Green protest could be in vain

The IRL's vice-president of operations, Brian Barnhart, has declared he has seen no evidence to suggest that Team Green's Paul Tracy was ahead of Castroneves when the yellow flags came out near the end of the race. Unlike NASCAR, where the cars race to the line when a yellow is called, IRL races are neutralised as soon as track officials call a yellow.

"We did an exhaustive search of all data and information that we had available to us, video and otherwise, everything we could come up with to find out exactly when and what took place as best we could," said Barnhart. "Clearly, based on the video that we have seen, the 3 car [Castroneves] is in front of the 26 car [Tracy] when the accident occurs in Turn 2.

"It is clearly in front of the 26 car when the yellow was called for. Based on all the information that we have available to us, the 3 car was in front of the 26 at the conclusion of the race," he added.

Barnhart admits, however, that video evidence of the incident is inconclusive as it doesn't show whether the yellow lights were flashing or not as Tracy passed Castroneves.

"Looking at the video as the 26 car passes the 3 car on the outside of Turn 3, it's just too hard to tell and too inconclusive as to what the condition of the track lights are, and which car is nosed ahead of the other at which point in time. There's just no evidence worthy of overturning our original decision," he said.

Team owner Barry Green told ESPN.com, however: "I can't see one reason why we didn't win the race. We used the IRL's data to break it down, ESPN's tape on SportsCenter, testimony from Dario [Franchitti], Sam Hornish and a couple of spotters and, clearly, Paul was in front when the yellow came on in Turn 3."

Team Green's protest will be heard today (Monday) at 12.00 EST (17.00 BST).