Things are starting to get serious in the Chase for the Spring Cup now. And this week’s outing at Chicagoland was to have a major effect on the fortunes of some of the leading names, as the points standings close up dramatically.
At the green flag, Brian Vickers took the initial lead from poll for Red Bull, but the 48 of Jimmie Johnson was clearly stronger and passed him on lap 10 for the lead. Vickers’ team mate Scott Speed lost a couple of spots at the start as he ran in unfamiliar territory at the sharp end of the field, but eventually slotted in behind Clint Bowyer and Mark Martin for 5th place.
With the sun still much in evidence and blinding drivers doing into turn 3 there was clearly going to be a lot of changes in car handling as the night came in. Surprisingly a lot of cars were very loose even this early on, with Kyle Busch memorably drifting into David Reutimann as the two of them duelled in the top ten, leaving some nice rubber marks on Kyle’s bodywork.
A yellow came out for debris on lap 39 allowing the field to stream in for pit stops. Mark Martin had been looking the fastest car on track in the preceding laps and his pit crew put in a performance to match, putting him out on track in the lead. Jimmie Johnson’s crew has a mishap with the jack and dropped six places, but was quick to recover and climb back to 2nd as Martin charged off into the distance.
Kyle Busch’s attempt to fix his handling problems at the pit stop proved a disaster, the car unmanageable in the next stint. The 18 car dropped out of the top ten and fell to 25th, the back of the lead lap, and was eventually lapped by the leader. No wonder he was first in to the pits when green flag stops began on lap 95 – not that it seemed to do the 18’s handling any good, however. Subsequently he would lose a cylinder in his engine and fall two laps off the lead – a dismal showing for last year’s winner here.
Kyle was not alone in having a bad day – Juan Montoya was also struggling, and Greg Biffle seemed to be attracting pit lane penalties at every opportunity. But among those having a good day were Kyle’s brother Kurt, along with Tony Stewart were among those making progress in the opposite direction, both climbing from poor qualifying positions into the top ten by the time the race hit lap 100.
After a second yellow for debris on lap 131, the race resumed at sunset with Mark Martin ahead of Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart and Brian Vickers; further back Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards nearly wiped each other out and narrowly kept their cars off the wall. But no yellow was required and in fact the race then went green for the next 75 laps, including a frantic green flag pit stop sequence around lap 190, but the top five remained remarkably consistent with only Vickers dropping out and Denny Hamlin starting to work his way up and into the top three.
A third yellow came out very conveniently on lap 211 which meant that all the cars could pit one last time and be within striking distance for the finish with the fuel. The pit stops went according to plan with the exception of Tony Stewart, who exited missing a lugnut and had to come back on pit road again, dumping him down to 15th.
At the restart, Martin once again led the field away on lap 215: Johnson, Kahne, Hamlin and Bowyer rounded out the top five. But the green flag racing lasted a scant three laps before Sam Hornish got spun by contact with Joey Logano and sent skidding across the in-field grass until the front hit thudded up against the inside wall.
The green flag flew again on lap 226 and again lasted only three laps until another caution, but this time for a multi-car accident: it started when Dale Earnhardt Jr goot loose and moved up the track, compressing Paul Menard against the wall. The contact blew out Menard’s rear tyre and sent Menard spinning into the wall; the tyre debris was shot backwards and caused other cars to swerve into full-on slides in reaction, including a nasty impact between Scott Speed and Jeff Burton. Jamie McMurray was also involved.
At the restart on lap 232, it was Jimmie Johnson heading up the field – the 48 having sneaked past man of the day Mark Martin in the last brief burst of green flag running. Johnson took the outside line at the double file restart, and Martin got loose down on the inside line which not only allowed Johnson to break away into the distance but also allowed Brian Vickers to snatch second place from Martin at the same time. In all they then managed 14 green flag laps before the sixth caution of the day came out on lap 246, after Juan Montoya and David Reutimann made contact while battling for 12th, sending the double zero into a long scrape against the wall.
Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski, Juan Montoya, Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick all chose to gamble for the benefit of fresh rubber over track position, and at the restart on lap 250 Johnson again led Vickers, Martin, Hamlin and Kahne back up to speed. But with just 17 laps to go to the end, this was the moment of do or die – and there were fireworks.
