Hornish explains Castroneves' big gamble

MILWAUKEE - OK, admit it.

Helio Castroneves left you wondering, at least a little bit, what he was talking about when he compared his successful gamble in Indianapolis 500 pole qualifying to playing "the crabs," as he says in his accented English, and winning with snake eyes. (Granted, this isn't the first time the excitable Brazilian has left people scratching their heads.)

So here, courtesy of teammate Sam Hornish Jr., is the back story:

The past couple of years, the 500 Club has held a casino night as part of its annual get-together. The two Penske drivers went last year, Hornish taught Castroneves the gist of the game of craps and they had fun tossing around their $1,000 in funny money like high rollers.

"Last year he rolled real good, and I had like $15,000," Hornish said. "So this year I was rolling and we were betting on everything. I'm hitting numbers. I'm like, `Put $50 on snake eyes.' So I roll, he bets it and I end up hitting it. There was like $6,200.

"He was like, `I'm going to take it down,' but I'm like, `Leave it up there.' I hit it again. Everybody's like, `You guys are awesome gamblers.' Yeah, right, this would never happen in real life.

"If we were playing with real money, we're both so cheap, that we would never win anything."

Lack of interest?

With eight victories in 11 races, Hendrick Motorsports is threatening to turn off fans by dominating the NASCAR Nextel Cup season in Ferrari-style, Formula One-type fashion. That's not Jeff Gordon's concern.

"My job is not to get ratings," the four-time champion said. "My job is to go out and win races and be competitive on the racetrack, and I'm pretty sure Michael Schumacher felt the same way.

"Our season is so long that if you find something over the off-season that makes you competitive early in the season, then you have less room to work into improve, where the other teams can easily figure out where they're missing it, what they need and they catch up.

"My biggest fear is just that, that we're too good too early to where it's going to be tougher to maintain that all the way through the season."

Car tunes

Five pilot episodes of "Name That Test & Tune" will be filmed at Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove beginning Tuesday.

The show is based on the 1960s game show "Name That Tune" and will feature about 50 vehicles and 20 contestants, the track says. It is a project of the same folks that created "Pinks" on Speed Channel.

Humpy? Or just Carnac?

Lowe's Motor Speedway President H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler, who has fun and a solid 10 for 18 record when picking the winner of the annual NASCAR "all-star" race at his track, didn't exactly go out on a limb this year.

Wheeler tabbed Jimmie Johnson, the series leader with four victories, as the favorite for the non-points Nextel All-Star Challenge on Saturday night.

Different and the same

Kyle Petty, on the All-Star Challenge: "As far as I am concerned, every week is an all-star race. That is the best part of NASCAR and the Nextel Cup Series."

In the right place

With his runner-up finish in the Spanish Grand Prix, rookie Lewis Hamilton became the youngest driver to lead the Formula One driver standings, surpassing a 47-year-old record.

At 22 years 4 months and 6 days, Hamilton edged Bruce McLaren, the founder of the team for which Hamilton drives, by nearly a month.

Bored in a good way

Schumacher, the Seven-time Formula One champion, on retirement: "Now when the kids have holidays, we can plan the holidays without any other agenda that comes in my way. You can wake up in the morning and make up your own schedule rather than somebody doing it for you."

Cool-down laps

Bill Elliott will be back in a Ford for the first time since 2000, joining the Wood Brothers for the Coca-Cola 600, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. . . .

Remember Riley-D'Hondt Motorsports? The team, announced last year amid considerable skepticism, is to make its Busch Series debut with David Green next weekend in Charlotte.