Penske opts for split chassis effort

Castronoeves will run a Dallara chassis in his campaign for an unprecedented third straight Indy win, while his team-mate Gil de Ferran will driver a Panoz G Force. The team had entered two different cars of each chassis for each of its drivers, in order to give them the best chance of victory.

"If I had another month to think about it, I'll probably take the extra month," said de Ferran. "With the limited time I had, we really tried to analyse both cars from all sorts of different perspectives - qualifying trim and race trim and everything else. The reality is they came extremely close. Very close indeed."

Castroneves chose the Dallara because he felt more comfortable with it. "For me, the Dallara was going more comfortable," he said. "I was able to feel much better during all four corners, able to translate better for the engineers.

"Also, we're not only looking for a fast car, but a car that's going to be stable in the race, which is really important. And, as well, I did win two Indy 500s with the chassis. With the team that's winning, why you going to change?"

Team boss Roger Penske doesn't think there is much to choose between the two manufacturers. "I can assure you one thing," he said. "If we thought one was a lot better than the other, we would have gone ahead and kept the drivers in the same vehicle."