Hamlin pushed Johnson forward, but then Johnson got high and Hamlin was left making a side-by-side play with Vickers for the lead. The battle got physical, contact was made, and in the fall-out Mark Martin got past them both to reclaim the lead for himself once more. Meanwhile, behind the leaders, Johnson was still struggling not to fall back even further and ended up making contact with Kurt Busch; a tit-for-tat exchange followed which saw the two of them beat each other up and Kurt end up with a nasty tyre rub that sent him backwards down the running order, while Brad Keselowski got distracted by all the pushing and ended up against the wall himself. While it didn’t bring out the caution, it did send him to the back of the field and finally to pit road.
As a result of this shakeout, Jeff Gordon emerged in second place ahead of Denny Hamlin, with Kasey Kahne third, Johnson down to fifth, Vickers to seventh and Kurt Busch out of the top ten entirely. Still, none of this brought out a yellow – that was left to Kyle Busch at the back of the running order, whose engine had been struggling for some time since blowing a cylinder and which now gave up the ghost on lap 260, blowing up and sending the car skidding on spilled oil up into the wall at turn 3.
By the time the track was cleaned up, there were just two laps left to run. Mark Martin led them around and took the chequered flag, untroubled for the win as Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon tussled over second place, exchanging places twice in the last two laps before Gordon took the prize.
No question though about who had been in control of the race pretty much throughout: Mark Martin had once again proved that when it comes to winning NASCAR Sprint Cup events, age and experience are extremely potent and effective weapons. Once again, Martin’s in the Chase.
Race result
Pos Driver Car Laps 1. Mark Martin Chevrolet 267 2. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 267 3. Kasey Kahne Dodge 267 4. Tony Stewart Chevrolet 267 5. Denny Hamlin Toyota 267 6. Ryan Newman Chevrolet 267 7. Brian Vickers Toyota 267 8. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 267 9. Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 267 10. Juan Montoya Chevrolet 267 11. Marcos Ambrose Toyota 267 12. David Reutimann Toyota 267 13. AJ Allmendinger Dodge 267 14. Carl Edwards Ford 267 15. Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet 267 16. Martin Truex Jr Chevrolet 267 17. Kurt Busch Dodge 267 18. Joey Logano Toyota 267 19. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 267 20. Michael Waltrip Toyota 266 21. Bobby Labonte Ford 266 22. Jamie McMurray Ford 266 23. Matt Kenseth Ford 266 24. Reed Sorenson Dodge 265 25. David Ragan Ford 265 26. David Stremme Dodge 265 27. Elliott Sadler Dodge 265 28. Casey Mears Chevrolet 265 29. Bill Elliott Ford 265 30. John Andretti Chevrolet 265 31. Greg Biffle Ford 265 32. Brad Keselowski Chevrolet 265 33. Kyle Busch Toyota 257 34. Robby Gordon Toyota 237 35. Paul Menard Ford 226 36. Scott Speed Toyota 226 37. Jeff Burton Chevrolet 224 38. Sam Hornish Jr Dodge 217 39. Mike Skinner Toyota 60 40. Mike Bliss Dodge 58 41. Joe Nemechek Toyota 30 42. David Gilliland Chevrolet 11 43. Dave Blaney Toyota 10
Sprint Cup standings
Mark Martin’s back in the Chase, but Greg Biffle falls out and Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch are getting awfully close to the cut-off line after a string of poor outings. Only 51pts separate Kasey Kahne in 8th place from 13th-placed Biffle, meaning it’s looking like a lottery as the number of races run out.
It’s worth noting that Martin has the most wins and bonus points – facts that would come into play in the event he makes the Chase.
