Race Reviews

Recapping this weekend’s IZOD IndyCar Series event.

Dan Wheldon Grows His Indianapolis Legacy With Another Win

Posted by Chad Smith on May 30, 2011
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Wheldon

It is called the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”, the “Biggest Race in the World”, and quite simply; just “Indy”. This year’s race has also been named the “Most Important Race in History”. It only seems right that Dan Wheldon won this year’s Indianapolis 500.

Too often in sports these days, we see players and coaches win Championships, only to add their own flavor to the celebration. Not many of them are thinking about the people that came before them, and who made the event what it has become today. Dan Wheldon is not one of those people.

This is not just another race, which is evident by the 350,000 people that come from around the world to witness the event. The traditions that date back to 100 years ago in 1911 are still carried out today. Winning the Indianapolis 500 is bigger than winning the Series Championship; and any driver that tells you differently is lying to you.

Wheldon knows the history and tradition of Indy, and he absolutely loves it. He showed his passion and emotions of this race even before he got out of his car in Victory Circle.

“For me, winning the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 is very special,” said Wheldon. “I love this racetrack. I love this race and what it’s done for my career even before being a two-time winner. That is an emotion that didn’t come into it before, and because I’m more experienced I’m able to appreciate this more and you have more time to appreciate it.”

He continued, “It’s certainly different from the last one. I remember I was out for most of the night with my sponsor, Jim Beam. Last night, I went to a driver party for about an hour and then I retired to bed. Sebastian (his son) crawled into bed with us about 4 o’clock in the morning and kind of took over the bed. They’re both obviously very good and it’s an amazing achievement by everybody. This one was definitely more emotional; there was a lot more going on. A lot of things have changed in my life since 2005.”

Since his memorable first Indy 500 win in 2005, he has gotten married, has two children, and his mother is battling a disease back home.

“For me, there’s a lot going on back home with my family and it was certainly nice to win. It was very emotional and different from the last one because of that but nevertheless very good. This also is potentially my only race of the season. It wasn’t one of the races with one of the big, powerhouse teams; it was with Bryan Herta. We didn’t do this deal because we were friends.  We would have still been friends even if we hadn’t done this deal. We did it because we believed in one another and we believed that we could win.”

It is simply remarkable that a driver this talented does not have a full-time ride. Not only is he one of the most talented drivers on the ovals, but he is arguably one of the best drivers in the history of Indianapolis. He now has two wins, two second place finishes, a third, and fourth place finish at the famous speedway.

Wheldon came to IndyCar in 2002 with Panther Racing. He then went to Andretti Green Racing in 2004, where he won the Indy 500 and the IndyCar Series Championship in 2005. After leaving there, he went to Target Chip Ganassi Racing where he won races and contended for Championships. He was later replaced by Dario Franchitti, and went back to Panther Racing in 2009. Wheldon and the Panther Racing team finished second in the Indy 500 in 2009 and 2010 before leaving at the end of last year.

Wheldon led one time (the final 1,000 feet or so) which is the shortest distance of any race winner in the 100 year history of the Indianapolis 500. The only other driver to lead just the final lap was Joe Dawson in 1912.

It will truly be a shame if Wheldon can’t at least get some cars to drive for the remainder of the season. Not having the Indy 500 winner in any race for the rest of the season would be a big blow for the Series.

In today’s world where winning is only about the “now” moment for the individual or team, seeing a driver win and truly respect and appreciate the history that he is a part of, is very refreshing. Congratulations to Dan Wheldon, and the whole Bryan Herta team.

Wheldon Snatches Second Indy Victory After Last-Lap Crash

Posted by Christopher Leone on May 29, 2011
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Dan Wheldon drinks the celebratory milk after winning the 95th Indianapolis 500. Photo credit: Paul Webb, LAT Photo USA

ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” broadcasts used to emphasize the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Before the program was ended in the mid-2000s, footage of the 1996 Indianapolis 500 was frequently utilized in the introduction, as Buddy Lazier drove to victory while a three-car accident happened behind him.

Today’s broadcast might have provided even better fodder. Dan Wheldon, driving for Bryan Herta Autosport and Sam Schmidt Motorsports, won his second career Indianapolis 500 after watching J.R. Hildebrand crash coming out of the final corner of the event. Continue Reading

Should Team Penske Be Worried About Their Chances on Sunday?

