Team Penske teammates Will Power and Ryan Briscoe topped the time chart on the 2.31-mile, 12-turn Sonoma road course in the initial practice session for the GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma on Aug. 26.Power, who has won the past two IZOD IndyCar Series races at Sonoma from the pole in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car, posted a lap of 1 minute, 18.6887 seconds in the 75-minute session. Briscoe, driving the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske car, supplanted Simon Pagenaud with 20 seconds left with a lap of 1:18.8782. Pagenaud, seeking to wrap up the Sunoco Rookie of the Year award, was 0.2341 of a second off Power's pace in the No. 77 Schmidt Hamilton HP Motorsports car."It's coming down to the nitty-gritty now (for the championship) so it's important to get everything right," Power said. "It will be very important to start up front in the race if you want to finish on the podium."The three rounds of qualifications on Brasil IT+ Pole Day commence at 5:30 p.m. (ET).The 12 and 2 combination wasn't exactly what title contender Ryan Hunter-Reay wanted to see. The Andretti Autosport driver, who is five points behind Power in the standings with three races left, was 19th of the 27 cars. Dario Franchitti and Rubens Barrichello also were in the top five. The top 13 cars were separated by 1 second on the recently modified course.DAY 1 NOTEBOOK:

The IZOD IndyCar Series will compete in the GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma, an 85-lap race at 4 p.m. (ET) on Sunday.***The GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma will be the ninth Indy car race at the raceway in Sonoma and the eighth IZOD IndyCar Series event. Will Power is the defending race and pole winner. This will be the first race on the newly modified 12-turn 2.31-mile layout. The IZOD IndyCar Series competed on 12-turn 2.303-mile layout from 2005-2011.***USAC held an Indy car race in Sonoma in 1970. Dan Gurney won the race.

***Will Power is the only driver to win at Sonoma more than once, winning the races in 2010 and 2011. Past winners Power, Dario Franchitti (2009), Helio Castroneves (2008), Scott Dixon (2007), Marco Andretti (2006) and Tony Kanaan (2005) are entered in the GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma.***There have been five different pole winners in the previous seven races at Sonoma. Ryan Briscoe (2005), Scott Dixon (2006), Dario Franchitti (2007, 2009), Helio Castroneves (2008) and Will Power (2010-11). All are entered at Sonoma this weekend.***Three drivers have won the race from the pole - Helio Castroneves (2008), Dario Franchitti (2009) and Will Power (2010-11).***Four drivers have competed in every IZOD IndyCar Series race at Sonoma - Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan and Danica Patrick. Dixon is the only driver to complete every lap of every race at Sonoma.***Three drivers entered in the event - Rubens Barrichello, Katherine Legge and Josef Newgarden - will make their first attempt to start an IZOD IndyCar Series race at Sonoma.***Team Penske has won at Sonoma three times, including the last two races with Will Power. Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Andretti Autosport have each won twice at Sonoma.IZOD IndyCar Series Championship Facts: Will Power leads the IZOD IndyCar Series championship after 12 races for the second time in his career. He also led at 12 races in 2010. Power leads Ryan Hunter-Reay by five points. It's the fourth time that the lead has been less than 10 points this season. Helio Castroneves led Scott Dixon by eight points after St. Petersburg and two points after Barber. Power lead Ryan Hunter-Reay by three points after Iowa. There are 15 drivers still mathematically eligible for the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series championship: Will Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, James Hinchcliffe, Simon Pagenaud (R), Tony Kanaan, Dario Franchitti, Ryan Briscoe, Graham Rahal, Oriol Servia, Justin Wilson, Takuma Sato, JR Hildebrand and Marco Andretti. Any driver who trails the leader by 107 points or more following Sonoma will be eliminated from championship contention. Sonoma will host its eighth IZOD IndyCar Series event. The winning driver at Sonoma has won the championship once in the prior seven races. (Dario Franchitti, 2009). In 16 previous seasons, three drivers have won the 13th event of the season and the IZOD IndyCar Series championship in the same year. Sam Hornish Jr. won at Texas in 2001, Dan Wheldon won at Pikes Peak in 2005 and Scott Dixon won at Edmonton in 2008.***Four Canadian drivers with ties to the Mazda Road to Indy are among the 10 finalists for the Team Canada Scholarship, program which made its debut last year.Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship powered by Mazda drivers Matthew Di Leo, 18; Scott Hargrove, 17; Dalton Kellett, 18; and Thomas McGregor, 20 were among the drivers chosen by the Team Canada Selection Committee. The organization opened up the selection process to drivers who compete outside Canada this year."With young Canadian drivers competing across North America in some of the toughest series around, we definitely have a talented pool of drivers to choose from," said Team Canada Scholarship co-founder Brian Graham.One Canadian driver will be selected to represent Team Canada in the 2012 edition of the Formula Ford Festival. Team Canada will once again partner with Formula Ford leader and former Festival and Walter Hayes Trophy winner Cliff Dempsey Racing, which will also field the entries for the winners of the Team USA Scholarship winners."We are thrilled and excited about the 2012 edition of the Team Canada Scholarship," said Team Canada scholarship co-founder Gerry Merz. "The group of talented young drivers to choose from this year is making our entire team believe that a place on the podium is a very real possibility."Meanwhile, the selection process for the Team USA Scholarship has been narrowed down to eight finalists with USF2000 drivers Matthew Brabham and Neil Alberico remaining in the running for one of the three awards.Brabham and Alberico will participate in final evaluations on August 27-28, and will include opportunities to drive both state-of-the-art, full-motion simulators and race cars equipped with comprehensive data acquisition systems. The finalists also will be treated to a three-hour seminar on Mental Preparation hosted by noted performance expert and founder of Performance Prime, Dr. Jacques Dallaire.Two drivers will be entered under the Team USA Scholarship/Cliff Dempsey Racing banner in the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch on October 27-28 and the Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone on November 3-4, while one slightly more experienced driver will be invited to contest the final two rounds of the Formula Renault BARC Championship at Silverstone on October 6-7.***In conjunction with the three modifications of the Sonoma road course, INDYCAR lengthened the IZOD IndyCar Series race by 10 laps with the goal of almost guaranteeing three service stops instead of stretching fuel to make it to the finish in two stops.Examining the consumption of E85 in the 18.5-gallon fuel cell and increasing the race distance on the 3.12-mile, 12-turn circuit were calculations. Past full-course cautions also were noted (there was one last August and a total of 14 over the seven IZOD IndyCar Series races at the scenic venue)."With the new track layout, we may see more passing," said series title contender Ryan Hunter-Reay, who will drive the No. 28 Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda car. "Plus the race is 10 laps longer this year, so it makes it almost a certain three-stop race. You'll have most of the field pushing 100 percent for the entire race rather than saving fuel. As drivers, we prefer it that way."Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Takuma Sato, who along with Hunter-Reay tested at the circuit Aug. 17, said the extra 31 miles will add to the challenge and excitement."It's not a bad thing because probably everyone will be three stops unless there are big yellows," he said. "Fuel saving is important but not so critical now, which means more aggressive racing."Added Target Chip Ganassi Racing managing director Mike Hull: " it's three stops, which will provide revised and more exciting pit strategy variations. Keep your eyes open this Sunday as it will come down to the last lap."***Selected quotes from today's James Hinchcliffe and Ryan Hunter-Reay media availability:JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 27 Team GoDaddy.com Chevrolet): "The track did have some changes; upgrades if you will. We had a chance to test here last week. Really, the biggest one is turn seven. They widened the turn out, which helps. But the profile isn't a ton different for us. The big difference in (turn) 11, the geometry of the corner is the same; it is just a little further down. The big change is turn seven. That changes that corner quite a bit. I definitely think it has made turn seven a better passing opportunity, which is obviously the goal. This race has always been notorious for difficult overtaking. I just think the nature of these big brake zones, and tight corners - they are tough in our cars. Indy cars are not really designed for first-gear thirty mile-an-hour hairpin (corners). It makes it very easy to make a mistake. I think that is actually going to create as many passing opportunities as a big brake zone as guys may be getting in a little bit wrong to (turn) 11 and having a nice little drag race up into turn one here. I definitely think there will be more action in the race for sure." (What did you learn from the test session here last week?): "We learned what not to do. Which is almost as good as learning what to do. Not quite as good, but almost as good. We showed up here, because as Ryan said, this isn't statistically the strongest track for our team, with a couple of different concepts. Unfortunately, not one of them really took. I think the test was vital because we have now had a week to analyze all that data. I think we have actually come up with something, after yesterday sitting down with the engineers, that I'm a lot more confident than I was Saturday morning when I got out of bed thinking 'Man, this is going to be a tough weekend'. Again, we've got a long session this afternoon to try and work it out. We've got three cars pounding away at things. We'll see. I do have faith in the team. One of the big things we've seen out of this team is comebacks and bouncebacks. We've had some pretty bad Fridays that have turned into some really good Sundays. Hopefully we can make that happen this weekend."RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda Chevrolet): "This is definitely one of the most IndyCar seasons I have seen in a long time. Either one that I have been a part of, or not. If you ask guys like Dario (Franchitti) and Tony (Kanaan) will say the same thing, and they have been around for awhile. I don't mean to make them old. This year has been extremely, extremely competitive. The DW12 (chassis) has done an excellent job in really making for some dramatic races. I think this championship is going to come down to Fontana. It's going to be fought between three or four guys at least. I think realistically the top-five have a shot at winning it. Every race is going to be pivotal. We came into Mid-Ohio, the last race, leading by 20 points, and now we are trailing by five. It can swing quickly. We had an engine issue there at Mid-Ohio which sidelined us. Hopefully we don't have any more of those, and that is behind us and we can go on and we can win the championship for Andretti, DHL, Sun Drop and Chevrolet." (You are right behind will power in the standings, who has been successful here. What is it going to take for you to surpass him in the points here?) "This is definitely a Penske track. Last year it was one-two-three. For the past four or five years, this has been a notoriously difficult for the Andretti squad. It is tough. Right now we definitely have to close the gap. They are the team to beat. We aren't stellar at the moment. My side-kick Hinchcliffe here has come up with some crazy set-up stuff for this afternoon's practice. He's going to go guinea pig it. Hopefully we will be able tag along. This is probably one of our most difficult races coming from Andretti Autosport standpoint." (Will The New Layout Help You?) "We were hoping it was going to. You took one corner and just tightened it up a little bit. And you took another corner and lengthened it a little bit. It didn't really change the layout that much. Yes, it might change some passing situations. Like James said, slowing the car down more, it's a little bit more difficult now. The guys that were quick here, the teams that were quick here and quick here still. We still have that same gap to close. It is a gap of about sixth-tenths of a second, which is a lot. But, we desperately need to close that. We will be working hard today."***Chip Ganassi Racing Teams owner Chip Ganassi helped team partner Cessna announce that the new Cessna Citation Ten aircraft has become the fastest civil aircraft available, achieving a speed of Mach .935.As part of the announcement, Cessna and Chip Ganassi Racing Teams have deepened their partnership with a new associate sponsorship that will give Cessna a presence on all four of Ganassi's race cars entered here in Sonoma.The team fields the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda for Scott Dixon; The No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda for Dario Franchitti; The No. 38 Service Central Honda for Graham Rahal and the No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen Honda for Charlie Kimball.CHIP GANASSI: "In late June, I went to the Grand Am race at Road America on Saturday morning, which our team won, then went to the Indy car race in Iowa on Saturday night and then came out here to Sonoma for the NASCAR race. I couldn't have done it without my Citation X. That plane only goes Mach .925. (About making the announcement): "It's honor to be able to make this announcement for Cessna. As you know, I'm all about speed."***Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing announced today that Bigge Crane and Rigging Company of San Leandro, Calif., will sponsor the team's No. 15 entry for driver Takuma Sato at the GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma on Aug. 26.Bigge, founded by Henry Bigge in 1916, has grown to become the premier quality equipment provider for the heavy lift and heavy transport needs of commercial, government, and industrial markets including the power generation and petroleum refinery sectors. The company's commitment to performance, quality and safety, along with their tradition of excellence has allowed them to remain in front of the competition for over 90 years.MICHAEL LANIGAN (Co-owner, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing): "It's great to have the Bigge boys on our team this weekend at Sonoma. They are a great customer of ours and I'm sure that Sonoma will be a great venue to showcase their dedication to performance." said Michael Lanigan, co-owner of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.