+/- DRIVER PTS BEHIND ST P W T5 T10
1 -- Tony Stewart 2884 Leader 19 0 2 11 15
2 -- Jeff Gordon 2709 -175 19 0 1 10 13
3 -- Jimmie Johnson 2672 -212 19 0 2 8 13
4 -- Kurt Busch 2526 -358 19 0 1 6 10
5 +1 Denny Hamlin 2457 -427 19 0 0 6 8
6 -1 Carl Edwards 2438 -446 19 0 0 5 9
7 -- Ryan Newman 2385 -499 19 1 0 5 9
8 +4 Kasey Kahne 2336 -548 19 0 1 3 7
9 +2 Juan Montoya 2321 -563 19 1 0 0 9
10 -2 Kyle Busch 2298 -586 19 1 3 4 6
11 +2 Mark Martin 2296 -588 19 3 4 5 9
12 -2 Matt Kenseth 2295 -589 19 1 2 4 7
======= CHASE FOR THE Sprint CUP - CURRENT CONTENDERS =======
13 -4 Greg Biffle 2285 -599 19 0 0 5 8
14 -- David Reutimann 2219 -665 19 2 1 4 5
15 +1 Clint Bowyer 2169 -715 19 0 0 3 7
16 +1 Brian Vickers 2149 -735 19 5 0 2 8
17 -2 Jeff Burton 2113 -771 19 0 0 2 6
18 -- Marcos Ambrose 2078 -806 19 0 0 2 5
19 -- Jamie McMurray 1960 -924 19 0 0 0 3
20 -- Joey Logano* 1956 -928 19 0 1 1 4
21 -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1928 -956 19 0 0 1 3
22 -- Casey Mears 1887 -997 19 0 0 0 2
23 -- Elliott Sadler 1881 -1003 19 0 0 1 3
24 -- Martin Truex Jr. 1845 -1039 19 1 0 0 3
25 +1 Kevin Harvick 1789 -1095 19 0 0 2 2
26 +1 Bobby Labonte 1779 -1105 19 0 0 1 1
27 +2 A.J. Allmendinger 1770 -1114 19 0 0 1 3
28 -- Reed Sorenson 1759 -1125 19 0 0 0 1
29 -4 Sam Hornish Jr. 1754 -1130 19 0 0 0 4
30 -- David Ragan 1708 -1176 19 0 0 0 1
31 +2 Michael Waltrip 1584 -1300 18 0 0 0 1
32 -- David Stremme 1584 -1300 19 0 0 0 0
33 -2 Paul Menard 1562 -1322 19 0 0 0 0
34 -- Robby Gordon 1529 -1355 19 0 0 1 1
35 +1 John Andretti 1274 -1610 17 0 0 0 0
36 -1 Scott Speed* 1273 -1611 18 0 0 1 1
37 -- David Gilliland 1064 -1820 18 0 0 0 0
38 -- Regan Smith 943 -1941 10 0 0 0 0
39 -- Brad Keselowski 787 -2097 7 0 1 1 3
40 -- Joe Nemechek 718 -2166 15 0 0 0 0
Toronto proved to be a tale of two pit stops for Dario Franchitti: one looked to have lost him the race, while the other was that rare stroke of luck that conjours race victories from thin air when all around are collisions and incidents aplenty.
Franchitti led the field to the green flag on the streets of Toronto surrounded by a crowd of unfamiliar names up at the sharp end, including Will Power, Graham Rahal, Justin Wilson, Alex Tagliani and Mike Conway. Would the mixed-up grid result in some topsy-turvey racing? Short answer, yes: Will Power cut his tyre on Graham Rahal’s front wing and shot off at the first turn, before crawling around a full lap to the pits for fresh rubber; Rahal was also quickly forced in for a pit stop for a new wing, along with Ryan Briscoe who had a puncture of his own after running wide onto the start/finish straight and hitting the wall as the green flag flew. The stops put all three runners at the back of the field and close to being lapped.
There was no yellow for those incidents, but the caution came out on lap 8 when Dan Wheldon tripped over Richard Antinucci, spun and stalled in a lazy collision where neither driver looked particularly committed to the overtaking move. The caution was a God-send for Power who was able to close up all that distance to the main pack, and the entire field took the opportunity to pit.
The course went green long enough on lap 1 for Scott Dixon to pass Robert Doornbos for 3rd but was quickly under yellow again for a rather embarrassing solo spin by Ed Carpenter. At the next restart, it was Franchitti once again leading the way ahead of Tagliani, Dixon, Doornbos, Conway and Paul Tracy creeping into the top six.
Doornbos lost another place at the restart when Mike Conway pulled off a brave and effective lunge down the inside; Paul Tracy took advantage of Doornbos’ disarray and followed Conway through, putting Doornbos down two places to 6th in just a few turns. When EJ Viso and Raphael Matos also cruised past him it was clear Doornbos had a bigger problem and it was no surprise to see him peel into the pits and retire.