Posted by Chad Smith on May 24, 2011
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Roger Penske has 15 Indianapolis 500 wins as an owner, more than anyone in the race’s 100-year history. This year, it appears that No. 16 is going to be tougher than ever.

Rick Mears and Helio Castroneves have combined for seven of those wins. The other winning drivers for Roger Penske in this race are some of the most talented to ever get behind the wheel. Guys like Sam Hornish Jr, Gil de Ferran, Al Unser Jr, Emerson Fittipaldi, Al Unser, Danny Sullivan and Bobby Unser have all tasted the milk at Indianapolis while driving for Roger.Team Penske has won five of the last 10 Indianapolis 500 races.

This year, Will Power has dominated on the street and road courses, winning the pole for all four races prior to coming to Indy. He has two wins, and a runner up finish in those four races. He was fast in every practice session this month, and was perceived to be a favorite coming into Pole Day. He did make the Fast Nine, but will start the race in fifth position, the middle of row two.

Ryan Briscoe has been equally as fast, and was my early prediction to win this year’s race. Going into the morning practice session on Pole Day, he looked like he would be a lock for the front row. Unfortunately Briscoe lost control of his IZOD machine in turn two.

Briscoe backed it into the wall hard, and had to go to his backup car. Even though they took him away on a stretcher, he was cleared to drive just a couple of hours later, and got in the backup car, despite being badly bruised in the accident. Ryan qualified his backup car in 27th position on Sunday.

The third Penske driver, Helio Castroneves, was looking forward to Indianapolis to provide a bounce-back race to his season. He has struggled in the first four races this season, being involved in accidents in every race, including taking out his teammate Will Power at Long Beach.

While he felt good coming to the familiar speedway, his chances of winning a record-tying fourth Indianapolis 500 took a hit when he didn’t have the speed we thought he would on Pole Day. Many people, including myself, were expecting him to be up in the front row, but he didn’t even make the Fast Nine. Helio will be starting the race in 16th position.

While this weekend wasn’t another Penske domination, having two of the three cars starting worse than 15th is not something we can just brush to the side. The weekend has been overshadowed by the mess that is Andretti Autosport, the brilliance of Sam Schmidt Motorsports, the fuel miscues of Chip Ganassi, and the horrible luck of Dragon Racing.

While I wouldn’t hit the panic button yet on Team Penske, they should probably focus more on finding the speed that Helio needs to make his way to the front. Briscoe’s primary car was one of the fastest all month, so going to a backup car really hurt his chances. Will Power will be fine starting in fifth, but we don’t really know why Helio qualified so poorly.

It would be foolish to count out any of these drivers before the race starts, but they have been outperformed by many teams this past weekend. Normally the favorites for the race are either Penske or Ganassi cars, but this year you have to add in the teams of Sam Schmidt, Newman Haas, and also drivers Dan Wheldon and Ed Carpenter.

Make no mistake though, both Ganassi cars will be up front during the race, and Scott Dixon is going to be very difficult to beat.

Happiness For Schmidt, Heartbreak For Andretti In Indy Qualifying

Posted by Christopher Leone on May 23, 2011
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Marco Andretti climbs from his car after qualifying for the 95th Indianapolis 500. Photo credit: Dana Garrett, IndyCar Media

Perhaps no man ever better exemplified the old sporting phrase “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” than Michael Andretti yesterday.

Andretti, he of the famous Andretti clan, former CART champion and current IZOD IndyCar Series team owner, was undoubtedly ecstatic over the fact that his son, Marco, qualified for the 95th running of the Indianapolis 500 with a run that started just four seconds before the gun went off to signal the end of Bump Day.

After 2010 fourth-place finisher Alex Lloyd pulled off a miraculous run to bump the youngest Andretti from the field, Marco showed flashes of what made his grandfather, Mario, a household name to this day by turning the fourth quickest run of the day. It was good for 28th on the 33-car grid, though it would have been good for the middle of the seventh row had he turned it on Saturday.

But at the same time, even winding up in that position was never supposed to happen. Continue Reading

Power Prevails in Rainy Sao Paulo Epic

Posted by Christopher Leone on May 2, 2011
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Will Power follows the pace car to pit lane during a red flag. Photo credit: Chris Jones, IndyCar Media

The two-day race weekend that the IZOD IndyCar Series had planned for the Itaipava Sao Paulo 300 turned out to be too optimistic.

