IndyCar
The Brazilian, whose season had been stalled by a multitude of mishaps and bad luck, dominated the beginning and end of the SunTrust Indy Challenge last night at Richmond International Raceway to win for the first time this season.
A 33-year-old Kanaan claimed his 13th career victory in this caution-filled race by averaging 108.79 miles per hour on Saturday.
It was his third time in Victory Lane when starting from the pole.
On a night when half of the 26 cars went home damaged, Kanaan got the good fortune he said he deserved, avoiding the near-constant chaos caused by a record-tying nine caution flags and coasting to his 13th career IndyCar victory.
The victory came a week after Kanaan led 71 laps at Iowa before crashing, absorbing what he said was one of the hardest hits of his life and his latest experience with bad luck.
Andretti, who was almost as dominant as his Andretti Green Racing teammate until he gave up the lead by pitting under green with 95 laps to go, never recovered and wound up ninth.
“I feel bad about Marco,” Kanaan said. “I think he has as strong a car as I had.”
Kanaan led twice for 166 laps, and Andretti led another 90.
“It was busier, 26 cars, a lot of people hitting each other,” Kanaan said. “But this race is always going to be busy. You’re always going to be mad at somebody, or somebody is going to be mad at you, because you’re always passing or trying to lap somebody.
“That’s the way it is. What are you going to do?”
That’s what Kanaan has been saying for some time in a season of frustration. Trouble found him while leading late in the season-opening race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, E.J. Viso’s spinning car knocking him out. He crashed in the Indianapolis 500 and also at last week’s race at Iowa Speedway. He looked
like a winner in each.
Kanaan’s son was drawing near his first birthday and there still wasn’t a win in the family.
“He’s getting to be a year old and if he understands about racing he was going to say, ‘Dad, you (stink),’ “ the race winner said.
Castroneves, who started 18th, used a blistering early pit stop to get into contention and finished second, followed by Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon.
Oriol Servia was a career-best fifth, and Danica Patrick was sixth.
Kanaan, becoming only the third driver to win from the pole, would have sealed the deal if only the race had gone 250 laps as it did in the past. But even with the race stretched 50 laps, Castroneves, Wheldon and Dixon couldn’t reel in Kanaan, who had a clear track over the final 40 laps