Tony Kanaan and Ryan Briscoe also came in on lap 23 on an off-sequence strategy; but the big shock was when race leader Franchitti came into the pits the very next lap, a very strange time to give up the lead he’d so effortlessly enjoyed. Ganassi may have been gambling on an imminent full course yellow as Carpenter has spun out on track again, but if so they were disappointed as the marshalls cleared the stalled car out of the way with just local yellows. Even worse for the Scot, it was also not a smooth stop either: a stripped lugnut on the rear left tyre cost valuable seconds and resulted in Dario returning to the track in 15th place ahead of a combative Marco Andretti. The race victory appeared out of reach and now it was just damage limitation on the points front – unless something miraculous happened …
Dixon was in on lap 30 signalling the start of the ‘proper’ round of pit stops, and Paul Tracy was in on lap 32 also switching to the soft ‘red wall’ tyres. Tracy returned to the fray in 10th place, just ahead of Mike Conway who was then distracted by Tracy in front and who then lost the back end of his car trying to react; his rear right tyre slammed into the wall and resulted in an instant puncture that forced Conway to limp all the way back to the pits where the suspension damage forced him to retire.
Alex Tagliani had been leading since Franchitti’s costly and ill-advised pit stop, and he finally came in himself on lap 34. Tomas Scheckter and Helio Castroneves were among the cars that picked up the lead as the pit stops cycled through, with Helio staying out an exceptional 38 laps since his last pit stop before finally coming in on lap 48. Helio’s stop returned the lead to Tagliani, who was concerned about a vibration indicating a possible puncture. He stayed out and the problem seemed to abate.
By lap 51, Tagliani led Tracy, Dixon, Moraes and Franchitti in 5th, but Paul and Dario were approaching their own pit stops and about to tumble down the running order again. When Paul Tracy pitted from second on lap 57 for his final stop of the day, he returned to the track in 9th and Dario could expect similar.
Sure enough, it was Dario’s turn to pit on the next lap. He had just crossed the committment line when suddenly a full course yellow came out: Graham Rahal had tried to sneak under Ed Carpenter only for the two of them to clash wheels. Carpenter was propelled a few feet up into the air and to the left, but while appeared able to carry on Rahal was less lucky, his suspension crushed by the impact.
Because the stewards’ electronics systems said that Dario had already crossed the pit lane commitment line, he was able to carry on with his pit stop even though the pit lane was officially closed; it was the big break he needed to rectify his earlier pit lane problems, because when the pits did open and the rest of the field streamed in for their final stops it left Castroneves, Tracy and Franchitti out in front having already completed their final stops of the afternoon. Dario was then the beneficiary of a curious stewards’ decision that ruled that Tracy had overtaken Dario while he was in the pits, under yellow – a strict no-no, and therefore Tracy had to cede second place back to him. Paul Tracy’s car owner Jimmy Vassar was outspoken in his scorn for the decision.
And it got still better for Franchitti at the restart: Helio was clearly having to be careful with his fuel and tyres to make them last the full 38 lap stint to the end, and he wasn’t able to battle with Franchitti who was box fresh out of the pits. It didn’t take long before Dario passed him and started to disappear off into the distance, leaving Helio to try and fend off Paul Tracy.
Tracy, of course, is known for playing no holds barred. He was determined to pass Helio, and going into turn 4 of lap 65 he blasted down the inside line only to have the Penske turn in on him at the apex. They banged, clashed wheels, separated – and then hit again, the impact jerking the steering wheel out of Helio’s hands and causing the car to turn violently into Tracy’s, crushing the Canadian’s car into the wall and putting both cars emphatically out of the race. It was serious blow for Helio’s championship bid, plus it got the partisan local crowd booing the usually popular Brazilian.
At the restart, Franchitti led the field ahead of Briscoe. Things were getting feisty as the end approached, with Tony Kanaan booted out of the race after hitting his rear wing on the wall, and multiple contacts between Justin Wilson, Danica Patrick and Will Power as they jockeyed for 3rd, 4th and 5th. It was to their huge credit that none of them wrecked or spun. Further back, EJ Viso was less fortunate, propelled into a tyre wall thanks to a rear impact from Moraes; fortunatly a local waved yellow sufficed for the marshalls to clear up, but another three-way crunch occurred on lap 75 that forced a full course caution: Tagliani left his braking too late into turn 4, hit the back of Tomas Scheckter and the two of them collected Raphael Matoes on their way to the tyre barrier. Tagliani was able to carry on, Matoes needed a front wing – but Scheckter was stuck in the tyre wall and out of the race, left to vent his frsutration by hurling his race gloves at Tagliani as the cars came past the accident site behind the safety car.
With only eight laps to go, then, Franchitti led the restart – now ahead of Ryan Briscoe, Will Power, Justin Wilson and Dario’s ganassi team mate Scott Dixon who had already just got around Danica Patrick and then completed a neat, no-drama pass on Wilson after the restart. All Franchitti had to do in the meantime was build up a big enough lead to stay out of any potential trouble – and sue enough, his lead was over 2s over Briscoe by lap 81.