***IZOD INDYCAR SERIES PRACTICE:At 2:45 p.m., the ambient temperature was 71 degrees with a relative humidity of 56 percent. Skies were fair. The track temperature was 115 degrees, according to Firestone engineers.2:50 p.m. - GREEN. Track is open to all IZOD IndyCar Series cars.3:10 p.m. - IZOD IndyCar Series officials have penalized #38 Rahal, #14 Conway and #22 Servia with a drive-through penalty for a trackside pit entry violation (Using the pit entry as part of the racing surface)3:15 p.m. - RED FLAG. #83 Kimball spins off course in Turn 3 and makes contact. Reports of debris on course in Turn 3 as well. Car will be towed back to the garage area. Driver climbs from the car without assistance.3:36 p.m. - GREEN.3:42 p.m. - RED FLAG. #67 Newgarden has spun off course at the exit of Turn 7. Car is restarted by the Holmatro Safety Team and returns to pits under its own power to the pit lane.3:44 p.m. - GREEN.4 p.m. - IZOD IndyCar Series officials have penalized #78 De Silvestro with a drive-through penalty for a trackside pit entry violation. (Using the pit entry as part of the racing surface).4:05 p.m. - CHECKERED.IZOD INDYCAR SERIES POST-PRACTICE QUOTES:WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): "The Verizon Chevy 12 car felt really strong today. It was good to start the weekend out in P1. It will be very important to start up front in the race if you want to finish on the podium. I like the new layout of the track and the track was fast for the first day. The hardest thing today was dealing with the wind. We've had success here in the past -we took the top three spots in the race last year and 1-2 today so Team Penske definitely has had good success here in the part. We'll look at our notes and try to go faster tomorrow. We'd really like a pole position to keep moving forward in the Championship race and we'll see if we can do that tomorrow, we'll see."RYAN BRISCOE (No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet): "I love racing at Sonoma, it's always been one of my favorite events on the calendar, and I'm feeling good. We got a fresh Chevrolet engine in the No. 2 car this weekend that's feeling good, and I'm feeling good. We definitely want to win, so we'll see what we can do." (About the success the team has had on this track): "It's been good, it's definitely a driver's track as well. When you've got two good teammates like Will and Helio, it's really just about pushing each other harder. We got back in today in the pits and we look over where each of us might be giving up a little bit, and then we just keep egging each other on to get it absolutely perfect. Last year was perfect, we qualified 1-2-3 and finished 1-2-3. We're hoping to do the same this year, and if we can reverse the podium around, I'll be even happier."SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS (No. 7 TrueCar Dragon Racing Chevrolet): "The car is fast. It's actually faster than it shows on the time charts. It's just the wind was tricky today. It was very tricky last week at the test, but then it was blowing (from the north) and it's blowing (from the south) today. That obviously changes the car dramatically. Nothing that makes the car from good to bad or bad to good, but where you were really strong, you are struggling with the tailwind and vice versa. Still pretty happy with the car. We have some work to do, but we'll see where we are in qualifying."SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda): "It was a decent start to the weekend for the Target team. We were really loose in the first practice session and couldn't figure out why. We went a different direction from the test last week and hope we can get back to where we need to be before qualifying tomorrow."DARIO FRANCHITTI (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda): "Our day wasn't bad, really. We still have some work to do but judging by the times there were others a lot worse off than we were today. The track conditions changed a lot from what we saw at the test so that was challenging today."TAKUMA SATO (No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda): "It was a difficult day for us. The session went well in terms of being able to go through the items we carried over from the test last week that we weren't able to try. Overall we need to improve the balance and grip; I wasn't particularly happy with that. Performance wise, we need to find more speed. We ran out of time in the end. We wanted to do a little bit more but hopefully tomorrow the weather will give us another consistent session and we can improve."SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA (No. 17 Team AFS Chevrolet): "It was great out there today. I'm very excited to be back in the IndyCar. It was very important that we were able to do that test last week to get used to the new car. It's very different from what I remember from last year. It's been good so far. We've managed to consistently improve the car together with my teammates' and we just need to keep fighting. The front guys are pretty quick and we need to close that gap."GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 38 Service Central Honda): "I think overall it was a good day. We found some stuff but we definitely see Dario's a little bit quicker out there so we're going to try to go in his direction a little bit and I think that will help us a bunch. To be eighth, I think the car is pretty competitive. I think there's a little bit more time in the car, I just got caught in traffic on that new-tire run there. I think overall, it feels good to be in the ballpark there. I think tomorrow we'll start fresh and hopefully go a little faster."JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 67 Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda): "We made progress today from the test last week. We were all just working really hard to try and figure this track out. I think we've got a good direction for where we need to head. We're chipping away at it just like everyone else out there. We'll see what we can produce tomorrow."CHARLIE KIMBALL (No. 83 NovoLog FlexPenHonda): "It's obviously disappointing to start off practice like that. I overestimated the track grip a little bit and spun off and we weren't able to get back out today. Our teammates are quick so we should be in good shape for tomorrows practice and more importantly tomorrows qualifying."JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 27 Team GoDaddy.com Chevrolet): "It was not the day we wanted. We're just struggling a bit. There's no way to dance around it. We came here for the test last Friday and it was not great. We were hoping we'd come back here with something a little bit stronger. We're just really struggling with this track. I wish I could tell you why, then we'd have a better handle on it. We've got three cars. Marco was close to a top ten but even so, he was a second off the pace. There's a couple of guys that really have this place figured out and the rest of us are sort of trying to pick up the scraps in the mid-field and back. We didn't do a second set of tires today which a lot of guys did, so it might not be quite as bad as it looks on the timesheets, but it's still not where we need to be. But, we'll put our heads together. We'll work hard and try to get the Go Daddy car up a bit higher for tomorrow."ED CARPENTER (No. 20 Fuzzy's Vodka/Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet): "It just wasn't a great session for us today. We tried something from where we ended the test (last Friday) and I think it did more harm than good. But that is something you have to try in the first practice. The wind was blowing a different direction today than from the test day. So that might have made the track a little different for us. We just need to sit down and go over the data to improve on Saturday. We can work with the car and make the proper adjustments for qualifying."JR HILDEBRAND (No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing Chevrolet): "This was a pretty reasonable first day for us. We came with the intentions of figuring a few things out from the test, and at the end of the session we just ran out of time to try a couple more things, so we put on a fresh set of tires. We ended up mid-pack, which for where we feel like we're at with the car right now, is about right. We still need to make some improvements and get the car to be a little more aggressive around here. But we definitely found some gains and we just need to figure a couple more things out. We've got one more practice session tomorrow before qualifying, and we'll get a couple more things sorted and be ready to go for tomorrow."SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 77 Schmidt Hamilton HP Motorsports Honda): "It was a good start to the weekend. The HP team has done a good job preparing the car. It feels better and we're faster than we were at the test. I know we have a good car, so we'll just work on making it better for qualifying."SIMONA DE SILVESTRO (No. 78 Nuclear Clean Air Energy Lotus HMV Racing Lotus): "A good first practice. We haven't tested here so we're kind of getting everything going. Even myself, being out of the car for three weeks it feels a little bit strange in the beginning, but I think in the end we're OK. We're going to work on it tomorrow and try to put the lap a little more together and we'll see. I think we're in the mix. We're not super far off compared to the other guys, so we just have to keep picking at it a little bit and hopefully we can get in the top 20 or something like that. That would be cool."HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Penske Truck Rental Chevrolet): "The Team Penske Truck Rental boys did a great job again, but the result wasn't the one we expected. We had such a great test here, but somehow our setup is very different than what we had. I know the conditions changed, but certainly through my teammates I can see that we can do much better. I know we can do much better and the good news is we have tomorrow to find out what happened and execute."E.J. VISO (No. 5 CITGO/PDVSA KV Racing Technology Chevrolet): "We tried some things today in practice that didn't work out. However, that is the advantage of having a three-car team. You can have each driver do something different and see what works best. Tonight we will sit down and go through all the data the team collected and come up with a setup for tomorrow morning's practice session and then, hopefully, have a good qualifying session."RUBENS BARRICHELLO (No. 8 BMC/Embrase KV Racing Technology Chevrolet): "It was a good day. We were slightly concerned by not testing here last week that we would have a lot of work to do, but having tested on the old layout back in February I was able to adapt quickly. I hope we can keep on running good like we did today for the rest of the weekend."TONY KANAAN (No. 11 Mouser Electronics/GEICO KV Racing Technology Chevrolet): "We didn't test here last week like most of the other teams, so today was about learning the new track changes. It was a productive day in that regard. We will take a look at the data and come up with some changes that will hopefully improve the car for qualifying."SATURDAY'S SCHEDULE:7 a.m. - Garages open10:50 - 11:50 a.m. - IZOD IndyCar Series practice2:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. - IZOD IndyCar Series pole qualifying (knockout qualifying/Firestone Fast Six)