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IndyCar
Scott Dixon has solidified his lead in the IndyCar Series championship today by winning the Rexall Edmonton Indy by 5.9327 seconds over Helio Castroneves.
The victory at Edmonton City Centre Airport is the Brisbane-born Kiwi’s fifth victory of the season and sees him extend his championship lead to 65 points over Castronves, who took his sixth runner-up finish of 2008.
Justin Wilson, the winner at Edmonton in 2006, finished third, and Canadian Paul Tracy, the 1995 Gold Coast Indy 300 winner who was making his first series start of the season, improved 11 positions to finish fourth in a impressive drive.
Oriol Servia finished fifth, pole-sitter Ryan Briscoe of Sydney was sixth after leading early and Wheldon seventh. Briscoe’s ‘Down Under’ counterpart Will Power, who enjoyed the technical consultation of veteran Canadian racer and former team-mate Alex Tagliani during today’s race, was 22nd after encountering mechanical issues early in the race.
Heading into a pit stop on Lap 51, Dixon radioed his crew to give him an extra push out of pit lane. That push got him out of the pits first and helped Dixon take the lead on Lap 62 when the field cycled through pit stops.
From that point, Dixon was dogged by Castroneves, maintaining a lead of less than a second until Castroneves missed the braking point heading into Turn 1 on Lap 86. The mistake by the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner allowed Dixon to stretch his lead to five seconds and cruise to victory over the final five laps.
The victory sees Dixon become the fourth driver in IndyCar Series history to win five races in a season, one shy of the series record set by Dan Wheldon in 2005.
From here the IndyCar series heads to the Meijer Indy 300 August 9 at Kentucky Speedway as the unified series continues on a schedule that is the most diverse in world motorsports.
WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY…
Scott Dixon (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing, first):
“It’s fantastic. I think at this point in the championship battle it’s a must-have for Team Target,” said Dixon.
“Helio (Castroneves) has been very strong in the last two races. He’s been trying to chase us down, but we were able to make a small gain on him this weekend.
“At this point, I think a 65-point lead is pretty strong. We just have to keep on it for the next four races. We need to be consistent and continue to earn points. This win was definitely a turn for us in the championship.”
Helio Castroneves (No. 3 Team Penske, second):
“When you’re behind another driver, you’re just short on tires. I was doing everything I could just to keep up,” said Castroneves.
“I was pushing and trying to put pressure on (Scott) Dixon with every lap, but he never made a mistake. I’m just going to keep working hard because it isn’t over for Team Penske yet.”
Justin Wilson (No. 02 McDonald’s Racing Team, third):
“Under the circumstances, we’re very happy with today, and it’s great to put the McDonald’s car in the top three,” said Wilson.
“We’ve had the capability of doing that on many occasions but something has always gone wrong. Today’s race was very eventful, but we were able to stay clean out there.
“We knew when to back off and we knew when to push, and that’s why we’re here.
(What did you say to Paul Tracy when you got out of the car?): “I talked to him and told him, ‘Not bad for an old guy.’ It was good racing. I’ve always enjoyed racing with Paul. I know a lot of people have had problems with him, but I’ve always enjoyed it because he races hard, but fair. I don’t mind going wheel to wheel with him.”
Paul Tracy (No. 22 Subway/Vision, fourth):
“I could hear the pit, but they couldn’t hear me. I just did everything that they said. We couldn’t make any changes to the car, so what I had I had to stick with,” said Tracy.
“We did a couple of hand signals for tire pressure up or down under yellow, so I couldn’t really optimize the car. At the end, I had to save a lot of fuel to make it to the end.
“I’m just super-excited for the team. They prepared this car in about a week and a half, and I gave it a first-class effort for the sponsor. With a little more practice and me not sitting on the couch for the last six months, maybe we could do better.”
Ryan Briscoe (No. 6 Team Penske, sixth):
“It was a bit of a frustrating day because I think we had a podium-finishing car. Early in the race Helio (Castroneves) was a bit faster and got by me, and then it was just between the two Team Penske cars,” said Briscoe.
“The fuel strategy came into play a bit, and by mid-race we ended up getting shuffled back in the pack because a lot of the slower guys stayed out. Then on a restart, (Dan) Wheldon went three-wide with (Ed) Carpenter, and they came sliding down and put me into a spin.
“That was really unfortunate because up until that point I was having a real solid race. Once again, Roger (Penske) worked his strategy and we were able to make up some spots, pass some cars and end up with a sixth-place finish.
“I guess, all things considered, sixth place was a good result. We picked up some points and were able to solidify fifth place in the championship.”
Will Power (No. 8 Aussie Vineyards-Team Australia):
“I am just really disappointed. The Aussie Vineyards-Team Australia car was really quick, we were getting good fuel mileage and then there was a mechanical failure,” said Power.
“The KVRT crew did a great job getting me back in the race, but being so many laps behind we were really in it to try and get as many points as possible.”
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