All went smoothly and the race completed its final laps without further incident, Franchitti scoring a win on the 10th anniversary of his first victory in Toronto in 1999 by keeping his head when all around were losing theirs, and not allowing others’ mistakes to affect him.
Race result
Pos Driver Team Gap
1. Dario Franchitti Ganassi 85 laps
2. Ryan Briscoe Penske + 1.6745s
3. Will Power Penske + 2.1355s
4. Scott Dixon Ganassi + 2.4803s
5. Justin Wilson Coyne + 2.9230s
6. Danica Patrick Andretti Green + 6.4095s
7. Ryan Hunter-Reay Foyt + 7.1837s
8. Marco Andretti Andretti Green + 8.2552s
9. Alex Tagliani Conquest +13.4745s
10. Raphael Matos Luczo Dragon +16.0983s
11. Mario Moraes KV +19.0141s
12. Hideki Mutoh Andretti Green + 1 lap
13. EJ Viso HVM + 1 lap
14. Dan Wheldon Panther + 1 lap
15. Ed Carpenter Vision + 3 laps
Retirements:
Tomas Scheckter Dreyer & Reinbold 74 laps
Tony Kanaan Andretti Green 70 laps
Helio Castroneves Penske 65 laps
Paul Tracy KV 65 laps
Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan 57 laps
Richard Antinucci 3G 41 laps
Mike Conway Dreyer & Reinbold 32 laps
Robert Doornbos Newman/Haas/Lanigan 26 laps
Championship standings
Pos Driver Points 1 Dario Franchitti 347 2 Scott Dixon 345 3 Ryan Briscoe 334 4 Hélio Castroneves 269 5 Danica Patrick 266 6 Dan Wheldon 240 7 Marco Andretti 239 8 Tony Kanaan 227 9 Justin Wilson 217 10 Graham Rahal 209 11 Hideki Mutoh 204 12 Raphael Matos 182 13 Ryan Hunter-Reay 181 14 Robert Doornbos 175 15 Ed Carpenter 172 16 Mário Moraes 157 17 Mike Conway 148 18 Ernesto Viso 146 19 Will Power 134 20 Tomas Scheckter 113 21 Alex Tagliani 97 22 Vitor Meira 62 23 Paul Tracy 59 24 Milka Duno 51 25 Stanton Barrett 50 26 Sarah Fisher 43 27 Jaques Lazier 41 28 Darren Manning 38 29 Townsend Bell 32 30 A.J. Foyt IV 26 31 Richard Antinucci 24
There was a sense of destiny – or perhaps of downright Aussie stubborn determination – that said right form the start that this was going to be Mark Webber’s day at long last. Even if he had to pull the Red Bull around the track with his teeth, Webber seemed hell-bent on snatching his maiden F1 chequered flag.
And to be honest, that was almost his undoing: he slightly overevved at the start, allowing Rubens Barrichello to get alongside him down the straight; and then Webber made a quick swerve to the right to give Barrichello a warning bump. Ironically the contact lost him ground, and he ended up going into the first turn behind the Brawn, but the real damage was done when he was handed a drive-thru penalty for causing an avoidable accident. Was Webber’s day over nd done?
One driver who was definitely out for the count was Lewis Hamilton. Aided by the KERS device and rejuvenated by the improved McLaren and high grid position of 5th, Lewis staged a flying start and swerved through the field in a banzai move reminiscent of his début appearances in F1 two and a half years ago. Unfortunately it proved rash: he out-braked himself and ran off at turn 1 after getting knocked form the rear, and along the way had his rear right tyre sliced by the front wing of Webber’s Red Bull. Once Hamilton recovered to the track, he had to limp around with a puncture to get a new tyre and was effectively a lap down right from the start, and with extensive underfloor damage meaning that he never had the raw pace to try a comeback.
At the end of the first lap, then, Barrichello led Webber ahead of Heikki Kovalainen and Jenson Button, with Webber’s team mate Sebastian Vettel having had a sluggish start and fallen to 6th, stuck for lap after lap between the heavily fuel-laden Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen.
However the Brawns of Barrichello and Button were on light fuel loads and three-stopping, so the game was far from over. Barrichello had to pit for fuel on lap 15, the same lap Webber served his penalty, but the Red Bull was on a two-stop strategy and Webber was now able to put in high speed lap after high speed lap. He was aided by Barrichello getting hung up behind the Ferrari of Massa which was still running long, and by the time Barrichello came in again for his second stop on lap 34 his gap over the Red Bull had entirely evaporated and he was only a second ahead of his main rival. For once, the famed Brawn strategy supremacy had let the team down.
After that it was all about damage limitation for the Brawn cars, not helped by a problem with Rubens’ fuel rig that lost him vital seconds and saw him end up running only just on front of his team mate despite Jenson Button having had a much more lacklustre afternoon mired in traffic for the most part. To rub salt into the Brazilian’s wounds, Button was clearly faster in the third quarter of the race on the harder tyres and was desperate to pass Barrichello: but Rubens was having none of it and was fuming, in no mood for team orders. So instead, Button got past him in the pits with a cracking in and out lap, leaving Rubens stuck behind him and having to fend off Fernando Alonso closing up behind them as both Brawns started to suffer severe graining on their rear tyres.
The astonishing fact emerging was just how dominant Mark Webber started to get after mid-distance. Despite the drive-thru penalty that would normally wreck any driver’s afternoon, for Webber it looked almost part of the race day strategy. In the second half of the race there was simply no competition, Webber so far in front that he could toy with closing or extending the lap at whim. Short of blowing up there was simply no stopping him, and when he crossed the finish line the calm, laid-back Aussie was jubilant.
To emphasise Red Bull’s form here, Sebastian Vettel came in second despite a quiet afternoon and getting stuck behind slow traffic, but still possessing the raw pace to muscle his way back to the runners-up spot. And Ferrari will be buoyed up by taking the remaining podium position, although the retirement of Kimi Raikkonen with an engine problem on lap 35 will be a rude reminder that all is still not well in the state of Maranello.
The surprise of the afternoon in many ways was the appearance of Nico Rosburg in 4th place ahead of the Brawns. Little glimpsed during the race, Rosburg had kept running behind the slower, heavier runners and then gained a lot of ground with his own long first stint followed by a series of quick laps just when they were needed. It was a great drive by Nico, and a real demonstration of how the talent and intelligence of driver and team can make up for any hardware deficiencies.
By contrast, a short first stint followed by a long middle stint did not work at all well for McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen, dropping him from third place early in the race to eighth at the finish. he only just kept Timo Glock out of the points, after the Toyota driver staged a stunning recovery from a pit lane start with the aid of a 37 lap opening stint on a brimming tank of fuel. Glock’s team mate Jarno Trulli, meanwhile, went in the opposite direction after being forced to pit for repairs at the end of a a physical first lap that saw a lot of close combat and even closer calls.
Despite that, the only other retirement in the race other than Raikkonen was Sebastien Bourdais, who took a trip off the road down the hill towards the NGK Chicane and then limped back to the pits to retire in what might be his final appearance in an F1 Grand Prix.
And spare a thought for Adrian Sutil, who was doing incredibly well and running in second place by the midpoint in the Force India on a one-stop strategy. But when he emerged from his pit stop, he encountered Kimi Raikkonen turning in on him at the first corner and there was a sudden shower of carbon fibre. The damage to Sutil’s front wing required him to pit and as a result he slumped to 15th place, behind his team mate Giancarlo Fisichella who – while not deserving to beat Sutil up to that point – had also been incredibly feisty and competitive in the grey and relatively cool conditions of the Nurburgring.
But with Mark Webber celebrating in the Red Bull – and more importantly making it clear that he won’t accept second driver/wingman status to Vettel’s championship bid just yet – there were storm clouds developing further down the grid. Specifically, over Rubens Barrichello’s head.
He was livid, and bitterly attacked the pit crew and strategy to a BBC camera crew: “A good show from the team how to lose the race today … I wish I could get back on the plane and go home right now. I don’t want to speak to anyone in the team.” That suggests a deteriorating and possibly terminal state of affairs in the relationship between team and driver.
The situation even seemed to be getting to Button, who was staring at the performance gap between himself and the Brawns – not to mention the improving Ferraris, McLarens and Williams drivers – and seeing the world championship start to recede. He acknowledged that they would have to beat or at least push the Red Bulls hard next time out at the hot and dusty Hungaroring, or else the title might be out of their grasp.
Watch this space.
Race results
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1h36:43.310 2. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 9.252 3. Massa Ferrari + 15.906 4. Rosberg Williams-Toyota + 21.099 5. Button Brawn-Mercedes + 23.609 6. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes + 24.468 7. Alonso Renault + 24.888 8. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes + 58.692 9. Glock Toyota + 1:01.457 10. Heidfeld BMW Sauber + 1:01.925 11. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes + 1:02.327 12. Nakajima Williams-Toyota + 1:02.876 13. Piquet Renault + 1:08.328 14. Kubica BMW Sauber + 1:09.555 15. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1:11.941 16. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:30.225 17. Trulli Toyota + 1:30.970 18. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 1 lap Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:33.365 Not classified/retirements: Driver Team On lap Raikkonen Ferrari 35 Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari 19
World Championship standings after round 9
Drivers: Constructors: 1. Button 68 1. Brawn-Mercedes 112 2. Vettel 47 2. Red Bull-Renault 92.5 3. Webber 45.5 3. Toyota 34.5 4. Barrichello 44 4. Ferrari 32 5. Massa 22 5. Williams-Toyota 20.5 6. Trulli 21.5 6. McLaren-Mercedes 14 7. Rosberg 20.5 7. Renault 13 8. Glock 13 8. BMW Sauber 8 9. Alonso 13 9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 5 10. Raikkonen 10 11. Hamilton 9 12. Heidfeld 6 13. Kovalainen 5 14. Buemi 3 15. Kubica 2 16. Bourdais 2
Feature race
Nico Hulkenberg got off pole position in the feature race this afternoon, swept into the lead and controlled the race from there until the finish without any dramas or problems. He eventually crossed the line 13.9s clear of Piquet GP’s Roldan Rodriguez who got delayed by getting jumped by Lucas di Grassi (Racing Engineering) at the start and stuck behind him for the first part of the race until overtaking him at the pit stops. Rodriguez in turn finished well clear from Andreas Zuber in 3rd.
Series leader Romain Grosjean (Addax) was battling to climb from 14th on the grid and did impressively well, up to 6th place by the closing laps . But he was bottling up faster cars and coming under sustained pressure from Alvaro Parente (Ocean) when he abruptly slowed off the final corner with two laps to go, the victim of a hydraulics problem that dumped him out of the race. As a result, Hulkenberg closes to just one point off Grosjean in the series standings, and with Grosjean also starting the sprint race from well down the field there’s a strong chance Hulkenberg will exit his home event with the series lead.
In other events, Luca Filippi (Super Nova) spun after being hit by Grosjean in turn 4 and managed to clip the front right suspension of innocent bystander Luiz Razia (Fisichella) who had been working his way up impressively from last place to 19th by the time of the clash. Ten laps later, an ill-advised lunge by Pastor Maldonardo put Diego Nunes out of the race, and a few corners later Maldonado’s steering also gave up and sent his ART into the gravel and into a barrier.
Alberto Valerio (Piquet) was battling with Lucas di Grassi in the second half of the race after di Grassi opted to change all four tyres at the mandatory round of stops, but the threat from Valerio ended on lap 25 when the Silverstone winner parked with a suspected electrical problem.
Grosjean’s late retirement bumped Sergio Perez up to eighth, giving the Arden rookie the final point and pole for tomorrow’s sprint race.
After the race, Grosjean and Maldonardo were handed five place grid penalties for the sprint race for the accidents they caused, while Valerio was also penalised for an unsafe exits from the pits.
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1. Nico Hulkenberg ART 1h00m10.875s
2. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet + 13.931s
3. Andreas Zuber Fisichella + 21.765s
4. Vitaly Petrov Addax + 29.116s
5. Javier Villa Super Nova + 31.534s
6. Alvaro Parente Ocean + 48.000s
7. Lucas di Grassi Racing Engineering + 50.366s
8. Sergio Perez Arden + 51.117s
9. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS + 1m04.414s
10. Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS + 1m05.226s
11. Karun Chandhok Ocean + 1m09.066s
12. Giedo van der Garde iSport + 1m09.909s
13. Davide Valsecchi Durango + 1m15.106s
14. Michael Herck DPR + 1m15.721s
15. Rodolfo Gonzalez Trident + 1m22.721s
16. Daniel Clos Racing Engineering + 1 lap
17. Edoardo Mortara Arden + 1 lap
18. Romain Grosjean Addax + 2 laps
19. Nelson Panciatici Durango + 2 laps
Retirements:
Alberto Valerio Piquet 24 laps
Franck Perera DPR 21 laps
Diego Nunes iSport 10 laps
Pastor Maldonado ART 10 laps
Ricardo Teixeira Trident 6 laps
Luca Filippi Super Nova 0 laps
Luiz Razia Fisichella 0 laps
Sprint race
Nico Hulkenberg made it a one-two after showing that he can undertake with style, and can manage the dark, damp, greasy conditions of the early morning Nurburgring with ease.
