IndyCar
Scott Dixon has handed his team its 100th win with victory at a rain-shortened Firestone Indy 200 at Nashville Superspeedway today.
The 22nd IndyCar Series win and 100th automobile win for Chip Ganassi Racing, Dixon held aloft his third consecutive hand-painted Gibson guitar trophy at Nashville after a risky fuel strategy that had a lot of teams holding their breath. It is his fourth win of the season.
Dixon’s team-mate Dan Wheldon was second and Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves third, while Tony Kanaan and Danica Patrick rounded out the top five.
The Brisbane-born Kiwi may not have had the best car at Nashville Superspeedway, but he did have the best strategy. He and Wheldon elected to stay out on a late caution to take the top two spots on lap 149, and held those positions until the race was rained out with 29 laps left to run.
Dixon’s ‘Down Under’ comrade Ryan Briscoe did not share the same amount of luck. On lap three an out-of-control Marco Andretti collected the 27 year old Sydney-sider after bottoming out, putting them both out of the race.
Briscoe’s fellow Australian Will Power finished 11th after starting 14th, with the transitioning driver taking a cautious approach to the oval.
From here the IndyCar series heads to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on July 20 for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio presented by Westfield Insurance as the unified series continues on a schedule that is the most diverse in world motorsports.
The 2008 schedule will take the teams and drivers to short ovals, superspeedways, and road and street courses including the Gold Coast Indy 300 which is regarded as a ‘crown jewel’ in international motorsport.
WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY…
Scott Dixon (No. 9 Energizer/Target Chip Ganassi Racing, finished first):
“It’s a big night for Target Chip Ganassi Racing. Every time we ran this car, I’ve won with it, here at Nashville and at Watkins Glen,” said Dixon.
“It’s been a hell of a lot of luck for us, but you could not have been luckier than we were tonight. It was a miscommunication on the pit call. That’s the only reason that I didn’t come in.
“I was angry for a few laps, but when I saw that rain coming down, I thought, ‘Oh, this could work out pretty good. (Tony Kanaan) was pretty strong and he seemed to get the worst out of it.” (Have you learned to play the guitar yet?): “I haven’t. If I do, it might be bad luck, so I’m not going to learn for a long time.”
Dan Wheldon (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing, second):
“I absolutely did not (have a second-place car tonight), but sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. It’s a great night for Target Chip Ganassi Racing in the end,” said Wheldon.
“To finish 1-2, and the rain seemed to be powered by Energizer Batteries because it kept coming down. I had a lot of drag in the car and it made it very difficult. I had to lift a lot in traffic, and as I said, sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.”
Helio Castroneves (No. 3 Team Penske, third):
“It’s not the race we wanted to have, especially the way it finished. I was told that the Ganassi guys had four laps of fuel left. That’s two minutes. If the rain had come two minutes later, we would have won the race,” said Castroneves.
“But sometimes you have to be lucky than good. They did that, and there’s nothing we could do. Team Penske did its race, and we finished third. It was good enough for what we had. The car was really tough to handle, and third is good enough for the championship.”
Will Power (No. 8 Aussie Vineyards – Team Australia, 11th):
“This was a race where my main goal was to finish,” said Power.
“The Aussie Vineyards-Team Australia car felt reasonable. I was being cautious, but it was very tough because we were being lapped, and then as a lapped car we were letting people go by.
“Because it’s just one line, and we had to get out of the way, we ended up losing a lot of time and track position.”
Ryan Briscoe (No. 6 Team Penske):
“We just can’t get a break. We’ve had a big string of bad luck the past couple of races,” said Briscoe.
“I was just trying to settle into the race and was running outside the No. 26 car, and he lost it and collected me. It’s really unfortunate because we thought we learned a few things from Helio’s setup that we hoped would help us, too.
“But, we didn’t have a chance to see. Hopefully we’ll be able to put this all behind us moving forward and turn in a good result at Mid-Ohio.”
Marco Andretti (No. 26, Andretti Green Racing):
“I just got loose and ran into (Ryan) Briscoe,” said Andretti.
“I feel bad for the oso*fresh team but obviously for Briscoe, too. I might have been able to save the car if he wasn’t there. It was a long day, for sure, but I don’t think that had anything to do with the incident. It was simply my mistake.”
RESULTS: Firestone Indy 200 at Nashville Superspeedway
Results of the Firestone Indy 200 IndyCar Series event at the 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):
1. (5) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 171, Running
2. (6) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 171, Running
3. (1) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 171, Running
4. (7) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 171, Running
5. (2) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 171, Running
6. (15) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 171, Running
7. (12) Buddy Rice, Dallara-Honda, 171, Running
8. (8) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 171, Running
9. (18) Darren Manning, Dallara-Honda, 171, Running
10. (20) Mario Moraes, Dallara-Honda, 170, Running
11. (14) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 170, Running
12. (10) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 170, Running
13. (21) Marty Roth, Dallara-Honda, 170, Running
14. (3) Hideki Mutoh, Dallara-Honda, 169, Running
15. (22) Bruno Junqueira, Dallara-Honda, 169, Running
16. (17) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Honda, 169, Running
17. (16) Milka Duno, Dallara-Honda, 168, Running
18. (13) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 143, Running
19. (4) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 99, Contact
20. (19) Enrique Bernoldi, Dallara-Honda, 66, Handling
21. (23) Jaime Camara, Dallara-Honda, 50, Handling
22. (24) A.J. Foyt IV, Dallara-Honda, 45, Handling
23. (9) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 3, Mechanical
24. (11) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 2, Contact
FIRESTONE INDY 200 POST-RACE NOTES:
- This is Scott Dixon’s fourth victory this season and the 14th of his IndyCar Series career.
- This is Dixon’s third consecutive victory at Nashville. This is the third time in IndyCar Series history that a driver has won three consecutive races at one track. Dixon did it at Watkins Glen from 2005-07, and Dan Wheldon did it at Homestead-Miami from 2005-07.
- This is Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s 22nd victory in the IndyCar Series and its 100th victory in motorsports.
- Dixon extends his lead in the point standings from 48 to 63 points.
- Dan Wheldon finished second, his eighth top-five finish of the season.
- This is the 26th time in IndyCar Series history that teammates have finished 1-2 in a race. The last time was at Belle Isle in 2007 when Andretti Green Racing teammates Tony Kanaan and Danica Patrick finished 1-2.
- This is the fourth time Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammates have finished 1-2. The last time was at Homestead-Miami in 2007 when Dan Wheldon won and Scott Dixon finished second.
- Helio Castroneves finished third, his fifth podium finish of the season.
- Tony Kanaan finished fourth, his eighth top-five finish of the season.
- Danica Patrick finished fifth, her second top-five finish of the season.
- Buddy Rice finished seventh, his second consecutive top-10 finish.
- Darren Manning finished ninth, his second consecutive top-10 finish.
- Mario Moraes finished 10th, his second consecutive top-10 finish and his career-best finish on an oval.
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