Instead, the event was extended to three days, the result of impossibly dangerous rain during the race on Sunday, and Will Power took the completion of the two-hour timed race on Monday for his second race win of the season.

Power led much of the race from the pole, getting through the disastrous attempts to race on Sunday. In the first start, Ryan Hunter-Reay missed the first turn and drove through the wet, painted runoff area straight into the tires; he wouldn’t be the first to have such an excursion. Meanwhile, Helio Castroneves, Danica Patrick, and Simona de Silvestro were involved in an accident of their own just after the carousel that should have eliminated all three.

Subsequent starts proved similarly adventurous, as drivers of all reputations and experience levels – from rookie James Hinchcliffe to former series champion Scott Dixon – found themselves unable to control their cars. The rest of the day was chaos. Teams went from being told they couldn’t work on cars under the red flag, to being granted provisions to do so; the race went from red to yellow to red to postponed until Monday; the broadcast time changed from 1 PM to 8 AM.

The race was restarted on Monday with the entire field back on the grid, albeit in some cases nearly ten laps down. Power continued to lead, but on the lap 26 restart was simply outclassed by Takuma Sato, who braked later into the first turn and made his way around Power. The field shuffled once again on a caution, as many of the leaders pit, but Sato and a handful of others stayed out. In the wake of those pit stops, Sato’s Lotus/KV Racing Technology teammate E.J. Viso briefly took second, but was given a pass-through penalty for blocking third place Marco Andretti seven times.

In the end, staying out didn’t work for any of those three drivers. Sato had to pit on lap 49 and wound up eighth. Andretti pit and made the mistake of using the alternate-compound slick tires, causing him to fall to a disappointing 14th, directly behind Viso.

Power re-inherited the lead and began to drive away from second-place Graham Rahal, who, like most drivers, had spent some time turned around during the race. Power’s Team Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe took third, while Dario Franchitti rebounded from his own trip into the tires to place fourth.

Power now leads the point standings over Franchitti, 168-154, heading into the sport’s biggest race, the Indianapolis 500. The rest of the top five, however, is surprising. Oriol Servia, who hasn’t raced full-time since 2008, is third; Mike Conway, who missed two-thirds of last season recovering from injuries sustained at Indianapolis, ranks fourth; and Briscoe, whose first two races ended in tears, jumped up to fifth with two straight podium finishes.

Conway Continues Andretti Success at Long Beach

Posted by Christopher Leone on April 17, 2011
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Race winner Mike Conway exits pit lane. Photo credit: Chris Jones, IndyCar Media

Ryan Hunter-Reay and Marco Andretti may have seen their days end with a gearbox failure and a pit road accident, respectively, but Andretti Autosport still managed to defend last year’s victory at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Rebounding from accidents in his first two starts this year, Mike Conway took his maiden IZOD IndyCar Series victory in one of the series’ most prestigious events, passing Ryan Briscoe late and amassing a lead of over six seconds. It was only his third start since a horrific accident in last year’s Indianapolis 500 left him with back and leg injuries that ended his 2010 season.

Continue Reading

Power Back To Dominating Ways At Barber

Posted by Christopher Leone on April 10, 2011
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Will Power took his first win of the season at Barber. Photo credit: Dan Helrigel, IndyCar Media

For the first time since the 2009 Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma, when Dario Franchitti performed the feat, an IZOD IndyCar Series driver managed to lead a race from start to finish.

Today’s lucky winner was Will Power, who took pole after repeatedly out-classing the field in practice and qualifying sessions, and held off Scott Dixon on a series of restarts to take today’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park. It was Power’s 10th win in American open-wheel racing and seventh since joining Team Penske in 2009.

By staying up front all race, Power managed to avoid the wrecks that caused the race’s six cautions. While other drivers saw their respective race days end with accidents, often in the tricky fifth turn, Power was a class of his own, admitting to “cruising” for much of the race in a victory lane interview.

But Power’s driving was not without complaint. Dixon’s owner Chip Ganassi took offense to Power switching lanes on restarts, reportedly threatening Roger Penske that he would tell Dixon to wreck Power if he continued to throw blocks on restarts. Dixon and Ganassi never followed through on that threat, instead staying in second, as teammate Franchitti completed the podium.

