Castroneves doesn’t show any rust

In between well-wishers’ hugs and handshakes on pit road, Helio Castroneves once again strapped himself into his No. 3 red-and-white Team Penske race car Saturday.

Castroneves’ ready grin also was back, but knowing his driver was feeling butterflies ahead of practicing for today’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, Team Penske President Tim Cindric figured a touch of humor couldn’t hurt.”There’s a lot of people watching,” Cindric told his Brazilian driver, “so don’t stall it.”

They watched because only one day earlier, a jury acquitted Castroneves of federal tax-evasion charges that threatened to end the career of one of the IndyCar Series’ most successful and popular drivers.

Instead, Castroneves -- who won the Long Beach race in 2001 -- practiced and then qualified eighth in the 23-car field despite not having driven the car for several months.

At the end of Castroneves’ run, however, he spun and hit the retaining wall in Turn 1. Castroneves complained of a headache afterward and, although there was no evidence of a concussion, the driver was to be reevaluated before today’s race, series spokesman John Griffin said.

In any case, Castroneves’ return nearly was upstaged by his Australian teammate, Will Power.

Penske hired Power to drive Castroneves’ car pending the outcome of Castroneves’ trial. After Castroneves’ acquittal Friday, Penske entered an extra car so that Power -- the defending winner of the grand prix -- still could race.

Power took full advantage by winning the pole position with a lap of 101.63 mph on the 1.97-mile, 11-turn seaside street course.

Castroneves met with reporters after practice and began by saying, “it feels like I just woke up from a nightmare.” Then he briefly broke down in tears as team owner Roger Penske comforted him.

“Everybody knows I’m a pretty emotional guy,” said Castroneves, 33. “I’m just so thrilled to be back.”

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Back to the future

Speaking of returning to the fold, Dario Franchitti - who reached the pinnacle of Indy car racing in 2007 and then made an ill-fated switch to NASCAR stock-car racing last year -- also is back in the series.

“I love racing at Long Beach,” said Franchitti, 35, who qualified second for Target Chip Ganassi Racing and will start next to Power on the front row.

“I like the challenge of [racing on] multiple surfaces, the bumps, the [car’s] proximity to the walls,” said Franchitti, a Scottish driver of Italian descent who’s married to actress Ashley Judd.

Franchitti won the Indianapolis 500 in 2007 and a few months later won the series championship.Franchitti then moved to NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series, following other open-wheel racers who switched, such as Juan Pablo Montoya -- who was Franchitti’s teammate at Ganassi’s NASCAR team -- and Sam Hornish Jr.

But Franchitti broke his ankle early in the season, and then Ganassi shut down his team for lack of sponsorship.

“I was so humbled by the whole thing,” Franchitti said. “To go from the height of winning all those things to not having a sponsor and having to close the team down and all those people losing their jobs, that was a pretty big drop.”

So Franchitti returned to Indy cars for Ganassi this year, becoming Dixon’s teammate, and finished fourth in the season opener two weeks ago.

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And finally

Danica Patrick and her Andretti Green Racing teammates struggled, with Patrick qualifying 22nd, Marco Andretti 19th, Hideki Mutoh 17th and Tony Kanaan 11th.

In the American Le Mans Series race, Acura teams swept the top two prototype classes as co-drivers Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud won the LMP1 class and teammates Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz won the LMP2 class.

And in the pro/celebrity race, Al Unser Jr. -- a record six-time winner of the Long Beach grand prix -- won the professionals’ class while actor Keanu Reeves was first among the celebrities. Unser also is grand marshal of the race today, which is his 47th birthday.

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james.peltz@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Long Beach Grand Prix

TODAY’S SCHEDULE

Gates open

7 a.m.

Lifestyle Expo opens

8 a.m.

SPEED GT Challenge qualifying

8-8:30 a.m.

IndyCar practice

8:40-9:10 a.m.

