Reigning Indianapolis 500 champion Dan Wheldon is fond of greeting Indianapolis Motor Speedway president and COO Joie Chitwood.
“Every time I do, he seems to have some great gift for me,” said Wheldon, whose image on the Borg-Warner Trophy was unveiled in January at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum.
On Tuesday, March 7, Chitwood presented Wheldon his Indianapolis 500 Champion of Champions Ring during a public event to celebrate the 90th running of the 500-Mile Race at the U.S. Navy Memorial & Naval Heritage Center in Washington, D.C. The ring, designed by Herff Jones, contains a one-carat diamond.
“Obviously it’s something I’ve been very anxious to get hold of,” said Wheldon, who won from the 16th starting position. “It’s like Christmas has come early again. It’s something I’m very proud of and will wear with a great deal of pride.
“I’m not sure if I’m going to wear it all the time, but it will certainly be featured strongly in my trophy cabinet next to my Baby Borg and on special occasions it will be brought out and put on my finger.”
An all-star driver lineup -- three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Johnny Rutherford; two-time winner Helio Castroneves; Janet Guthrie, the first woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500; and Michael and Marco Andretti – attended the event and answered questions from the overflow audience.
IndyCar Series stars ready for IROC
IndyCar Series champions Sam Hornish Jr. and Scott Sharp know the chips will be stacked against them when they take to one of racing’s biggest stages this weekend.
The pair will participate in the first race of the 2006 Crown Royal International Race of Champions at the Daytona International Speedway – site of the Daytona 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup event. Sharp will start on the front row with NASCAR veteran Mark Martin and drive the No. 08 Gold car. Hornish will start fourth in the No. 06 Day-Glo car.
“Being in an IROC car the same weekend as the Daytona 500, you know there are a lot of eyes watching you,” Hornish said. “You’re running against 11 of the best drivers out there -- all of them are champions in their own right -- so it’s a lot of fun. It’s pretty hard to go out there and win those races, but if you have a good run, you feel extra proud about it because you beat those drivers, especially the NASCAR guys.”
The 100-mile race, the first of four events throughout 2006, pits drivers from various racing disciplines against each other in identically prepared stock cars. Both Hornish and Sharp will be competing in the series for the third time
in their careers and looking for the first win by an IRL driver since 2002.
"I am excited for my third full season of IROC racing,” Sharp said. “Daytona is always one of the most exciting races. We are racing against some pretty tough guys who certainly know exactly what they are doing in these kind of cars and conditions. It is exciting to be a part of it, and I'll certainly try to bring home a good result."
Hornish and Sharp each spent the week working with IROC test drivers Jim Sauter, Dave Marcis and David Donahue to get acclimated with the car. The key is mastering a form of drafting neither is accustomed to in Indy-style cars.
“The first time I ran at Daytona, I finished second to Tony Stewart,” Hornish said. “I basically pushed him through the pack and decided to take second because I didn’t think there was any way I could win. The next year, I was
running second with a few laps to go, and I tried for the win. I tried to make a pass and no one would help me, so I went straight to the back. I don’t expect help from anyone this time.”
Hornish, though, may have another friend to help him this year besides his fellow IndyCar Series competitor. Penske NASCAR driver Ryan Newman is also competing in the event. “I didn’t have any teammates the last two times, but now that I am with Team Penske, maybe with Newman in it I can get some help,” Hornish said. “I don’t go into anything without expecting to win. I’ll go out and push hard. Hopefully, I will be on top of my game and do well enough to win the whole thing.”
The first race of the International Race of Champions is scheduled for 6 p.m. (EST) on Feb. 17. It will be broadcast by Speed Channel.
Meira signs with Panther Racing.
Panther Racing announced it has signed Vitor Meira as the driver of the No. 4 Pennzoil Panther Honda-powered Dallara for the 2006 IndyCar Series season.
Meira, a 28-year-old Brazilian, finished seventh in the IndyCar Series standings last season while driving for Rahal Letterman Racing. Most notable among his efforts was a second-place finish behind Dan Wheldon in the Indianapolis 500 and another runner-up finish at Kentucky Speedway. Meira also finished third twice -- at Kansas and California.
He finished eighth in final 2004 IRL standings in the No. 17 car despite competing in just 14 of 16 races. “This is a fresh start for me and for Panther Racing,” Meira said. “And now we are going to make it a quick start. Everything comes full circle; the Panther No. 4 is the first Indy-car I ever drove. They gave me my rookie test in Texas in 2001 and now we’re going racing together. It’s been a long offseason and I’m happy that everything has come together the way it did because I’m excited to be with the team and all the potential that we have.”
Panther also announced that Pennzoil Lubricants will continue its nine-year relationship with the team. Additional sponsors for the 2006 IndyCar Series season will be released as soon as details are finalized.
“I think it’s amazing that we can put a deal together this late and still have an opportunity to sign an A-list driver like Vitor Meira,” Panther co-owner John Barnes said. “Any team would be lucky to have him, and we’re excited to be
moving forward on the 2006 season. Our goal here has always been to win races, and I believe with Pennzoil, Vitor and Honda power, we can do just that.”
Panther has accumulated 15 race victories in its eight seasons in the Indy Racing League, which is second most in league history. The team won back-to-back IndyCar Series Championships in 2001 and 2002 with Sam Hornish Jr., and is the only team to win two league titles with the same driver. Meira is set to become the 12th driver to start in the IndyCar Series for Panther. He will be the fourth driver to pilot the team’s No. 4 entry.
Vision Racing To field a second full-time IndyCar Series entry
The No. 2 Honda-powered Dallara will be driven by IndyCar Series veteran Tomas Scheckter. Ed Carpenter returns to the team as driver of the No. 20 Honda-powered Dallara. Both cars will carry a new paint scheme.
“During the winter off-season we really concentrated on a building program that
had as its foundation. A strong nucleus of people from 2005,” team owner Tony
George said. “And while we are all happy to have Honda power for the coming
year, we have focused on becoming a two-car ICS team. We believe that both of
these developments will begin paying dividends for us immediately. We are
excited to have Tomas Scheckter join our team and expect him to contribute
immediately by bringing his experience and work ethic to Vision.”
Scheckter joined Carpenter for the second day of the IndyCar Series’ initial
2006 test at Phoenix International Raceway two weeks ago and turned the seventh quickest lap of the test. Carpenter was eighth.
“I’m extremely excited to be with Vision, to be back in the Indy Racing League
and to be back in the car,” said Scheckter, son of 1979 Formula One champion,
Jody Scheckter. “During the off-season, I had been speaking with Tony about
joining the team. Tony was thinking about increasing the size of the team; I had
connections with a lot of the personnel on the team, and I get along well with
Ed so it was a good fit. I’m excited to be here, and I’m ready to help the team
get some race wins.”
Scheckter, 25, a native of Cape Town, South Africa, has 14 top-5 finishes in 61
starts. Last year, his victory on the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway came from
the pole position (one of three pole starts in ’05). He led 365 laps over the 17
races and recorded eight top 10s.
“I’m looking forward to getting further acquainted with the team, but I’m
excited to get to continue working with my engineer from Panther Racing (David
Cripps),” Scheckter said. “Since we’ve worked together in the past, we have a
good understanding of each other, and we’ve both been a part of a very
successful team. So, hopefully we can bring those experiences to Vision. Tony is
serious about winning and that’s what we want to do. That’s what Ed and I will
be shooting for this season.”
Vision Racing has also expanded its ownership team with long-time leading man
Patrick Dempsey, who’s enjoying huge today for his role as Dr. Derek Shepherd on ABC’s Golden Globe Award-winning drama “Grey’s Anatomy.” Dempsey’s latest role, however, won’t be seen on the silver screen, but rather at the racetrack. After attending the 2004 Indianapolis 500 as a “celebrity guest” and meeting Tony and Laura George, Dempsey’s future racing strategy began to develop. A year later, following another meeting with the couple, Dempsey expressed an interest in Vision Racing and followed it throughout the 2005 season. During the off-season, Dempsey, who was recently named Cosmopolitan’s 2006 “Fun Fearless Male of the Year,” officially partnered with the George family as a co-owner of Vision Racing.
“Laura and I are proud to have Patrick as a partner in Vision and value his
contribution and council as we have built this team,” Tony George said.
Dempsey is no stranger to racing when he’s not on camera. A true racer at
heart, Dempsey is currently driving professionally in “Grand American Cup”
sports car racing with Hypersport. He also attended the Skip Barber and Panoz
Racing Schools and began racing in the Panoz GT Series in 2004. Dempsey finished
an impressive third at the Panoz GT race in Road Atlanta in early May 2005. He
also competed in the April 2005 Toyota Celebrity Race at Long Beach and the 2005
Baja 1000 with drivers Boris Said and Oriol Servia.
“I am thrilled to be a part of the Vision team and I feel like a kid in a candy store,” Dempsey said. “I think Ed Carpenter and Tomas Scheckter is a formidable combination, and I believe they demonstrated this by their performance at the first test. I also cannot think of anyone other than Tony and Laura George that I would want to partner with in IndyCar Racing. All my
experiences at Indy have been magical.”
INDYCAR SERIES IN LINE WITH PRESIDENT’S CALL TO ACTION
INDIANAPOLIS, – The IRL IndyCar® Series already is in line with President Bush’s recent call for America to wean itself from foreign oil by embracing alternative fuel sources such as ethanol.
The IndyCar Series, entering its 11th season of competition March 26 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, will use an ethanol-methanol blend to power its Honda engines in 2006. The series will turn to 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol for the 2007 season.
“America is addicted to oil. The best way to break this addiction is through technology,” Bush said in his sixth State of the Union address on Jan. 31. In his remarks, the President emphasized the important role ethanol can play in America’s energy future, helping reduce our dependence on foreign oil while improving our environment. Ethanol industry officials hope that fueling the IndyCar Series will translate into an increase in auto manufacturers producing Flexible Fuel Vehicles that run on 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.
The IndyCar Series always has been recognized for its technical leadership in automobile racing and now it is the industry’s leader in renewable and environmentally responsible energy,” says Brian Barnhart, president and COO of the Indy Racing League. “We are proud to partner with the ethanol industry to showcase a great American fuel source. We feel a commitment to the environment and our country’s energy security is consistent with our sport’s legacy of race-bred innovation and leadership.”
Ethanol is the only proven commercial scale renewable transportation fuel currently available in the marketplace. By the end of 2006, the U.S. ethanol industry will have a capacity of over 5 billion gallons annually – up more than 300 percent from five years ago. While that 5 billion is just a fraction of the 140 billion domestic market ethanol is now blended into more than a third of our nation’s gasoline supply. By 2012, capacity will exceed 7.5 billion, the volume required in the Renewable Fuels Standard in last year’s energy bill. “There is a large and dedicated group of people in this country working overtime to lessen our dependence on oil. More than 92 U.S. ethanol plants are providing ethanol for our nation’s fuel supply and this is growing as the demand for ethanol continues to grow,” says Tom Slunecka, executive director of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC). “Our partnership with the IndyCar Series has helped to demonstrate that gas enriched with ethanol will help your car achieve its maximum performance.”
Transition from methanol to 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol over the next two IndyCar Series seasons will have no significant technical barriers. The fans will not notice a change – speed and horsepower will remain the same, and better fuel mileage is expected. Using the ethanol blend during the first Open Test of the season, four drivers bettered last year’s pole speed at Phoenix International Raceway.
“The transition between methanol and ethanol in our cars has been very smooth,” says Phil Casey, IRL senior technical director. “Our cars don’t sound differently, smell differently or run differently than they have in the past. It’s been a seamless transition so far.” As a clean-burning and renewable fuel that is non-toxic and 100 percent biodegradable, it reduces air pollution (a 10 percent blend reduces carbon monoxide better than any other reformulated gasoline by as much a 30 percent and shows a 35-46 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions) and improves racing’s environmental footprint. The highest commercial octane rated fuel delivers strong engine performance by helping engines resist detonation so they can run higher compression ratios.
The 2006 season will not be the first time ethanol has powered a car in the famed Indianapolis 500. At the 1927 race, a car driven by Leon Duray experimented with using ethyl (grain) alcohols.
The Indy Racing League – the sanctioning body of the IndyCar Series – worked with a coalition of ethanol industry companies, led by the major ethanol facility engineering and construction firms ICM Inc., Fagen Inc., and Broin Companies, in making the transition to ethanol. To help build awareness, the ethanol industry has sponsored an entry in the IndyCar Series since 2005.
This season, the industry will sponsor the No. 17 Rahal Letterman Racing Team Ethanol Honda-powered Panoz driven by Paul Dana.
NEW IMS MERCHANDISE CATALOG
INDIANAPOLIS– Many new items, from apparel to die-cast vehicles and other collectibles, can be purchased from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2006 Merchandise Catalog, which is available at all Official Trackside Gift Shops and Brickyard Authentics stores.
The 2006 Merchandise Catalog features items highlighting the 90th Running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 28. Some very unique items are available in celebration of this event, including a T-shirt that pays tribute to the starting field in the inaugural race in 1911, a stainless steel model race car commemorating the replicas that were commissioned as far back as 1948 by IMS President Tony Hulman as gifts to drivers, sponsors and other dignitaries, and a full-size replica IndyCar nose cone that lists all Indianapolis 500 winners dating back to Ray Harroun in 1911.
There’s something for every race fan in the 16-page, full-color catalog, which features the “Celebrate the Spectacle” theme art for the 90th Indianapolis 500 as its cover. The catalog contains more than 170 gift items, apparel and collectibles from the Indianapolis 500, United States Grand Prix, Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, IndyCar® Series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Modeling some of the apparel in the catalog are two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves, two-time IndyCar Series champion Sam Hornish Jr., and Indianapolis 500 veterans Tony Kanaan and Ed Carpenter.
Items in the catalog, in addition to many others, also are available at the Brickyard Authentics stores at the Indianapolis International Airport and Circle Centre in downtown Indianapolis and online at www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com.
Catalogs also will be mailed to existing Brickyard Authentics mail-order customers, and fans can request a catalog by calling (800) 955-INDY. Catalogs also are available at Brickyard Crossing Golf Resort and Inn and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Administration Building.
Dana joins Rahal Letterman Racing
Dana joins Rahal Letterman Racing: Rahal Letterman Racing will attempt to keep the Bombardier Rookie of the Year Award in house in 2006.
The team, co-owned by 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal and television personality David Letterman, announced Jan. 23 that it has signed a multi-year deal with Team Ethanol to sponsor a third RLR entry in the IRL IndyCar® Series.
Bombardier Rookie of the Year candidate Paul Dana will pilot the #17 Honda-powered Panoz as a teammate to 2004 Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice and 2005 Bombardier Rookie of the Year Danica Patrick.
“Rahal Letterman Racing’s performance history speaks for itself,” said Dana, who made three starts for Ethanol Hemelgarn Racing in 2005 before suffering a season-ending injury during practice for the Indianapolis 500. “The opportunity to work in a multi-car team where I can learn from experienced teammates and compare their data is an amazing opportunity. This is a dream come true, and I intend to work as hard as possible to make the most of it. I’d like to thank everyone who has been involved in bringing the Team Ethanol program to where it is today for the work they did over the last three years.”
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 for all passenger cars and trucks while reducing emissions and improving air quality. Dana’s Team Ethanol effort is funded by the major ethanol design-build firms Fagen Inc., ICM Inc. and Broin Companies, who are the industry leaders in the 4 billion gallon ethanol market. Promotion of the sponsorship and cooperative efforts between Team Ethanol, the IndyCar Series, and RLR will be led by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC).
EPIC is an alliance of ethanol producers and industry leaders who have come together to spread the positive attributes about ethanol. Currently enjoying record growth, the ethanol industry will continue to play a larger role in meeting our nation’s energy needs.
“Team Ethanol and its key sponsors have made a significant impact on the IRL IndyCar Series in the last few years,” Rahal said. “The leaders of Broin, Fagen and ICM have a vision on how they can positively affect the availability of fuel with ethanol that is a renewable resource. Their involvement and the historic partnership they forged with the IRL to become the fuel of the IndyCar Series, is bringing them one step closer to bringing that vision to all Americans. Along the way, they are fundamentally changing not only the future of open-wheel racing, but also the way Americans’ drive. This demonstrates to me that this is a group of companies that wants to have an impact on and off the track.”
CASTRONEVES LEADS FINAL DAY OF ROAD COURSE TESTING
HOMESTEAD – Helio Castroneves continued to impress on the road course at Homestead-Miami Speedway, leading the final day of IRL IndyCar® Series road course Open Testing.
Castroneves, who led the opening day of testing on the 2.21-mile road course on March 2, recorded a lap of 1 minute, 10.5683 seconds, 112.742 mph, in his No. 3 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone. Castroneves was slightly faster than 2003 IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon who posted the second-fastest lap, 1:10.6675, 112.584 mph, in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Panoz/Honda/Firestone.
“Awesome days,” Castroneves said. “Sam (Hornish Jr.) and I were working together, the whole team was working together and that makes us very strong. It's good. It's our first time with the Honda engine. We're trying to understand the new rules - no traction control. Everything seems to be going our way. It doesn't mean much here, but it at least gives you a good feeling that things are going well, at least going better than the others. We have to keep working hard. Nothing comes easy.”
Hornish (112.300 mph), Scott Sharp (112.240 mph) and Dario Franchitti (111.961 mph) rounded out the top five as teams turned 1,393 laps of incident free testing. IndyCar Series teams will take a day off before returning to test on the variably banked 1.5-mile oval on March 5. The IRL Indy Pro Series™ will conduct its initial test of 2006 on the road course on March 4.
TESTING QUOTES:
HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone, Quickest in testing): “(About lack of traction control) It's good to have these days, and also one more after the Homestead race again to make sure that everyone feels comfortable with it. I haven't heard anybody complain much about the traction control. The good side, my point of view, is that when the tires get old even an experienced driver can make a little mistake, wheels spin a little bit, and that might give someone a chance to make a pass. That's very hard on the road course normally. We want to make everything as equal as possible for everyone, so I think Honda and the IRL are going in the right direction.
SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Panoz/Honda/Firestone, second fastest): “It went well. I think we kind of got a little bit lost during the mid-part of the day with the compound of tires we had here. We didn’t get much ut of it in the last few runs. For a team test and everybody here, we got what we need to get done. Hopefully, we’ll move on and move up a qualifying spot.”
SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone, third fastest): “Everything went smoothly, but we didn't pick up as much speed as we wanted to after all of the changes we made ov ernight. We're happy to be in the top five. It's a lot better than when we tested here last year. I feel a whole lot better heading to St. Pete this year."
SCOTT SHARP (No. 8 Delphi Panoz/Honda/Firestone, fourth-quickest): “It was a really good day. The road courses are an area we needed to improve on. John Dick and the Delphi squad really worked hard. We came here with the thought process hat we don't race here, so being fast on the speed chart here really isn't that important, but let's throw different things at that car that may not even help the car here but give us good information for the other tracks. To be pretty competitive and still feel like we learned a lot, we're really pleased.
DAN WHELDON (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Panoz/Honda/Firestone, sixth fastest): “It personally was a challenge for me to familiarize myself with the Panoz chassis, which I have not been in before. To tell you the truth, I didn't get it as I would have liked. We had a car that we thought was very good on the older compound tire. When we put the new compound tire on, we didn't think it suited us as much. The stuff we had to change to make the old compound work, we'll have to go back and change that. It will help us.”
INDYCAR SERIES TEAMS BACK ON TRACK IN PHOENIX
AVONDALE, Ariz– “Happy” was the word of the day, as 15 Indy Racing League IndyCar® Series teams shook off the rust from the offseason at an IRL test at Phoenix International Raceway.
Teams turned 1,255 trouble-free miles on the first day of a two-day test held
to allow teams to familiarize themselves with their equipment. Among the teams
testing new packages were Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Marlboro Team Penske, which are running Honda-powered Dallaras for the first time.
“Honda was very good to Marlboro Team Penske in 2000 and 2001, so it is nice to be back with them,” said two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves, who recorded the second-fastest lap of the day of 20.6908 seconds, 173.990 mph.
“It’s also good to be back in a car, too. It’s been a long vacation, and I’m very happy to be back in a car today.”
The day also marked the debut of 2005 IndyCar Series champion Dan Wheldon in the No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing machine. “It was good to get started with Target Chip Ganassi Racing,” Wheldon said. “You can see why they’ve won so many championships and the Indy 500 with Juan Pablo (Montoya). It’s good to be back in the car. It was very enjoyable. We just focused on some stuff that we need to work on for the short oval. Obviously, the Dallara is new to the team. It was good to get my relationship started up again with Andy Brown. Everybody at Chip Ganassi Racing has made me feel welcome. We just have some work to do to speed up the learning process for everybody, but overall it was a good first day.”
2004 IndyCar Series champion Tony Kanaan turned the fastest lap of the day with a lap of 20.6161 seconds, 174.621 mph.
HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “Honda was very good to Marlboro Team Penske in 2000 and 2001, so it is nice to be back with them. It’s also good to be back in a car, too. It’s been a long vacation and I’m very happy to be back in a car today.”
SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “It went pretty well. We’ve been trying to work through the biggest projects that we have with the new car. We’re not running for time right now. The car has been really consistent and the new package with Honda and Dallara has been nice, so far. (About being back in an IndyCar Series car): “It’s good to be back in the car. You kind of forget how long it has been after a few laps. Phoenix has always been fun for the drivers, so I’m happy to start the year here.”
DARIO FRANCHITTI (No. 27 Klein Tools/Jim Beam Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “It was nice to be back in the car, albeit a different car with the Klein Tools/Jim Beam car. I kept wanting to go into the ArcaEx pit every time I came into the pit box. It's good, but we had a very good car in the race here last year.
Ultimately, we're testing for the races at Milwaukee and Richmond, and to a
certain degree Nashville. We're not really too worried about an ultimate car for
Phoenix. We've got to have the confidence that we can to do the job. There's
always that part of you that wants to go look at the time sheet, but you have to
have the discipline not to.”
BRYAN HERTA (No. 7 XM Satellite Radio Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “It was a good day. We were working on some different things on the setup and we learned some stuff. We were able to put it all together there at the end of the day. I’m very happy with today, hopefully we can build on that and have another successful day tomorrow. (About being back in an IndyCar Series car): “It’s too long being out of a car for me. I like the break after the season’s over, but I’ve been ready to go for a while now.”
SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone):
“Everything went real well for Marlboro Team Penske from start to finish. We
have a long day tomorrow and have a lot of things to do. We just didn’t want to
get too far into the program and use up too many tires. We only have three sets
for the test, so we went out and ran around out there for a little bit and make
sure we’re set for tomorrow.”
TONY KANAAN (No. 11 Team 7-Eleven Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “I definitely missed being in the car. It was a long time, especially on a track like this. You can really feel the speed. It's good to be back where I belong. We were doing a little work, trying to figure out the new engine configuration and the new wing configuration. It was a pretty comfortable day for us. This track is very similar to Milwaukee in Turns 3 and 4, and Turns 1 and 2 are like Richmond, so we can take a lot out of it.
WHELDON LEADS FINAL DAY OF INDYCAR TESTING
HOMESTEAD, Fla.– Dan Wheldon saved his best laps for the end of Open Testing at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The 2005 IRL IndyCar Series and Indianapolis 500 winner led the only oval day for IRL IndyCar® Series teams posting a lap of 24.5088 seconds, 218.126 mph, on the 1.5-mile oval with less than hour remaining in the afternoon session. Wheldon’s lap beat Buddy Rice’s track record of 24.5920 seconds, 217.388 mph (Feb. 28, 2004).
“I think everyone at Target Chip Ganassi Racing has worked very hard over these past four days trying to get us a good road course car for this year and a good oval car,” Wheldon said. “We certainly, and for me personally, have a little bit of work to do on the road course car. The oval car seems very good. It’s obviously fast. I'm always impressed with Honda even though it’s a one-make series now. They still do everything right and take care of everything that needs taking care of. I think we're in OK shape. We'll have to wait and see.
We're obviously fast. It’s going to be tough this year. It’s going to be a fight. There's no doubt about it.”
Wheldon was slightly faster than 2003 IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon who posted the second-fastest lap, 24.6150, 217.185 mph, in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone.
Sam Hornish Jr. (216.882 mph), Helio Castroneves (216.652 mph), Tony Kanaan (215.469 mph), Ed Carpenter (215.416 mph) and Buddy Rice (215.196) joined the Target Chip Ganassi duo in bettering Tomas Scheckter’s 2005 pole speed of 215.115 mph.
IndyCar Series teams return to test the variably banked 1.5-mile oval in on March 24 to begin preparations for the Toyota Indy 300.
TESTING QUOTES:
SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Panoz/Honda/Firestone, second fastest): “It was a good day. I think the team in general got through what they needed to get through. I think at the end it was more about tows, so the speed doesn't say much. I think we were more comfortable at those speeds than some others. Some people pulled out some big laps. All in all, I'm pretty happy. Its nice to have some power and be consistently at the top.”
SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone, third fastest): “Pretty uneventful, but for the most part it went really well. We made some adjustments throughout the day that helped. The Penske team did really well and we are looking forward to the season to start.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone, fourth fastest): “The day went really well. The Penske team ran up front for the most part. I felt very comfortable out there.” (You ran up front for the most part of this test, how is your confidence going into the start of the season?): “I’m very confident, I don’t want to jinks it but I feel really good and I’m ready for the season to start.”
REUNION TO PUT INDIANAPOLIS 500 PACE CARS IN SPOTLIGHT
INDIANAPOLIS – The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum is honoring the rich tradition of Indianapolis 500 Pace Cars with a Pace Car Reunion on May 19-21 during the 90th running of “The Greatest Spectacle n Racing” at IMS.
Owners of “Official” Indianapolis 500 Pace Cars, 500 Festival cars and other “Official” 500 vehicles can display their cars, mingle with other Pace Car owners and share in the excitement of the 90th Indianapolis 500-Mile Race.
Cars will be staged each day in a picturesque setting along the lake and golf course in the infield of the famed IMS oval. Participants will enjoy a dinner reception Friday, May 19, culminating in a lap around the famed 2.5-mile oval Sunday, May 21.
The entry fee for the Pace Car Reunion is $90 per car. Registration forms must be postmarked by Wednesday, March 31, 2006 and must include a recent photograph and biography of the vehicle. Each entrant will receive two Bronze Badges, which provide access to the track and Gasoline Alley garage area, one parking pass, admission to the dinner reception, an event shirt, event plaque and a track lap.
For more information about the Pace Car Reunion, serious inquiries can call the Hall of Fame Museum at (317) 492-6746.
FANS, DRIVERS THRILLED BY INDY 500 KICKOFF EVENT IN WASHINGTON
INDIANAPOLIS – The 90th Indianapolis 500 took center stage – literally and figuratively – during an event March 7 with The Smithsonian Associates in Washington.
A packed house of fans joined past and present Indianapolis 500 drivers and dignitaries at the U.S. Navy Memorial & Naval Heritage Center for an evening of “Celebrating the Spectacle” of the 90th Indy 500, scheduled for Sunday, May 28. A variety of presentations preceded a popular “town hall meeting”question-and-answer session between the fans and drivers.
“Take it from me, and I say this as a director and scholar at the Smithsonian Institute, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indy 500 and its amazingly talented and stellar drivers have been true icons of American culture,” said Dr. Richard Kurin, director of Smithsonian National Programs.
Drivers who attended and participated in the event were reigning Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon, three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Johnny Rutherford, two-time Indy winner Helio Castroneves, pioneering female Indy driver Janet Guthrie, and the father-and-son racing duo of Michael and Marco Andretti. Noted motorsports broadcaster Bob Jenkins served as the master of ceremonies.
“It was a fantastic event,” Wheldon said. “There were fantastic people that I met, and the presentations were very interesting.”
The event started with the Hulman-George family receiving The Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Outstanding Public Service in recognition of its programs to honor the Armed Forces for the last 60 years at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Allison Barber presented the award on behalf of Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld to IMS President and Chief Operating Officer Joie Chitwood.
Chitwood then presented Wheldon with his Champion of Champions ring for winning the Indianapolis 500 in 2005. Wheldon slipped on the ring in the shadow of the famous Borg-Warner Trophy, which was on display at the event, fresh with Wheldon’s image added.
“Obviously, it’s something I’ve been very anxious to get hold of,” Wheldon said. “It’s like Christmas has come early again. It’s something I’m very proud of and will wear with a great deal of pride.
“I was happy to see Joie again, because every time I do, he seems to have some great gift for me.”
Video presentations of each driver on the panel then were shown, and the floor then was opened for many questions for the driver panel. The memorable event ended with each driver being swarmed by fans for autographs and conversation, in front of a huge backdrop of the official “Celebrate the Spectacle” theme art for the 90th Indianapolis 500.
“We enjoyed the questions in front of the fans, and they were all very good, very pointed and informed,” Rutherford said. “The fans seemed like they enjoyed it, and there were a lot of autographs, and I had a chance to sign a lot of my books and a few Sports Illustrated covers that I was on, so a lot of people came in that were race fans.
“You’re always surprised at some of these functions just how much the fans know,and how deeply they get into it.”
Said Guthrie, the first woman to race in the Indianapolis 500: “I thought the event went wonderfully well. It was a very lively and attentive audience. Looking at the catalog of events they (Smithsonian Associates) can choose from, I think it really says something for the Indianapolis 500 that such a large group came.
“It was a wonderful setting for the kickoff of the 90th Indianapolis 500.”
90TH INDIANAPOLIS 500 START TIME MOVES
INDIANAPOLIS– The start time for the 90th Indianapolis 500 has been moved to 1 p.m. local time Sunday, May 28 due to the state of Indiana switching to Daylight Savings Time this spring, Indianapolis Motor peedway officials announced Feb. 6.
The race originally was scheduled to start at noon local time. In addition, gates will open at 6 a.m. local time on Race Day, one hour later than in past years.
“This starting time change was made because of Indiana’s shift to Daylight Savings Time, which also had an effect on scheduling with our television partners at ABC Sports,” said Joie Chitwood, Indianapolis Motor Speedway president and chief operating officer. “We think this change will have minimal impact on our fans. Sunset will occur one hour later this year due to the time change, which will give us just as much daylight as last year, when the starting time was noon.”
Indiana will adopt Daylight Savings Time for the first time this April after previously staying on Standard Time all year. Starting in April, Indianapolis will be on the same time as the East Coast of the United States year-round.
The remainder of the 90th Indianapolis 500 schedule, announced last November, remains unchanged.
CHEEVER TO COMPETE IN 90TH INDIANAPOLIS 500
INDIANAPOLIS – Eddie Cheever Jr. always has said he might return to the driver’s seat for the Indianapolis 500 if the right opportunity presented itself.
That opportunity has arrived.
1998 Indianapolis 500 winner Cheever announced Feb. 21 that he will drive in the 90th edition of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” on May 28 in the No. 51 Cheever Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone. It will be his first Indianapolis 500 start since finishing fifth in 2002 and his first IndyCar® Series start since the season finale in September 2002 at Texas. Since then, Cheever has concentrated on his ownership role of Cheever Racing.
“This shouldn’t be a surprise, because I’ve never stopped driving,” said Cheever, who also will drive in the first three IndyCar Series races of the season leading into Indianapolis. “I simply took a different role in our IRL operations the last few years.”
Cheever, a Phoenix native, returned to the cockpit last November for the Grand Prix Masters event in South Africa and also drove for his Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series team last month in the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The team finished 17th overall at Daytona but was running in the top five, including leading at the 10-hour mark, until a mechanical failure occurred just two hours from the nd of the 24-hour race.
“After our team’s strong showing with the Crown Royal car at Daytona, I was excited about the prospect of driving again at Indy,” Cheever said. “With Honda as the IRL’s sole engine supplier creating parity in the IndyCar Series, it only made more sense to continue our team’s legacy of Indianapolis 500 competition.”
Cheever has recorded six top-10 finishes in 13 Indianapolis 500 starts since 1990, when he was named JPMorgan Chase Rookie of the Year after finishing eighth. He won in 1998 after starting 17th.
His best start was second in 1992, when he led nine laps and finished fourth. Cheever, 48, made 132 Formula One starts between 1978-89 – more than any other American – before moving to Indy-style competition in 1990.
FOUNTAIN, Colo. (Saturday, Aug. 20, 2005) – Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves captured his first pole position of the 2005 season, leading a front-row sweep for Marlboro Team Penske in qualifying for the Honda Indy 225 at Pikes Peak International Raceway.
Castroneves lapped the 1-mile oval in 20.5218 seconds, 175.423 mph to record his 10th career IRL IndyCar® Series pole position.
Castroneves’ teammate, Sam Hornish Jr., qualified second with a time of 20.5241 seconds, 175.404 mph to give Marlboro Team Penske its third front-row sweep of the season. The team also swept the front row at Richmond (0.75-mile oval) and Milwaukee (1-mile oval).
Andretti Green Racing teammates Bryan Herta and Dario Franchitti will start from the second row. Franchitti is the reigning race winner at Pikes Peak.
Danica Patrick, who leads the Bombardier Rookie of the Year standings, will start fifth with reigning IndyCar Series champion Tony Kanaan starting sixth.
Travis Gregg captured his second consecutive pole position in qualifying for the IRL Menards Infiniti Pro Series™ Pikes Peak 100. Gregg won from the pole Aug. 13 at Kentucky Speedway. Jeff Simmons, who won the pole the previous two years at Pikes Peak, will start second.
INDYCAR SERIES QUOTES:
HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Toyota/Firestone, qualified first): “Milwaukee, Sam (Hornish Jr.) did the same thing, not even a thousandth of a second. Today was pretty close. I’m very happy that Marlboro Team Penske is on the front row. Now it’s my turn to be on the front. I’m extremely, extremely happy. We’ve been working a lot on the race car, and it definitely paid off in the qualifying. We’ve been working extremely hard on the short ovals. A handling car is much better. Hopefully, we can get consistent cars and both of us will be here (in the winner’s interview room) tomorrow. Some of the tracks, you’re just along for the ride. I guess at the short ovals we’ve been working extremely hard. We try everything we can. I’m very happy to see both cars sitting on the front row. It feels awesome. I have to pay a compliment to my engineers. We keep trying different gears. Today it paid off. Definitely it was the right choice this time. It was a calculated guess.”
SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Toyota/Firestone, qualified second): (Did going out in the heavy winds at the end of practice help you set up your car for qualifying?) “Yeah, but we obviously didn’t learn enough. We went out there and ran. We knew what we needed to do. And then the wind died down. And then it picked back up as soon as qualifying started. We had already gone through the tech line, so we were off on our gear. Obviously we can’t go back and do it again. So now we’ll go do it and try to beat them tomorrow. The engineering staff at Marlboro Team Penske, along with what we believe are two very good drivers. We feel like we know what needs to be done on these handling tracks, where you really have to have the car set up well. It’s a shame that we haven’t had one-two finishes every time this year because I think we’ve both had cars that could do that. We’re going to come here tomorrow. We’re both very excited about what we’re able to do. We know that we’ve got to go out and make it to the end of this race. If we do everything right, obviously we’ll be in victory lane.”
BRYAN HERTA (No. 7 XM Satellite Radio Dallara/Honda/Firestone, qualified third): “It was a good run for the XM Satellite Radio team. I got a good lap in on the first one so I knew I could take a chance on the second one, but I tried to shorten my line up between turns one and two and the car took off up the track, and I couldn't hold it. It's tough to get the balance right, but my crew did a great job.”
DARIO FRANCHITTI (No. 27 ArcaEx Dallara/Honda/Firestone, qualified fourth): “The ArcaEx car was setup a little better than it was this morning when we struggled a little bit, particularly in the second practice session. So it was nice that the car felt pretty good in qualifying. We were slightly short in our gear ratio, and that might have hurt us a little but it was certainly better than this morning. Pikes Peak is one of those tracks where it doesn't matter where you qualify; if you have a fast car you'll go to the front. If your car goes off you go straight to the back. It's more important for us to have a good race car tomorrow.”
DANICA PATRICK (No. 16 Rahal Letterman Racing Argent/Pioneer Panoz/Honda/Firestone, qualified fifth): “The Argent/Pioneer Honda felt really good in qualifying. The car was solid throughout the two laps. We weren’t perfect on the gears, but we just used the information that we had and the car was strong. We never know with the wind conditions and the cooler track if you make the right changes. But it was good and we’ll get ready for the race. The wind did kick up when I went out for qualifying, and sometimes we get lucky in the conditions and sometimes not. But overall I don’t think the wind was a huge factor for qualifying. Now in the ra ce Sunday, the wind could pose some problems. I don’t know how much the car will change with the wind in race settings. We will check on that on the morning warmup. I do feel we have a great balance with the car. So I am confident for the race. That is the most important thing for us right now. It has been proven many times that you can win from many positions on the grid. I’m pleased with the direction of the Panoz chassis right now. We have had a few new parts coming into this race and they seem to be a big help right now.”
DAN WHELDON (No. 26 Klein Tools/Jim Beam allara/Honda/Firestone, qualified 11th): “It was a good effort from everybody with the Klein Tools/Jim Beam team, but it's always a shame when you come up a little bit short. This will be a very, very competitive race, and I expect some of the regular protagonists to be up front. Pikes Peak is always a difficult track to get a handle on when weather conditions change like they do, and it makes it tricky for the engineers, so they've got their work cut out for them.”
In a brief statement, Toyota confirmed the long-running rumors that it would end its IRL IndyCar engine program at the close of the 2006 season, when the current engine rules for the series expire.
“After 12 years of open-wheel racing in the United States, Toyota will withdraw from the sport following the 2006 Indy Racing League season,” the statement read. “Toyota will not be participating as an engine supplier to either of the major open-wheel sanctioning bodies in the United States after 2006.”
This would appear to mean the end of Toyota’s long-running support of the Toyota Atlantic Championship, first under the CART and now the Champ Car banner.
"This was simply a decision to move in a different direction after having our major U.S. motorsports emphasis on open-wheel racing since 1994," said J. Davis Illingworth, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., senior vice president. "Just as our participation in IMSA sports car racing ran its course after 12 years of participation, so has our U.S. open-wheel racing program after 12 years in the IRL and CART."
Toyota stressed that its decision will not affect either the IndyCar Series engine development program for the remainder of 2005 or the 2006 season, or any of the current contracts that Toyota has with individual teams. “Toyota is in the process of reviewing how to re-allocate its resources for future motorsports plans,” the company said.
On a hot sultry evening in Richmond there was banging, crashing and Tempers were hot. No, this was not NASCAR, but the seventh Indy Car series race of the year at the Richmond International Raceway (RIR) was anything but tame.
Helio, “Spider Man” Castroneves, the two time Indy winner (2001,2002), survived a crash filled night at the tight 3/ 4 mile track.Helio stayed in the top five all night and with outstanding pit stops battled off everybody including his Penske teammate, Sam Hornish Jr. for the win.
The night was full of action as Tony Barnhart, the IRL’s director of racing, was on edge all night watching cars get three wide, which is nearly impossible. This action at the tight “bullring” was more like Stock Car fender banging, but at much higher speeds.
There was plenty of action all night as 8 drivers crashed out in six incidents. There were no serious injuries, but there was plenty of car damage and major finger pointing. The only retired cars tonight were all bent as everybody that didn’t touch the wall finished.
Sam Hornish Jr. and Helio battled each other during the race several times with Sam being the early leader. The two bight Orange and White Penske team machines led the field for the first part of the race and it was real amazing watching these two veteran drivers get side by side and pass easily, but without touching.
The Penske team again showed their strength on lap 83 as both Helio and Sam Hornish Jr. caught and passed Vitor Meira as Buddy Rice was fading with a tire vibration.
Helio led until giving up the lead to Dario on Lap 93. Helio led the most laps for a total of 112 of the 250 laps.Helio did a daring low pass of Scott Sharp as his sleek racer moved into second toward eventually taking the lead from Dario a few laps later.
Helio, when asked does he and Sam have similar setups, Helio disagreed saying, “I can’t have a setup like Sam.Sam can drive his car so loose. I can’t drive it like that.”
Sam, who won the pole, took off with his teammate and was lapping cars by lap 21 and moving away from the field.Sam, who has never won at Richmond, led the first 42 laps and appeared to have the car to beat.However, he while lapping cars got into big trouble on lap 164. Sam pushing the outside groove got loose and slid into the outside wall finally coming to rest on the inside of the track abruptly ending his night. Sam was clocked a lap earlier at 166 mph.
Roger Penske, the team owner of Penske racing said, “Looks like he got a little high and lost grip. He’s fine, but disappointed.”This sidelined the pole sitter, who admitted later it was a driver mistake, and apologized to his team.
Everybody was having trouble passing back markers all night, which kept tempers up and near “road rage” incidents.Tomas Enge got a stop and go penalty assessed that angered his crew chief, stating we were “Scre… preventing the ‘Rock Star’ team from trying to win.”Enge was caught darting high and low and blocking another driver as he tried several times to pass Jimmy Kite, who was multiple laps down.
Tony Kanaan, who has been Mr. consistency, had a bad weekend. Tony, last years Indy Car champion, started dead last in 22nd due to a crash during Qualifying and was unable to finish a race for the first time since his crash at the 2003 Nazareth event. This was an amazing total of 26 successive race finishes.
Tony headed for the front soon after the green flag flew and was up to fourteenth place by lap 17 and pressing hard on Buddy Rice.However, Tony was never a real factor and on lap 150 got way too low on the apron trying to pass Bryan Herta, lost control and spun into the outside wall. His spin also took out Vitor Meira, who led the race earlier, pinning him against the wall. The team finally parked his machine declaring it too damaged to continue. Tony was somewhat positive saying “the streak had to end sometime, although I’m sorry it was tonight.”He said, “I’ll forget about it and go to Kansas”, the next Indy car race venue.
Vitor, who was very racy and coming off a runner up finish at Indy and ninth at Texas, had to park his damaged car for the evening and was awarded a 20th place finish. With Buddy Rice also having problems, Danica Patrick was the top finisher for the Rahal Letterman team finishing in tenth place, some three laps behind the winner.
Danica, the rookie sensation at Indy, started in 21st place as the slowest actual qualifier and was never a factor for the win.This was Danica’s first try at a tight oval such as RIR, but kept she out of trouble and past several slower cars to secure a top ten finish.
On lap 39, Scott Dixon, the 2003 Indy Car Champ who had just been lapped, ended up crowding Dario Franchitti, got clipped and spun into the Turn two wall ending his night.Scott was okay, but the car had to be sidelined. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver is not having a great year. The Ganassi Team leader for this race succinctly summed up the accident by stating, “champions don’t win races by being impatient.” Scott later admitted he didn’t give Dario enough room and hoped it didn’t damage his car.
Apparently it didn’t, as Dario was able to contend for the lead and led the race for 55 laps during the middle of the contest. Dario finished second only 0.55 seconds out of first. This race was not that close, for an IRL race, as Helio, once he got the lead back on lap 150, led the last 100 laps. The Penske team was flawless getting Helio out ahead of everybody to keep the lead on the last pit stop.
Dario’s last Indy car win was last year at Pikes Peak International Raceway (PPIR).
Young A.J. Foyt IV losing it and sliding up against the fence caused the first caution. His Team leader and Grandfather, A.J. Foyt Jr., stated, “I told him not to get up in that loose stuff.” Young A.J. did finish six laps behind in fourteenth place.
There were strong tempers and words as both Scott Sharp, who at one point was in contention in second place, and Darren Manning had incidents involving Roger Yasukawa.On Lap 202, Scott tried to pass Roger, but got crowded and clipped him putting Scott into the wall and on the sidelines. Scott said, “I’m really upset that he won’t let the leaders go by”.
It was also a bad night for the Chip Ganassi team as all three cars crashed out. With less than ten laps to go on Lap 241, Darren Manning also got tangled up with Roger and ended up hitting the wall. Darren started to go after Roger, but was restrained and walked away. Darren was the last of three Chip Ganassi team members that all hit the wall. Indy Car rookie, Ryan Briscoe, also banged the wall earlier in a one-car incident.
Helio won his first race of the season and seventh overall in the IRL.The “Spider Man” is alive and well back climbing fences after his popular win. This was amazing considering that Helio could not raise his arm three days ago from a previous practice accident.
Only four drivers (Helio, Sam, Dario and Vitor) led with a total of four lead changes.
In another try at Texas, Tomas Scheckter did what both his critics and his fans knew he would do.That is to have a dominant car and get to the finish in first place. Tonight he did that in convincing style holding off his rival, Sam Hornish Jr. with a narrow 0.053 second win.Sam Hornish Jr., who Tomas replaced at Panther Racing, did not get a good run on the outside coming out of the fourth turn and finished a half car length short of victory.
Later Sam admitted that his only chance was to wait until the last lap and try to get a good run so he could try his patented last lap pass on the outside.However, Tomas was in command most of the night and covered every move by both Penske Racing drivers, Sam and Helio Castroneves.
The Andretti Green Team cars of Tony Kanaan, Bryan Herta, and Dan Wheldon, this years Indy winner, tried to counteract the Panther team driver by pitting separately from the Panther and Penske teams. This strategy nearly paid off as it temporarily put both Tony Kanaan and Bryan Herta into the lead for a few laps.However, Scheckter’s car was so dominant that twice he caught Tony from behind and passed him.