Marco Andretti’s fourth place was the lone bright spot for Andretti Autosport. Ryan Hunter-Reay finished 14th after putting out Ryan Briscoe with a risky move and taking a penalty for avoidable contact that dropped him from 5th to 18th. Meanwhile, Danica Patrick had another rough day – after initially taking teammate Mike Conway out early in the event, her strategist left her on old alternate tires to put her in third with 30 laps to go, but they quickly faded, and she had to pit in the final few laps to finish 17th, one lap down.

Oriol Servia took the eighth top-five finish of his IndyCar career after holding off a hard-charging Tony Kanaan for fifth. Defending race winner Helio Castroneves, IndyCar debutant Simon Pagenaud, Simona de Silvestro, and rookie Charlie Kimball completed the top ten.

Heading into next week’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, Power leads the points with 94, seven more than second place Franchitti and 31 more than third place Kanaan.

In the preceding 40-lap Firestone Indy Lights race, Victor Garcia also led from flag to flag after starting on pole, beating Stefan Wilson and Peter Dempsey to the line. Josef Newgarden leads Dempsey in points, 80 to 70, through the first two events. Meanwhile, Tristan Vautier led the entire Star Mazda race to take the victory, which gives him an 83 to 71 lead in points over Connor De Phillippi through two events.

Franchitti, de Silvestro Shine In Season Opener

Posted by Christopher Leone on March 27, 2011
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Will Power, Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan on the podium with champagne. Photo credit: Michael Levitt, LAT Photography USA

Dario Franchitti kicked off his IZOD IndyCar Series title defense in the best way possible, taking the victory in the season-opening Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Franchitti, who led 94 of the race’s 100 laps, beat polesitter and defending race winner Will Power by over seven seconds to the top step of the podium. Third place went to Tony Kanaan, in his first race with a brand new Lotus/KV Racing Technology team.

But while Franchitti may have taken the victory, the real story of the race was HVM Racing and driver Simona de Silvestro. After engineer Michael Cannon left the team just before the start of the season to work with Kanaan, the team struggled for most of the weekend, qualifying 17th.

But a series of early accidents eliminated many top cars from contention, allowing her to move up the running order quickly. de Silvestro ran as high as second and was reeling in Kanaan for third until fellow Lotus/KVRT driver E.J. Viso blocked her with a few laps to go. de Silvestro charged back, but didn’t quite have enough to get by.

Early incidents, particularly off of the new double-file restart format, saw four cautions within the race’s first 15 laps. The first saw many of the top drivers – Helio Castroneves, Ryan Briscoe, and Scott Dixon among them – take some serious damage, but worst affected by the carnage was Andretti Autosport. Marco Andretti saw his first race of the season end with a spectacular crash in turn one for the second straight year, and Mike Conway also saw his race end right then.

Ryan Hunter-Reay also fell victim to bad luck, only completing 58 laps and vocally complaining on ABC about drivers’ inability to be patient. The lone Andretti driver to finish the race, Danica Patrick, went through three front wings and lost a position for avoidable contact after the race, ending up 12th, the last driver on the lead lap.

J.R. Hildebrand ended up the top rookie in the race and the only one to finish on the lead lap, finishing 11th. All four other rookies in the race were involved in some sort of incident; Sebastian Saavedra spun early, Charlie Kimball hit the wall on cold tires, and James Jakes and Ana Beatriz landed in a runoff together in the middle of the race, although both continued. Jakes’ incident marked the last of a tough day for Dale Coyne Racing, which saw both Jakes and Sebastien Bourdais crash in morning warmups. Bourdais did not start; Jakes ran a Frankenstein-looking car, repaired just in time to make the start of the race, and even spent significant time in the top 10.

In Firestone Indy Lights, Josef Newgarden won his debut race for Sam Schmidt Motorsports by less than a second over teammate Conor Daly. Newgarden led the final 34 of the race’s 45 laps. Peter Dempsey of O2 Racing Technology, who led the first 11, rounded out the podium.

Both the IZOD IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights will take next weekend off. They will race at Barber Motorsports Park in two weeks’ time, in the second annual Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama.