For the third consecutive time, Dan Wheldon has won the IndyCar Series season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway, leading teammate Scott Dixon home by more than six seconds in a dominating performance for both the 2005 series champion and the entire Target Chip Ganassi Racing organization. Defending series champion Sam Hornish Jr. rounded out the top three finishers, but was more than 17 seconds behind at the checker.
It was also an extremely successful debut for the new 3.5-liter Honda HI7R IndyCar Series engine, racing on 100 per cent fuel-grade ethanol for the first time in a major motorsports event. In all, the 20 drivers and teams competing at Homestead completed 5,310 laps of practice, qualifying and racing this weekend—a total of 7,965 miles—without a single engine-related failure.
Starting from the pole, Wheldon led 179 of the 200-lap race distance, losing the lead only on pit stops. Even what could have been a major problem on his Lap 105 pit stop, when Wheldon’s crew lost time due to a jammed air line under his Honda Dallara, turned out to be only a minor setback. Resuming in ninth place after the stop, it took Wheldon only 10 laps of green-flag racing to move to the front of the field, where he remained for the rest of the night.
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