Rice

MADISON, Ill. -- Buddy Rice could feel the difference Saturday when he qualified for the Emerson Indy 250 with his new Chevrolet Gen IV Indy V8.

Rice's Red Bull Cheever Racing and the rest of the Indy Racing League teams with Chevrolet power have been handicapped since the beginning of the season by an underpowered Gen III engine, a holdover from the 2002 season.

With strong competition from Toyota and Honda, both new to the IRL this season, Chevy has been racing under a cloud all year. That is, until GM unveiled the new Gen IV two weeks ago in Michigan, where two-time IndyCar Racing Series champion Sam Hornish Jr. barely lost to Alex Barron's Honda-powered Mo Nunn Racing entry.

Hornish got the new engine for the race because his Pennzoil Panther Racing team is the top-ranked Chevy outfit. Rice got it this week because the Cheever team is second among the Chevy teams.

Next week, all the Chevy teams get the new engine for the race at Kentucky Speedway.

"This is our best qualifying of the year," Rice said after putting his car 11th in the 21-car field for Sunday's race. "I'm not too concerned because our race cars have been good all year. I think it's going to be an exciting day tomorrow.

"This engine is a totally different animal in the way it works. With all the teams going into Kentucky with the new engine, I think it's going to be a big boost for everybody.

Hornish, going back to the Gen III this week, was the second-best Chevy, qualifying 14th.

Pitching summary
Most celebrities can barely get the ball to home plate when they throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a major league baseball game. Not so for Helio Castroneves.

The two-time Indianapolis 500 winner joined Marlboro Team Penske teammate Gil de Ferran, this year's 500 winner, in doing the honors prior to Friday night's game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves.

Castroneves, who said he has played a version of cricket called bats in his native Brazil, drew a surprised "Ooh" and then applause from the spectators at Busch Stadium when he wound up and cut loose with a fastball that sliced across the outside of the plate.

De Ferran followed with an awkward toss that landed far short and well left of the plate and sent pitcher Jason Isringhausen, acting as catcher for the ceremony, scrambling after the ball.

"I threw it good, average good, but Gil threw it really bad, and he made me look really good," Castroneves said. "I think anybody could have done what I did, but Gil made it look much more impressive."

Castroneves said one of the players came up and introduced himself, saying, "Hey, you cost me $1,000 when you lost at Indy."

The driver, who finished a close second to de Ferran, replied: "Hey, my teammate cost me $1.5 million."

Castroneves was exaggerating a bit. De Ferran got $1,353 million for the victory, while the runner-up won $739,665.

Crash report
Jeff Simmons won the Gateway 100 Pro Infiniti Series race Saturday after leaders Mark Taylor and Brandon Erwin crashed three laps from the end.

The 80-lap event finished under caution, with Cory Witherill second and Arie Luyendyk Jr. third.

Taylor started fourth, but charged into the lead on the first lap and stayed out front until lap 78. His car wiggled as Taylor drove into the first turn and Erwin tried to take advantage of the slip, going to the outside.

Taylor recovered and veered up the 11-degree banking and the two touched and slid into the wall.

Erwin scrambled from his car and trotted across the track to confront Taylor, but they were quickly separated by safety workers.

Earlier in the day, the final practice for the Pro Series was halted a few minutes early by a four-car crash involving Luyendyk, Gary Peterson, Moses Smith and Tom Wood.

Smith, who started the accident, said he spun after another car drove past, taking the air off his rear wing.

"It was really nobody's fault, and I just wish I hadn't taken three other cars with me," the rookie said.

None of the drivers were injured, but neither Smith nor Peterson were able to have their cars repaired in time to race, leaving only 11 in the field.

Spark plugs
Scott Sharp will be making his 69th consecutive IRL start. Sam Hornish Jr. is next with 41 straight races. ... Gil de Ferran, who is third, just three points behind series leader Scott Dixon, despite missing one race with injury, goes into Sunday with seven consecutive top-10 finishes. ... Al Unser Jr., sixth in the points, has completed 1,998 of a possible 2,031 laps this season.