Firestone Indy Lights

9:40-10:50 a.m.

Team drifting

11:05-11:30 a.m.

IndyCar pre-race activities

12:30 p.m.

35th Annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

1:20-3:30 p.m.

SPEED GT Challenge

4:15-5:15 p.m.

Lifestyle Expo closes

5:30 p.m.

THE LINEUP

on streets of Long Beach; lap length: 1.968 miles

*--* PP No. Driver Car Qualifying Fastest 1. 12 Will Power Dallara-Honda 1:09.7107 101.631 2. 10 Dario Franchitti Dallara-Honda 1:09.8675 101.403 3. 2 Raphael Matos Dallara-Honda 1:10.2043 100.917 4. 13 E.J. Viso Dallara-Honda 1:10.2232 100.890 5. 18 Justin Wilson Dallara-Honda 1:10.2680 100.825 6. 9 Scott Dixon Dallara-Honda 1:10.4038 100.631 7. 02 Graham Rahal Dallara-Honda 1:10.0283 101.171 8. 3 Helio Castroneves Dallara-Honda 1:10.1139 101.047 9. 34 Alex Tagliani Dallara-Honda 1:10.1278 101.027 10. 6 Ryan Briscoe Dallara-Honda 1:10.2126 100.905 11. 11 Tony Kanaan Dallara-Honda 1:10.3032 100.775 12. 21 Ryan Hunter-Reay Dallara-Honda 1:10.4339 100.588 13. 5 Mario Moraes Dallara-Honda 1:10.8459 100.003 14. 4 Dan Wheldon Dallara-Honda 1:10.5503 100.422 15. 06 Robert Doornbos Dallara-Honda 1:10.9577 99.845 16. 24 Mike Conway Dallara-Honda 1:10.6059 100.343 17. 27 Hideki Mutoh Dallara-Honda 1:11.1177 99.621 18. 23 Darren Manning Dallara-Honda 1:11.2411 99.448 19. 26 Marco Andretti Dallara-Honda 1:11.2307 99.463 20. 14 Vitor Meira Dallara-Honda 1:11.4487 99.159 21. 98 Stanton Barrett Dallara-Honda 1:14.4863 95.115 22. 7 Danica Patrick Dallara-Honda 1:11.6660 98.859 23. 20 Ed Carpenter Dallara-Honda 1:11.9069 98.527 *--*

2009 IRL SCHEDULE

*--* April 5 Honda Indy Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Fla.Winner: Ryan Briscoe Today Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach April 26 Road Runner Turbo Indy 300, Kansas City, Kan. May 24 Indianapolis 500, Indianapolis May 31 ABC Supply/AJ Foyt Indy 225, West Allis, Wis. June 6 Bombardier Learjet 550k, Fort Worth June 21 Iowa Corn Indy 250, Newton June 27 SunTrust Indy Challenge, Richmond, Va. July 5 Watkins Glen (N.Y.) Indy Grand Prix July 12 Grand Prix of Toronto July 26 Rexall Edmonton Indy Grand Prix Aug. 1 Kentucky Indy 300, Sparta Aug. 9 Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, Lexington, Ohio Aug. 23 Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County Aug. 29 Peak Antifreeze and Motor Oil Indy 300, Joliet, Ill. Sept. 19 Indy 300, Motegi, Japan Oct. 10 Homestead-Miami Indy 300, Homestead, Fla. *--*

THE HISTORY

The 2008 race was the last race for Champ Cars as the series merged with the Indy Racing League, and is now an event on the IRL calendar.

The Long Beach Grand Prix, in its 35th year, is also the longest-running major “street” race held on the continent. Attendance for the weekend regularly reaches or exceeds 200,000.

The race started in 1975 as a Formula 5000 race on the streets of downtown, and became a Formula One event the following year. From 1984 to 2008 it was a CART/Champ Car event.

Sources: gplb.com, irl.com and Los Angeles Times