As a Southerner in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series, Jimmy Kite will be racing the No. 91 Ethanol Hemelgarn Racing Dallara/Toyota/Firestone as close to his Stockbridge, Ga. home as he will all season when the Series makes its annual stop in Nashville Saturday. As a result, Kite considers this weekend’s Firestone Indy 200 at Nashville Superspeedway (Lebanon, Tenn.) his “home” event. The 200 lap/ 266 mile, July 16th race under the lights will be Kite’s first visit to the 1.33-mile oval as he makes his 28th career IndyCar start.

“I know I must be pretty close to home because I’m getting calls from people I have never met asking me for tickets. Seriously, I’m lucky to have a lot of friends and family coming up from Georgia to watch. Since the Indy cars don’t race in Atlanta or Charlotte anymore, Nashville is my home race. It should be a pretty good place for them to come and see,” said Kite.

For Kite and the Ron Hemelgarn-owned team, the nighttime visit to Music City, 270 miles from Kite’s Georgia home, is the opportunity the team is looking for to deliver the result they have been flirting with since coming together for the Indianapolis 500. The Nashville-oval is a unique size for the Series and the concrete pavement, instead of the traditional asphalt seen elsewhere on the open wheel schedule, makes the track a wildcard for setup. Furthermore, Hemelgarn Racing won the inaugural IndyCar event held at the track in 2001 with Buddy Lazier (Vail, Col.) and, in the process, set the record for most laps led by the race winner and the fastest race that has been run there.

Kite will be making his fifth IndyCar start of the season since joining Ethanol-Hemelgarn Racing in May. Since being signed as a replacement for the injured Paul Dana (St. Louis) for the “500”, Kite and the Indianapolis-based team have worked to find a rhythm that will put the Toyota-powered Ethanol car at the front. The move has been progressive since the disappointment of qualifying and finishing 32nd at Indy. More important than the statistics is the level of communication that has grown with each lap the two-time Indianapolis 500-winnning team and the 1997 USAC Silver Crown Copper World Classic champion have worked together. The combination is coming off a 13th-place finish at Richmond and a 19th at Kansas as they come south of the Mason-Dixon Line for the final time this season.

"We’re starting to find a good setup for the EthanolToyota on the banked tracks and I think that is going to carry over pretty well to Nashville. We didn’t have a chance to test here but I feel good about Saturday night. The concrete will be a little different but the last concrete track I raced one of these cars was at Dover and I loved it. I have my eyes set on that Gibson guitar they give to the winner but, honestly, we’re just looking for a strong finish. Our thoughts are definitely with everyone at Atlanta Motor Speedway. They got hit pretty hard by a storm the other night and that track has meant so much in my career it is almost like it hitting my house. I know Ed Clark and his whole group will have everything ready to go for the NASCAR weekend but they have a heck of a job in front of them. We’re all thinking about them.”

The Firestone Indy 200 can be seen live on ESPN at 7 pm (EDT) on Saturday, July 16th.

Ethanol Hemelgarn Racing is backed by a group of companies within the fast-growing ethanol industry, led by the major ethanol design-build firms Fagen Inc., ICM Inc., and Broin Companies. Ethanol is a high octane, high performance fuel that is clean burning, renewable and made in America. As a growing component of the United States' gasoline supply, it delivers improved vehicle performance while reducing emissions and improving air quality. The IndyCar Series has announced that it will switch to ethanol as its fuel source beginning with a 10% blend in 2006 and moving to 100% fuel-grade ethanol in 2007.

The team's 2005 roster of supporting partners under the ethanol banner was announced earlier this week and includes nearly 30 equipment and process technology vendors and suppliers to the Ethanol industry.

A major ethanol industry sponsor on the 2005 roster is Ethanol Products. Major associate sponsors are Dakota Gold Marketing, Flottweg, Novozymes, and Victory Energy. Associate sponsors are A&B Process Systems, Advance Tank Construction, Alfa Laval, Brown Tank, Invensys Foxboro, J&D Construction, Laidig Systems, McCormick Construction, Mid America Steel, Monsanto, and WINBCO Tank. Supporters include the American Coalition for Ethanol, Blackburn Construction, E&I Specialists, the Ethanol Promotion & Information Council, the Illinois Corn Marketing Board, New Energy Corp., the Renewable Fuels Association and Tranter PHE. Other friends of the program are Barr-Rosin, Felker Fabrication, Malloy Electric Bearing Supply, SBI Mechanical, Wanzek Construction, and Westfalia Separator.

To learn more about the Ethanol industry and how ethanol can be used in the passenger car you are driving today visit www.drivingethanol.org. Team and driver information are available at www.hemelgarnracing.com, www.pauldana.com, and www.jimmykite.com.

Life Fitness is an associate sponsors for the #91 Ethanol Hemelgarn Racing entry. Life Fitness invents, manufactures and delivers the world's most advanced fitness equipment to both commercial and home markets. They are the global leader in providing industry-tailored solutions to world-class fitness facilities and training centers. Their industry leadership transcends three decades and includes some of the most celebrated advancements in the history of fitness. Additional information is available at www.lifefitness.com.

###

The GEM Group, Josh Weissman, 310-482-3315