Wheldon, who qualified third yesterday before having his time disallowed for going below the white line, quickly moved to the top half of the field during the 200-lap event.

With the finish, Wheldon remains in 10^th position in the IZOD IndyCar Series point standings as the series heads home to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 94^th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race.

Panther finished runner-up last season at Indy with Wheldon, which matched the result the team had the previous year with Vitor Meira. Wheldon was the 2005 winner of the Indy 500, the same year in which he won the IZOD IndyCar Series championship.

The race was dominated by Ganassi Racing driver Scott Dixon, who lapped every competitor in the field outside of the top six. Dixon was joined on the podium by teammate Dario Franchitti and Andretti Autosport driver Tony Kanaan.

Dan Wheldon, No. 4 National Guard Dallara Honda

“Obviously the National Guard Panther team continues to work extremely hard and we had a reasonable result today and kept all four wheels on the car. We’ll use some of the information we learned here today and look for a strong run at Indianapolis. I’m really excited to get the month of May started, I think we’re in a really good position to perform extremely well again this year. I don’t think today’s performance completely shows our true capabilities, but nonetheless we can learn from these experiences and hopefully that will make us even stronger for Indy.”

- Panther Racing, Press Release