IRL PREVIEW 'Spiderman' Castroneves eager to go

The Penske driver is hoping to start Sunday's opener like he finished last year.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Helio Castroneves' fence-climbing skills got a little rusty.
The two-time Indianapolis 500 champion performed his scaling victory celebration only once last year. And that didn't come until the IndyCar Series season finale, when "Spiderman" won for the first time in 19 races.
"It was hard, all season long waiting to win a race. ... It was a great relief," Castroneves said. "I don't want to wait that long this year."
Castroneves won't have to if Team Penske can pick up with the momentum it built at the end of last season.
Not only did Castroneves win the finale at Texas, he finished the season with an IRL-record four straight poles. The Penske team obviously was figuring out car setups with the smaller 3.0 engines the series switched to after the Indianapolis 500, and are unchanged this year.
"It was a learning curve, and we learned a lot with that situation," Castroneves said.
Hornish also hot
Sam Hornish Jr. started on the front row alongside his Penske teammate twice during that last four-race stretch and rolled off from the No. 3 spot another time.
Penske had bookend wins last year, with two-time IRL champion Hornish winning his debut race with his new team -- just ahead of Castroneves -- in the season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
But Andretti Green Racing's four-driver team dominated in between, winning eight of the other 14 races with 36 top-five finishes.
Tony Kanaan became the first driver in a major racing series to finish every lap -- 3,305 over 16 races -- and won the championship. Teammate Dan Wheldon was second. Dario Franchitti and Bryan Herta, the other Andretti Green drivers, were sixth and ninth.
"Well, we set the standard for sure," Kanaan said. "Right now, yeah, they're definitely looking at us, and they respect us. But you know, we're also looking ... we're looking for Penske, we're looking for Rahal."
All will be at Homestead-Miami Speedway Sunday for the start of the IRL's 10th season.
Hornish has won three of the four IRL races on the track. The 300-mile race is where Kanaan had his worst 2004 finish -- eighth in the opener before 15 straight top fives that included three wins and six runner-up finishes.
Road course debut
This will be the IRL's longest season with 17 races -- including road-course events for the first time.
The IRL will break from its all-oval format in the third race this season, on a temporary road course through downtown St. Petersburg, Fla. The series also will run on road courses in Sonoma, Calif., and Watkins Glen, N.Y., later in the year.
"I'm like a kid in a candy store," Castroneves said of the chance to race on road courses again. "We're keeping the same ovals, but people enjoy road courses. It's going to be phenomenal."
There are 22 drivers on 13 teams this season.
IRL founder Tony George is even a team owner now, having acquired the assets of Kelley Racing during the off-season.
"Why? Because I believe in this series. I believe in the opportunity it represents," George said, explaining his reason for becoming an owner. "As the off-season wound down, it became obvious that we needed a car count.
Patrick Carpentier jumped to the IRL this season after eight years in CART, joining Red Bull Cheever Racing as a teammate to Alex Barron. Carpentier was third in CART last season.
Danica Patrick moves from the Toyota Atlantic Series to become the third woman in the IndyCar Series. She's part of Rahal Letterman's three-car team with Rice and Vitor Meira.
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