Tomas, the son of 1979 Formula One World Champion Jody Scheckter, won the Pole on Thursday and led the most laps. He held off strong challenges all night from both Penske drivers, Helio Castroneves and Sam Hornish Jr. for the well deserved win. Both he and his teammate, Tomas Enge, showed that their Chevy Cosworth powered cars were fast by putting them both in the front row starting positions.
Chevrolet announced that they will not provide engines or sponsorship for any teams next year. Amidst rumors that Chevrolet might rethink this, it is doubtful that the engine manufacturer will back any IRL teams next year. The Panther racing team of Scheckter and Enge are currently the only Indy Racing League team using the Chevy engine. This was the first win for a Chevy powered team in two years on the circuit. Tomas had great praise for "Chevy" stating “Chevrolet really has worked hard for us. They came back harder than ever to try to win here. Now I want us to repeat ….every weekend.”I think Chevrolet should be commended for keeping their sponsor ship and active help supporting this team.
Tomas was very positive all weekend and he backed up the statement he made after qualifying, “his bad luck at Texas was …coming to an end. He was going to win Saturday night” was apparently not all brag. Tomas took off at the start and led most of the laps all night sharing the lead only briefly with Sam Hornish Jr. and Tony Kanaan.
Danica Patrick, the celebrated rookie sensation at this years' Indy 500, did very well but was never a challenge for victory. She qualified third fastest, but quickly moved out of the top ten and eventually finished thirteenth, the last car on the lead lap. She has recently been in the spotlight especially given her exceptional performance this year being the first woman to ever lead the Indy 500.
It was obvious that Danica was not going to try and keep up with the leaders dropping to tenth after lap seven, mostly running a nice pace all night. Texas is a formidable place for rookies given the high banks and the continuous wheel to wheel, side by side, action lap after lap.Danica said after practice, “this place is hair raising”.
However, it should be noted that as a TMS rookie, her thirteenth place finish was higher than Scheckter’s previous best 15th place finish at TMS, prior to Saturday’s win. Danica said, “The car wasn’t very happy in traffic. I just had a car that I couldn’t dial in quickly enough with the experience I have. Eventually I did, it just took a little while.”
Danica’s crew chief was heard to say during the race, “be sure and give room to guys coming up on the inside.”There was no answer from Danica. It was apparent, and rightly so, that she was primarily still on a learning curve at TMS and her crew would be happy with a decent finish.
It was not a great night for Dan Wheldon, this years Indy winner.Dan, who had won four out of five races this year, was going for a record four wins in a row. Dan shares the three win string record with Kenny Brack, who did not race this weekend. Dan said, he wasn’t as fast as Tomas, Sam Hornish Jr., or Tony Kanaan. Eddie Jones, Wheldon’s engineer, said, “on our second to last pit stop, …we dropped from the lead pack, and there was too big of a gap … and our group couldn’t get back to them.” “Once that‘s happened, we’re only fighting to lead the second group home, which Dan did very well at the end to get back to sixth.”Interestingly, Dan in six races this year, has placed sixth twice along with his four wins at Homestead, St. Petersburg, Japan, and Indy.
The four wins are enough for Dan to maintain a 65 point lead in the Indy Car standings over teammate Tony Kanaan. Dan still has an excellent chance this year to break Sam Hornish Jr.’s IRL record of five wins in a season. There are eleven races remaining on the 2005 Indy Car schedule including the next race at the ¾ mile short track at the Richmond International Raceway (RIR).
This race was another close exciting race all night and finally becoming a five car race between Tony Kanaan, Helio, Sam, Tomas and Scott Sharp in the final laps. Penske chose to pit his cars on staggered laps from each other and the other teams hopefully to get his drivers a lead and gain a lead on Scheckter and Kanaan.Sam told Helio’s crew chief that he will go wherever Helio goes to try and catch up to Kanaan and Scheckter after late pit stops. Helio and Sam drafted each other for several laps eventually catching Tony from behind, who had gotten a lead due to his quicker pit stops.
Scott Sharp, who has two previous wins in the June race at TMS (2000 and 2001), stayed close and finished right behind Tony Kanaan in fourth.Tomas Enge, who started on the front row with Chevy power, ran the fastest laps in the race after losing several laps due to an early electrical problem.
There were only four cautions for 30 laps with two due to the single car accidents of Jimmy Kite and Ed Carpenter, and one for debris. Both drivers were unhurt although Ed was upset claiming he was forced into the grass resulting in his shunt. Three cars were not running at the finish including Buddy Rice, Jimmy Kite, and Ed Carpenter.Buddy Rice, the 2003 Indy Champion, created the other yellow flag by losing his gearbox and coming to a halt on the front straight. Buddy, who was replaced in this years Indy race by Kenny Brack due to a practice injury, was cleared to race at Texas but had an early exit.
Jimmy Kite also ran in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck race on Friday night which was the first time a driver, since Gordon Johncock in 1980, competed in both a stock-car and Indy-car race on the same track in the same weekend.Jimmy finished 24th in Friday’s Chex 400 truck race at TMS.
This was another close finish at Texas which was the tenth closest in IRL history.Unfortunately, this is the only Indy car race at TMS this year as the track and IRL opted to drop the fall Indy Car race at TMS. The next race for the Indy Cars is at Richmond in two weeks.
Dan Wheldon capped a banner day for Andretti Green Racing as he won the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the first non-oval event in IRL IndyCar Series history.
Wheldon took the lead on Lap 91 after rookie Ryan Briscoe and Tony Kanaan made contact as they battled for the lead in Turn 10 of the 1.8-mile temporary street course. The contact ended the day for Briscoe, who led a race-high 43 laps.
Wheldon then held off Kanaan for his fifth career IndyCar Series victory and the second of the season. Dario Franchitti and Bryan Herta finished third and fourth, respectively, to complete Andretti Green Racing’s sweep of the top-four positions.
Wheldon took the IndyCar Series point lead with the win and leads Kanaan by 24 heading into the Indy Japan 300 on April 30 at Twin Ring Motegi
Unoffficial Top 10 In Indycar Series Points: 1 Dan Wheldon 134
2 Tony Kanaan 110
3 Sam Hornish Jr. 105
4 Helio Castroneves 82
5 Vitor Meira 81
6 Dario Franchitti 79
7 Darren Manning 74
8 Bryan Herta 74
9 Patrick Carpentier 72
10 Alex Barron 61
Honda Grand Prix Of St. Petersburg Post-Race Quotes:
DAN WHELDON (No. 26 Klein Tools/Jim Beam Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “It’s fantastic for Andretti Green Racing to get a 1-2-3-4. It was difficult as it is anytime you have TK (Tony Kanaan) breathing down your neck, so I’ve got to pat myself on the back for that. The Klein Tools/Jim Beam car was great. I was a little concerned about my brakes, but they seemed to hold up, and they need to when you have that green thing behind you. When you see 7-Eleven in the mirror, you know he’s going to try anything he can. Fortunately, I kept him at bay. (About contact between Kanaan and Briscoe): “I think Briscoe was a little silly to turn in on TK. He definitely surprised everyone with how late he can break and I’m proud to win this race because any time you can beat him is exceptional. Dario and Bryan were really fast too, so I’m really proud of everyone.”
TONY KANAAN (No. 11 Team 7-Eleven Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “We had a great car. We've got a great team. I'm very happy for the team. Dan is a very lucky guy, but to win, you've got to be lucky. I need to thank my team. The guys never let me down. The whole 7-11 team did a great job.”
DARIO FRANCHITTI (No. 27 ArcaEx Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “We had a great car. We had a fuel tank problem in the pits, and we couldn't get a full load of fuel, so we had to keep making more stops than everybody else. 1-2-3-4 result for Honda and Andretti Green Racing is a great result.”
BRYAN HERTA (No. 7 XM Satellite Radio Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “It was a great result for the team. For me, it was kind of great. I don't know what happened on the last set of tires. The car slowed down a second. I don't know why.”
VITOR MEIRA (No. 17 Rahal Letterman Racing Menards Johns Manville Panoz/Honda/Firestone): "It was good. I think we got out of sync right on the first pit stop, but everybody was out of sync I guess. Even with a lot of downforce, I could really follow everyone on the straights and out brake them going into Turn 1. That's what really saved me on the restarts. Honda, not only on ovals but also on road courses, has proved that they are the engine to have, and I think they still will for the rest of the championship. The chassis was great. On cold tires, we were real quick. All the positions we made were on cold tires, out braking everybody. I have to learn more to push a bit more in the beginning of the race on the road courses, but we're going to get there."
RYAN BRISCOE (No. 33 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Panoz/Toyota/Firestone): “We had a truly amazing race where the Target Team did absolutely everything right. We struggled all weekend long and ended up 10th on the grid, but from there, the Target Toyota was perfect. We had the perfect strategy, the Target crew had perfect pit stops, we led laps and were up front fighting for the win and that was awesome. For it to end this way is very disappointing. In the drivers’ meeting, we were told by Brian Barnhart that if you make a move to pass, you have to do it before the apex. Coming off Turn 9 and going into the kink, I honestly made sure to brake late, but I took a look and Kanaan wasn’t there. I was very surprised by the move because that was a risky passing zone, and he simply threw his car into the turn, and you can see the result. I was the leader, and we were fighting for the win, and I was up for the challenge, and I held my line, so I guess we’ll call this a racing incident.”
ALEX BARRON (No. 51 Red Bull Cheever Racing Dallara/Toyota/Firestone): "Driving the track was really a lot of fun but we didn't have the speed to run with the leaders. Before Motegi we are going to have to go back and evaluate what we are missing that is holding us back.” (On the incident): “We had run under a lot of yellows so the tires were cold and had picked up a lot of rubber and ruble off of the streets. When I tried to rub some of that off I made contact with the wall and had to make an unscheduled pit stop to get a new front wing with less than 10 laps to go."
BUDDY RICE (No. 15 Argent Mortgage/Pioneer Panoz/Honda/Firestone): “It was great showing for us today with all of our problems in qualifying and then in the race. Having to start at the back wasn’t good on a track like this, but it was a pretty good comeback for us with Vitor fifth and me in seventh. We were competitive, and we got out of (fuel) sequence, but then we got back in the proper sequence. We were right with Dario on the pit stops, and I had to come back in for another stop. I thought I had a right rear tire going down, so I came back in and that hurt us. We dropped back to 15th after running fourth, but we got some points, and we can go to the races that are right in our ‘wheelhouse.’ We know what to expect for Motegi and Indy, and we can win at those places. I think we’ll be right in where the Panoz Honda combination works the best. There was a lot of bumping and shoving going on today.”
PATRICK CARPENTIER (No. 83 Red Bull Cheever Racing Dallara/Toyota/Firestone): “It was a good race. I feel like I saved too much of the car. I didn't expect the brakes and the tires to last as long they did. The car was really good at the end. (On last restart) Buddy Rice was trying to pass me but he wasn't even beside me. He came in too hot. He hit me in the side pod and spun me around. I slid through turn five backwards. I was able to to spin it around and keep going but I lost a lot of time and some positions. The car was good at the end once I got some heat in the tires. We made a lot of progress this weekend. We ran with the leaders consistently which was the first time this year that we have done that. It was a good show."
SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Toyota/Firestone): “Our plan was to be patient, conservative, and make it to the end. We had a good start, and all was going well in the first couple of stints. We took a gamble and tried an aggressive fuel strategy that didn’t quite work, but it was still looking like we were going to have a top-ten finish. On lap 86, I was getting ready to pass the #55 car (Matsuura). I realized I didn’t have enough to make the move so I went to brake and get in line to make the turn (4) when I got hit from behind by the #2 car (Enge). His nose went through my rear suspension and the two cars were hooked together. I tried to turn but the tire was flat and there was nothing I could do. Unfortunately, it was one of those days. It’s really too bad because I was having a lot of fun out there, and the Marlboro Team Penske guys did a great job on the pit stops and gave me a really good car. Now, I have a good idea of what I need to work on for th! e next road course, and I think we’ll have some success on the rest of these circuits this year.”
DANICA PATRICK (No. 16 Argent Mortgage/Pioneer Panoz/Honda/Firestone): “It was a little frustrating but exciting today. It was a little bit like Homestead. We were fast enough to run with the front bunch, but mistakes happen. I think I made a mistake with the gearbox, and we had to pit and change fifth gear and sixth gear. It just sheered off the teeth in the gearbox. The crew did a great job getting the gearbox back together and getting me out. We were able to run a lot of laps then, and the car was pretty fast later in the race. These races are similar to my experience in the (Formula) Atlantic cars, but the races are longer, and there is more strategy. I made some mistakes on the pit stops, but I think I’m getting used to them now. It feels more comfortable coming and stopping and leaving the pits hard on the throttle. We had a pit speed limiter problem today, but I didn’t want to make some mistakes on the laps after the pit stops. I wanted to be smooth and learn with the ! Indy cars. I think I need to be a bit cautious in my rookie year.”
SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Panoz/Toyota/Firestone): “The Target team did a great job preparing what should have been a top-three car today, but we took a gamble that didn’t quite pay off. We stayed on the Firestone tires that we started with until the last stop, and they really held up, but we had a lot of understeer especially on cold tires, and that really killed our last stint. I was fighting with (Darren) Manning, and he was struggling with grip at that point as well, when (Kosuke) Matsuura got into the mix, and we made contact and that dropped me way back. It’s a little disappointing because I feel like we had a much better finish in us, but it was a hard fought battle.”
Results Sunday of the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg IRL IndyCar Series event Apr. 3 at the 1.8-mile St. Petersburg Street Course, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed, reason out (if any) and money earned: 1. (9) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 100, $108,000 2. (3) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 100, $86,500 3. (4) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 100, $72,500 4. (1) Bryan Herta, Dallara-Honda, 100, $78,600 5. (12) Vitor Meira, Panoz-Honda, 100, $53,400 6. (11) Scott Dixon, Panoz-Toyota, 100, $47,100 7. (17) Buddy Rice, Panoz-Honda, 100, $45,800 8. (14) Patrick Carpentier, Dallara-Toyota, 100, $46,600 9. (16) Darren Manning, Panoz-Toyota, 99, $44,600 10. (13) Alex Barron, Dallara-Toyota, 99, $43,300 11. (18) Roger Yasukawa, Dallara-Honda, 98, $41,900 12. (15) Danica Patrick, Panoz-Honda, 95, $40,700 13. (7) Kosuke Matsuura, Panoz-Honda, 94, Mechanical, $39,600 14. (10) Ryan Briscoe, Panoz-Toyota, 91, Accident, $38,100 15. (6) Sam Hornish Jr., Dallara-Toyota, 85, Accident, $36,900 16. (5) Tomas Enge, Dallara-Chevrolet, 85, Accident, $35,700 17. (8) Tomas Scheckter, Dallara-Chevrolet, 77, Accident, $34,400 18. (20) Scott Sharp, Panoz-Honda, 43, Accident, $34,400 19. (19) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Toyota, 32, Accident, $33,100 20. (2) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Toyota, 12, Accident, $31,900 21. (21) A.J. Foyt IV, Panoz-Toyota, 11, Accident, $31,900
Race Statistics Winner's average speed: 83.140 mph. Time of race: 2:09:54.1074 Margin of victory: 1.4577 secs. Cautions: 5 for 25 laps. Lead changes: 9 among 6 drivers. Lap leaders: 1-16 Herta, 17-35 Briscoe, 36-38 Manning, 39-61 Herta, 62 Wheldon, 63 Franchitti, 64-75 Briscoe, 76-79 Enge, 80-91 Briscoe, 92-100 Wheldon. Point standings: Wheldon 134, Kanaan 110, Hornish Jr. 105, Castroneves 82, Meira 81, Franchitti, 79, Manning 74, Herta 74, Carpentier 72, Barron 61.
Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg-Qualifying
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – It was a high-speed game of Texas Hold’em, a shootout with no room for error on a technically challenging and mentally draining 1.8-mile, 14-turn course. After this race for the pole, Bryan Herta was crowned king of the hill – for 23 hours.
On April 3, he has to defend that honor in the inaugural Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Good luck and may the breeze off Tampa Bay be at the rear wing of the No. 7 X Satellite Radio Dallara/Honda/Firestone.
In a unique qualifying procedure befitting the excitement of the first non-oval race in IndyCar Series history, the top six times from single-lap qualifying advanced to the Firestone Fast Six -- a 10-minute European-style session designed to give each driver the opportunity to better the qualifying time of others and move up on the grid.
The session lived up to its billing, with five positions changing order. MORE
St. Pete Grand Prix: Friday Practice
The crowd that attended the first day of practice Friday for the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was thought to be larger than the estimated 8,300 who attended the previous IRL IndyCar Series race March 19 at Phoenix International Raceway. Official attendance estimates from Friday's sessions were not disclosed, but IRL officials expect Sunday's race to draw more than 50,000. If so, it will rank among the top draws on the 17-race IRL schedule.
“A lot of people were here, which is unusual for a practice day,” said Helio Castroneves, who had the fastest lap of Friday’s practice session. “I was very happy to see people really supporting us.” MORE
Team Penske driver Helio Castroneves gave a hint of how fiercely competitive the IndyCar world truly is, when he complained today, during an interview to Brazilian TV channel Band, about the two-seater rides given by rivals Dan Wheldon and Vitor Meira.
Not that Castroneves is against the two-seater rides per se, he outlined of the long-standing practice, currently used by Wheldon’s and Meira’s respective sponsors for marketing purposes. But as the IRL readies itself for its first-ever road-course event, the former Indy 500 back-to-back winner believes that the two-seater drivers will enter the St. Pete race weekend with an advantage. MORE
IRL GOES ROAD RACING: European Style Qualifying Starts Friday
Somewhat overlooked amidst the flood of novelties in IndyCar racing for this weekend’s first-ever IRL road-course event is the unique qualifying format chosen by series officials for its three non-oval races this year - Sunday’s St. Petersburg debut, plus the Sonoma (August 28) and Watkins Glen (September 25) rounds. The formula determines that all cars take part in the first Friday practice session of the three-day race weekend. Drivers will then be split into two groups for two other separate practices on the same day. The quickest man on those combined sessions will be entitled to choose whether he intends to qualify first or last in the single-lap, one-car-at-a-time Saturday qualifying.
MORE
MEIRA QUICKEST AMONGST RAHAL DRIVERS AND FIFTH OVERALL
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Vitor Meira posted the fastest lap of the three Rahal Letterman drivers and the fifth quickest lap overall on the first day of practice for the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Meira will start his 17th race for Rahal Letterman Racing on Sunday and is looking for his first win.
Meira, the top Rahal Letterman Racing finisher in the first IRL IndyCar Series events this season, indicated he will be a factor in the battle for the pole position at St. Pete in the #17 Rahal Letterman Team Menards/Johns Manville Honda/Panoz/Firestone.
“The Menards/Johns Manville car felt really good today, but the biggest challenge for me is keeping the car steady and shifting when I go across the bumps,” said Meira. “I am literally holding on the wheel with both hands and that makes it tough to shift. Those of us in the second half of the split afternoon session had a real advantage because there was more rubber down and therefore more grip. We have a pretty good car and I know my crew will fine tune things and give me a better car tomorrow. I am really looking forward to tomorrow. It is going to be a real fight for the pole.”
Rookie Danica Patrick ran fourth quick in her split session and 15th overall in the #16 Argent Mortgage/Pioneer Honda/Panoz/Firestone. Patrick will be making just her third IRL IndyCar Series start on Sunday.
“I think once we could get on the track and string a few laps together the Argent/Pioneer car felt better,” said Patrick. “As the car got better, I gained more confidence in each corner. While being on a street course is certainly more in line with my experience the IndyCar is a different beast than an Atlantic car. You have to work up to a quicker lap and can’t throw it around as much. You have more power, more tire and that helps when the car is working well. Of course, it is tough if the car is off. We are still learning on how to make this exact car work the proper way on road circuits.”
Buddy Rice endured a difficult day in the #15 Argent Mortgage/Pioneer Electronic Honda/Panoz/Firestone. Rice running his first street course since his days as a Formula Atlantic champion was 16th quick with a fast lap of 99.402 mph.
“I really like this track,” said Rice who won three street races en route to the 2000 Atlantic championship. “It has some high speed areas, low speed areas and plenty of intermediate stuff. There will some spots to pass and I think we will be able to put on an exciting show for the fans. I know the drivers seem to like it a lot. It’s an awesome facility for a street circuit. This is one of the smoothest street circuits I have ever raced on and it is wider than most street tracks I’ve run. It is a lot like Long Beach in some regards. The Argent/Pioneer car wasn’t as solid as what we were looking for when we came here today. I think we just need to find some more grip. I have confidence in my engineers and I know we’ll get it better for Saturday.”
Practice and qualifying for the inaugural IRL IndyCar Series street race, the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, will resume on Saturday with the race slated to be run Sunday afternoon at 3:45 pm EST on ESPN.
IRL ROAD COURSE ST. PETERSBURG
Indy Racing League moves to St. Petersburg the weekend of April 2nd for its first ever road race. For the past 9 seasons the league has only raced on oval tracks. This is the 3rd race in the Indy car 17 race season.
Barry Green is the new race promotor for the IRL event. Green former owner of 'Team Green' one of open wheel racings most sucessful teams, came out of retirement to spear head the project for his former driver and now team owner Michael Andretti.
Road racing has been and off and on again thing in St. Petersburg with the last race two years ago promoted by CART who reportedly lost over 1 million dollars on the event. This event according to Green has a 3 year contract with Honda as title sponsor and with the City.
Panther Racing Confims Buddy Lazier for Indianapolis 500
Panther Racing has confirmed that it has entered into a partnership with Jonathan Byrd II and David Byrd to form Byrd Brothers/Panther Racing. The partnership will field a Dallara-Chevrolet at the Indianapolis 500 this May for 1996 Indy winner and 2000 IRL IndyCar champion Buddy Lazier. The team’s No. 95 entry will be sponsored by Jonathan Byrd’s Cafeteria and Indianapolis AM radio station ESPN 950.
“Everyone at Panther Racing is excited to have the Byrd Brothers join with us for this year’s Indianapolis 500,” said Panther team co-owner John Barnes. “The Byrd family has a long history at the Brickyard, and with this partnership, we are proud to be able to bring them back to the Speedway.”
Jonathan Byrd II added “Panther is such a fantastic racing team. My brother and I consider it an absolute privilege to be able to join with them to form Byrd Brothers/Panther Racing and return to Indianapolis to take another shot at winning the 500.”
“We want nothing more than to win the Indianapolis 500,” Panther co-owner Doug Boles said. “With Buddy Lazier behind the wheel of the Byrd Brothers/Panther Racing car, in addition to Panther Racing drivers Tomas Scheckter and Tomas Enge, we feel like we have a tremendous opportunity to accomplish that goal.”
The 37-year-old Lazier said, “After you get a win at Indianapolis, all you can think about is winning it again. Now that I’m going back to Indy with the resources of the Byrd Brothers/Panther team, Chevy power, and two great teammates, I believe that I can make it back to Victory Lane at the 500 this year.”
Bucknum passes rookie test
Jeff Bucknum passed his Indy Racing League rookie test at the Phoenix International Raceway on March 20, roughly 12 hours after winning the LTP2 class in the 12 Hours of Sebring.
Bucknum, the son of three-time Indianapolis 500 starter Ronnie Bucknum, will drive a second Dreyer & Reinbold Racing entry at Twin Ring Motegi and Indianapolis, with a primary sponsorship from Investment Properties of America. His No. 44 Honda-powered Dallara will carry the same red and blue color scheme as teammate Roger Yasukawa.
“I’ve driven a lot of miles at Phoenix, but this was my first time in an IndyCar (Series car), and it felt great to get the car up to speed,” Bucknum said. ”I’ve been racing for years, but the whole deal with pit stops was all really new. I’ve got a lot to learn with the stop and go’s in traffic, but I’m looking forward to working with the team.”
Kevin Blanch, IndyCar Series technical manager, was the IRL’s official observer for Bucknum’s test. He had Bucknum complete the necessary phases for the rookie test on Sunday afternoon, working on speed, consistency, and his knowledge of the car.
John O’Gara, DRR’s team manager was also pleased with Bucknum’s progress, as he observed most of the runs from atop a three-story staging platform in PIR’s third turn.
“Roger did a good job of shaking down the car to get it ready for him, and Jeff stepped in and really exceeded our expectations,” said O’Gara. “His line through the turns was really smooth and in fact, we actually had to ask him to slow down just a little before we started the test.”
Bucknum will test with the Dreyer & Reinbold team next week at Sebring, before stepping into the cockpit for his first race at Motegi.
Wheldon Starts Season With Win At Miami
Many in the Indy Racing League think Dan Wheldon is the man to beat in 2005. He proved that Sunday by winning the Toyota Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Wheldon, driver of the No. 26 Klein Tools/Jim Beam Honda-powered Dallara, led all but two of the final 129 laps and beat defending race winner Sam Hornish Jr., by 3.6936 seconds. Defending IndyCar Series champion Tony Kanaan was third, recording his 16th consecutive top-five finish.
"It was pretty tough," Wheldon said after the win. "It was a fantastic result for the team. They worked very hard on it. It's going to be a tough season. You could see how competitive it was. I'm very, very happy with the result. It's a really, really good way to start a competitive 17-race season."
Wheldon averaged 142.033 mph en route to the victory, the fourth of his IndyCar Series career. The race was slowed seven times for 35 laps. The most serious accident occurred when eight cars were involved in an accident on Lap 159. Tomas Scheckter, Kosuke Matsuura, Ed Carpenter, Danica Patrick, Bryan Herta, Scott Sharp, Scott Dixon and Roger Yasukawa were all involved in the crash. Patrick was the only driver injured. She was examined by doctors at Baptist Hospital in Kendall, Fla., and released in good condition with a concussion.
The wreck began when Kosuke Matsuura, driver of the No. 55 Panasonic ARTA Panoz/Honda/Firestone, tried to overtake pole-sitter Tomas Scheckter outside Turn 1 during a restart after a caution.
"I think we were three-wide, and at that time, I was driving on the outside and got up into the tire marbles and dust. I spun and hit Scheckter," Matsuura said. "I am very sorry for the other drivers that crashed. It was a tough day." Results from Sunday's Toyota Indy 300 IRL IndyCar Series event Sunday at mestead-Miami S
Results from Sunday's Toyota Indy 300 IRL IndyCar Series event Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any) and money earned:
pdway, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any) and money earned:
Race Statistics Winner's average speed: 142.033 mph Time of race: 2:05:27.8062 Margin of victory: 3.6936 seconds Cautions: 7 for 51 laps Lead changes: 11 among 8 drivers Lap leaders: Meira 1, Scheckter 2-14, Herta 15-19, Wheldon 20-34, Carpentier 35-38, Kanaan 39-46, Castroneves 47-50, Wheldon 51-65, Castroneves 66-70, Wheldon 71-148, Hornish Jr. 149-150, Wheldon 151-200. Point standings: Wheldon 53, Hornish 40, Kanaan 35, Meira 32, Castroneves 30, Manning 28, Carpentier 26, Barron 24, Foyt IV 22, Dana 20.
Sam Hornish Wins Indy 200 at Phoenix
AVONDALE, Ariz., Saturday, March 19, 2005 – Two-time IRL IndyCar® Series champion Sam Hornish Jr. held off a charge from Dario Franchitti and won the XM Satellite Radio Indy 200 Presented by Argent Mortgage at Phoenix International Raceway.
Hornish, who won for the second time at Phoenix and for the 13th time in his IndyCar Series career, took the lead from his teammate Helio Castroneves on Lap 190. After Tomas Scheckter brought out a caution on Lap 193, the stage was set for a green-white-checker finish.
Franchitti brushed the wall in Turn 1 as he tried to pass Hornish on the restart letting Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan pass him for second and third spot, respectively.
In the Menards Infiniti Pro Series Phoenix 100, Jon Herb captured his first career victory in a race shortened to 90 laps. Rookies Chris Festa and Wade Cunningham finished second and third, respectively.
XM SATELLITE RADIO INDY 200 PRESENTED BY ARGENT MORTGAGE POST-RACE QUOTES:
TOMAS SCHECKTER (No. 4 Pennzoil Panther Dallara/Chevrolet/Firestone): “One of the Red Bull cars was pitting and the other Red Bull car came up and put me in the marbles. It's something we discussed in the driver's meeting."
DARIO FRANCHITTI (No. 27 ArcaEx Dallara/Honda/Firestone): "I gave it my all on that last restart. I knew we only had two laps to go. I tried the move and it didn't happen. We got up in the gravel and touched the wall and that was it. Right now, I'm pretty pissed off that we didn't win, but at the same time, I definitely see the good side in that we managed to finish fourth.”
SCOTT SHARP (No. 8 Delphi Panoz/Honda/Firestone): “I'm really pleased. You've got to get points and that was the most depressing thing for me leaving Homestead. We got caught up in a racing accident, and that's going to happen, but there are times when you just have to - we were ready to finish third or fourth down there and grab some great points, and it got taken away from us - you have to get back on track, and that's what we were able to do today. We had a really good car at times. I think at one time, we were the fastest car on the track, or close to that, great pit stops by the guys. We got stuck in some traffic at times, and it just didn't all quite come together like it could, but we got a good top-five finish, and we'll go from there."
DAN WHELDON (No. 26 Klein Tools/Jim Beam Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “The Klein Tools/Jim Beam car was pretty good today, but when you had to slow up for traffic, the car tended to bite between Turns 1 and 2 which gave it a very loose sensation. When you're competing for a championship, you have to keep scoring points, and I think we scored some good points today. It's certainly better to finish in the top 10 than not, so we'll just look forward to the Honda Grand Prix."
BRYAN HERTA (No. 7 XM Satellite Radio Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “The XM Satellite Radio car was good today, unfortunately it really wasn't as good as I needed it to be in the race. I was pretty fast, but I struggled to pass cars and then both times a yellow came out right after I pitted, so we lost several positions and a lap once by that happening. That dug us a pretty big hole, and we were never able to work ourselves out of it."
DARREN MANNING (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Panoz/Toyota/ Firestone): “We really had a great car, but we struggled with straight line speed and that made it difficult to make our way to the front. We were right there at the end, but when I dashed in for a splash of fuel at the end we had a slight problem, and that cost us few spots, but other than that it was a fun, good clean race and we’ll build on it. I’m really looking forward to hitting the streets of St. Pete in two weeks.”
PATRICK CARPENTIER (No. 83 Red Bull Cheever Racing Dallara/Toyota/Firestone): “I am very happy. I was so disappointed after the crash yesterday. Today we had a great day. We passed some people and moved up. Iain Watt, my engineer, had a fantastic strategy. We saved a lot of fuel and stayed outside longer. Two races in the top ten. We learned so much this weekend. We are going to move forward, and we will get it. Very happy with the timing of the last yellow. That's what happens. We saved so much fuel, I leaned it out. We saved a lot and ran very well so we were able to stay out longer than the other guys. It turned out pretty well."
A.J. FOYT IV (No. 14 A.J. Foyt Racing Dallara/Toyota/Firestone): “After the final practice, I thought the car was going to be better than it was, but at least we survived.”
DANICA PATRICK (No. 16 Rahal Letterman Argent/Pioneer Panoz/Honda/Firestone): “It’s a long day on a short oval when the car just isn’t right there. The car is more difficult to drive. I did what I came here to do this weekend and that was finish the race. I got a lot of experience today, and the team gave me a pretty good car for the conditions out there. They had to rebuild a new car for this race after the Homestead crash. It was good to do 200 laps, and I give the crew a lot of credit for getting everything ready for the weekend. That might have been the most difficult race of my life because of the length and the traffic. The short ovals are very difficult and take a lot of experience to get used to. This is beginning of the learning curve for me. I’ll still be learning at race 17 this year. We have a lot of different tracks too. It’s a big oval, then a short oval and then a road course. And then it’s Japan and then it’s Indy. All are new to me. The car is difficult to drive on a short oval by yourself but throw in a bunch of faster and even slower cars around you, that can make for a tough day. You don’t want to get in people’s way, but you want to stay as fast as possible and race. You don’t want to lose your momentum. And all of those things can make it hard. But it was character building today, and I knew it wouldn’t be easy. I just wanted to finish today, and we accomplished that.”
SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Toyota/Firestone): “I just picked my lane and kept with it, just like you do on the high-banked tracks. I picked the bottom coming off the corner and took it right down the front straightaway. It’s hard to pass on the outside of Turn 1. I tried to go on the outside of Dario (Franchitti) a couple of times before, so I knew that when he went on the outside of me, he’d have a hard road to go. These Marlboro Team Penske guys did an awesome job for me in the pits today. We just had a lot of fun out there. We bided our time and made it to the end.”
TOP 10 IN INDYCAR SERIES POINT STANDINGS: 1. Sam Hornish Jr. 90 2. Dan Wheldon 84 3. Tony Kanaan 70 4. Helio Castroneves 70 5. Darren Manning 52 6. Vitor Meira 51 7. Patrick Carpentier 48 8. Scott Sharp 47 9. Dario Franchitti 44 10. Bryan Herta 42
Tony Kanaan narrowly bested his teammate Dan Wheldon, and Vitor Meira in another spectacular photo finish at the Kansas Speedway.Dan lost by just 0.012 seconds or less than the length of his car nose piece. This was the sixth closest event in IRL history and the second closest 1-2-3 finish.
Everybody was expecting or hoping for a close finish and the fans got what they wanted.The race came down to a final battle between Andretti Green Racing (AGR) teammates Tony Kanaan and Dan Wheldon and Vitor Meira, from the Rahal Letterman team.
Like last years awesome finish, Vitor Meira again lost another thriller at the Kansas speedway by a mere 0.024 seconds. Vitor, who lost the 2004 Kansas race by only 0.005 seconds to Buddy Rice, had a real problem trying to pass the two AGR teammates who were side by side for the last couple laps. Coming out of the fourth turn Vitor tried to go high, saw he couldn’t pass Tony, and suddenly darted low and was passing the other two below the white line as they crossed the checkered finish line.
Vitor, who has been running well this year, almost won trying to pass Tony and Dan below the white line, deferring a possible controversial finish. It appeared that it was going to be near impossible to pass the two teammates who were side by side.Tony verified my suspicion as he later said, “we had talked last night…to try to go side by side so that we could be in position.”Vitor said, “I have lost the last two races (at Kansas) by about four feet and under three-hundredths of a second.Man, that is pretty close. I would like to win one of these (races) pretty soon.”
This was Tony’s first win in almost a year since Nashville, last year.While beaming ear to ear he said, “It’s been awhile since I’ve won a race, so I’m very happy,” “I’m happy for the team. I think Dan has extended his lead. I’m solid in second place. That’s all we need for Andretti Green Racing to win this championship again. Let’s keep the momentum up. It was a hard race, a really hard race.”
The first three starters consisted of the entire Rahal Letterman team of, Danica Patrick, Buddy Rice, and Vitor Meira which certainly caused a lot of concern with the remaining teams including the Andretti Green Team.
IndyCar Series rookie Danica Patrick, was the second woman in series history to start from the pole with a lap of 214.668 mph in the No. 16 Argent Pioneer Panoz/Honda. Buddy Rice was only slightly slower with a 214.650 mph qualifying lap. The first lady pole winner was Sarah Fisher three years ago at the Kentucky Speedway.
Danica got up to fifth place at the end, but had to make a late “splash and go”, on lap 187, for fuel which put her back and eventually finished ninth, a second consecutive top ten finish ahead of her teammate, Buddy Rice. She appeared very racy at the end, but was too far back to make a charge at the leaders.Buddy had some problems early, and he did make a comeback and lead for five laps late when the leaders made their last pit stop for fuel. Buddy finished in tenth place on the lead lap.
Buddy and Danica both faded back after leading the early laps.Buddy fell to eighth and Danica was holding in tenth place after ten laps.On lap 38, Helio Castroneves came up and battled Danica for tenth and did pass her. However, Danica came right back and made a nice clean pass dropping under Helio to take the position back.
Danica later said, “It felt good to lead on that first lap but I think our fifth gear wasn’t quite fast enough,” said Patrick.“So I moved into the middle of the pack and tried to stay with the leaders. Overall, we made the car fastest through the day but it was frustrating when we dropped back a couple of times. “The wind was problem from everybody out there today and that caused my car to develop a push. But the car was pretty good in most cases and we were able to come back towards the leaders late in the race.”
The Chip Ganassi team didn’t have a great day, but did much better than the last race at Richmond when all three drivers crashed.Chip apparently called a meeting with all the team and told them the damage due to their incidents at Richmond.Darren Manningexpected to get a lecture as apparently it was reported that the total approximate damage estimate was $360K to the three cars crashed at Richmond.
This week, the only Ganassi driver not to finish was Ryan Briscoe who had his car stall and left the race with unknown mechanical problems. Darren Manning finished seventh, and Scott Dixon finished eighteenth, the last driver on the lead lap.
The strongest car for much of the race was Tomas Scheckter, racing the Chevrolet powered for the Pennzoil Panther team.Tomas led four times for a total of 63 laps and appeared to be the car to beat.However, twice he was beat out of the pits by Dan Wheldon.Twice, Dan’s pit crew got him into the lead after pit stops forcing Tomas to battle back.It appeared that the AGR crews were getting quicker stops on Dan and Tony’s car than Scheckter’s crew was doing.
Tomas and Dan had several laps side by side as neither would give putting the fans back on their feet, if they weren’t already. Tomas finally got back into the lead on lap 174 when Dan pitted for fuel and lead until he pitted for a “splash and go” along with Sam Hornish Jr. on lap 187.This put Dan, Tony, Vitor, and Dario Franchitti ahead of Tomas, who didn’t have enough speed to get catch and then pass the leaders in the last few frantic laps ending up in fifth position.
Tomas was borderline reckless, by some folks eyes, as several times he did controversial moves going below the white line multiple times. After one pass by Tony Kanaan below the line, the Indy Car officials gave Tomas the option of either letting Tony pass him back as he had gained a position, or he would be called in for a lengthy stop. Tomas let Tony pass back, but ten laps later had passed him back. Brian Barnhart, Indy Car President, warned everybody pre-race that possible penalties would be imposed by either passing under the white line to gain position, or for forcing someone under the white line. However, the rule was only enforced the one time on Scheckter.
Compared to Richmond this was nearly a crash free race with only one yellow flag due to a crash when Roger Yasukawa hit the wall. There were only two additional cautions due to separate tow-ins for Ryan Briscoe and Kosuke Matsuura.
Kosuke caused an extended yellow because he came back onto the track trailing smoke causing concern of a fluid spill on the track. Kosuke said he lost power and headed on the pit apron. However, he briefly restored power and drove back onto the racing groove only to have his engine quit completely forcing him to stop and require a tow-in.
Tony apparently disguised his moves as he stayed mostly on the inside groove not letting anybody know he was strong on the outside.He later said, “ I knew I was strong. I knew my car would run better on the outside than it was on the inside, but I didn't want to show anybody. I was afraid that Dan had figured that out. “I knew the moment that I pulled beside him I was going to win the race.”He did and only led 10 laps overall, but led the final last laps, 198-200.
The next race is at the 1.33 mile Nashville Superspeedway where Tony won his last previous race before today’s win.
RESULTS:
Key: No - Car Number, C/E/T - Chassis/Engine/Tire, S - Starting Position, XL - Times Led, LL - Laps Led
“Then we had to make a quick fuel stop at the end. We might have been a little better with the gears today. It was a little frustrating at times but we are a young team that is still leaning to work together. There were all kinds of little things that hampered us today. But we finished again. I think that is seven straight finishes for us and we are leading the rookie points.”
Meira was third – 0.0242 of a second behind -- in the No. 17 Johns Firestone, producing the second-closest 1-2-3 finish in series history. Dario Franchitti, runner-up at Richmond International Raceway the previous week, finished fourth. Tomas Scheckter garnered his third consecutive top-5 finish, which included a victory at Texas Motor Speedway, with a fifth place.
– 0.0242 of a second behind -- in the No. 17 Johns Manville /Firestone, producing the second-closest 1-2-3 finish in series history. Dario Franchitti, runner-up at Richmond International Raceway the previous week, finished fourth. Tomas Scheckter garnered his third consecutive top-5 finish, which included a victory at Texas Motor Speedway, with a fifth place.
“I have lost the last two races (at Kansas) by about four feet and under three-hundredths of a second,” Meira f these (races) pretty soon.”
KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Rahal Letterman Racing's rookie sensation Danica Patrick captured her first IRL IndyCar Series pole position leading a RLR sweep of the top-three positions for Sunday's Argent Mortgage Indy 300. Patrick making her debut on the fast 1.5-mile oval just west of downtown Kansas City posted a fast lap 214.668 mph. Patrick's qualifying lap narrowly edged the fast lap of defending race winner and her teammate Buddy Rice (214.650 mph) and their Rahal Letterman teammate Vitor Meira (214.546 mph).
Patrick, piloted the No. 16 Argent Mortgage/Pioneer Honda Panoz Firestone to the pole in just her eighth IndyCar race. She became just the second female to win a pole position in the IndyCar Series as she matched Sarah Fisher's accomplishment at Kentucky in 2002.
"I knew the first lap was pretty good but I wasn't sure if I was fast enough to beat Buddy's time," said Patrick, whose last pole came last June at Portland in a Formula Atlantic race. "Buddy was very fast. In fact I didn't even know if the final lap was pole or not. It is pretty cool accomplishment for our team to be first, second and third here at the Argent Mortgage Indy 300. Everybody is flat (on the throttle) out there and a lot of the speed is just how neutral can you make the car. This is a tribute to the crew for their setup. Last year Buddy and Vitor had the best cars in the race and I think we can work on their setups in the warm-up. Winning the pole is pretty exciting. It is a great moment for the Rahal Letterman Racing and our sponsors, the IRL and open-wheel racing in general. Now we just have to go take care of business in the race. "
Rice, was looking for his sixth IRL career pole Saturday, but instead he will make his first front row start of the 2005 IRL season. Rice defeated Meira last year at Kansas in the second closest finish in IRL history, 0.0051 seconds.
"I knew we had a pretty good car all morning, but qualifying is always different due to the weather," said Rice, a three-time winner in 2004. "It is a great day for all three Rahal Letterman cars to be up front. It is a big emotional bump for the team, especially for my crew since we have had so many bad breaks lately. We need a smooth, high points paying weekend for the No. 15 Argent Pioneer Honda team. This is a good start working towards that result. We knew that all three of the cars were fast and pretty equal in our setups. A lot of times it just comes down to the qualifying draws. We picked an early number and Vitor and Danica were the last cars out. Sometimes that is good and sometimes it is bad. Now we need to continue it on Sunday. I'd like to put the Argent Pioneer Honda back in victory lane here."
Meira piloted his No. 17 Rahal Letterman Team Menard/Johns Manville Honda/Panoz/Firestone to a speed of 214.546 mph and will start third, creating the first top-three IRL qualifying sweep since Red Bull Cheever Racing in 2002 at Michigan International Speedway. Ironically RLR's Buddy Rice, driving then for Cheever Racing, was part of the last top-three sweep.
"It doesn't get much better than that for our team……Rahal Letterman Racing 1-2-3," said Meira. "Whether I am on the pole or Buddy or Danica, the real story is that our team was very fast and this is a first for Rahal Letterman Racing. It doesn't matter who is on the pole. Last year I lost this race by inches and now I want to win and it doesn't matter if it is by only an inch."
"It is a very exciting day for the team," said Scott Roembke, Chief Operating Office of Rahal Letterman Racing. "We knew coming to Kansas that we had a good setup after last year's performance by Buddy and Vitor, but this is a first for us."
Team Penske driver Helio Castroneves gave a hint of how fiercely competitive the IndyCar world truly is, when he complained today, during an interview to Brazilian TV channel Band, about the two-seater rides given by rivals Dan Wheldon and Vitor Meira.
Panther Racing has confirmed that it has entered into a partnership with Jonathan Byrd II and David Byrd to form Byrd Brothers/Panther Racing. The partnership will field a Dallara-Chevrolet at the Indianapolis 500 this May for 1996 Indy winner and 2000 IRL IndyCar champion Buddy Lazier. The team’s No. 95 entry will be sponsored by Jonathan Byrd’s Cafeteria and Indianapolis AM radio station ESPN 950. 
Jeff Bucknum passed his Indy Racing League rookie test at the Phoenix International Raceway on March 20, roughly 12 hours after winning the LTP2 class in the 12 Hours of Sebring.
AVONDALE, Ariz., Saturday, March 19, 2005 – Two-time IRL IndyCar® Series champion Sam Hornish Jr. held off a charge from Dario Franchitti and won the XM Satellite Radio Indy 200 Presented by Argent Mortgage at Phoenix International Raceway.
This was Tony’s first win in almost a year since Nashville, last year.
Rice, was looking for his sixth IRL career pole Saturday, but instead he will make his first front row start of the 2005 IRL season. Rice defeated Meira last year at Kansas in the second closest finish in IRL history, 0.0051 seconds.