The race was run on intermediates as the moisture hung heavy in the cold air, and the drivers struggled in the early laps with spray sent up into the air by the cars in front. But the track dried as the race progressed, although not quite to the extent to require a flurry of late pit stops to take on slick tyres, and the race just managed to finish all its scheduled laps before hitting the time limit for the GP2 sprint event.
Hulkenberg started from 8th on the grid but made solid, steady and irresistible progress up the field until he was running in second place. Vitaly Petrov had claimed the lead at the green flag and looked set to stroll off into the distance, but Hulkenberg had cut the gap back to 0.6s when news came that Petrov was to be given a drive-thru penalty for colliding with Lucas di Grassi’s Racing Engineering car at the start. Such was the lead they had built up before the very late announcement of the penalty, Petrov was able to carry out the drive-thru and still finish in 4th despite a late spin on track after catching his front left wheel on a kerb
Romain Grosjean was on a serious damage limitation mission after a grid penalty saw him starting from 22nd, and he impressed many by making it up to 5th place immediately behind his team mate by the end, although this still means he’s lost the GP2 series lead to Hulkenberg by 4pts.
Piquet duo Alberto Valerio and Roldan Rodriguez were the only drivers to risk a late change to slicks, but their performance – finishing a lap down – dissuaded anyone else from trying it even as a dry line appeared for the final laps and the duo started to record laps five seconds quicker than the rest of the field.
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1. Nico Hulkenberg ART 46m49.622s
2. Alvaro Parente Ocean + 26.454s
3. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS + 33.501s
4. Vitaly Petrov Addax + 33.688s
5. Romain Grosjean Addax + 44.754s
6. Javier Villa Super Nova + 50.075s
7. Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS + 52.520s
8. Daniel Clos Racing Engineering + 53.961s
9. Pastor Maldonado ART + 56.954s
10. Davide Valsecchi Durango +1m14.361s
11. Diego Nunes iSport +1m29.582s
12. Michael Herck DPR +1m33.086s
13. Nelson Panciatici Durango +1m34.670s
14. Luiz Razia Fisichella +1m35.180s
15. Ricardo Teixeira Trident +1m39.570s
16. Franck Perera DPR + 1 lap
17. Alberto Valerio Piquet + 1 lap
18. Luca Filippi Super Nova + 2 laps
19. Rodolfo Gonzalez Trident + 2 laps
20. Sergio Perez Arden + 3 laps
Retirements:
Roldan Rodriguez Piquet 14 laps
Andreas Zuber Fisichella 11 laps
Edoardo Mortara Arden 7 laps
Giedo van der Garde iSport 1 laps
Lucas di Grassi Racing Engineering 0 laps
Karun Chandhok Ocean 0 laps
Championship standings
Pos Driver Points 1 Nico Hulkenberg 46 2 Romain Grosjean 42 3 Vitaly Petrov 41 4 Pastor Maldonado 26 5 Lucas Di Grassi 26 6 Andreas Zuber 20 7 Jerome D'Ambrosio 18 8 Alberto Valerio 16 9 Luca Filippi 13 10 Javier Villa 12 11 Edoardo Mortara 10 12 Karun Chandhok 9 13 Alvaro Parente 8 14 Roldan Rodriguez 8 15 Kamui Kobayashi 7 16 Sergio Perez 7 17 Davide Valsecchi 6 18 Giedo van der Garde 5 Pos Team Points 1 Barwa Addax Team 83 2 ART Grand Prix 72 3 Fat Burner Racing 26 4 Super Nova Racing 25 5 DAMS 25 6 Piquet GP 24 7 FMS International 20 8 Arden International 17 9 Ocean Racing 17 10 Durango 6 11 iSport International 5
With both of his chief rivals hobbled by injuries and illness, this was supposed to be an easy win for Valentino Rossi against a second string of Honda riders. But someone hadn’t read the script.
At the start, Dani Pedrosa had his traditional flier from the second row and took the lead, with Valentino characteristically looking to get away initially only to get overtaken by Casey Stoner. Still, Rossi could easily handle Stoner – and passed him at the top of the corkscrew on the first lap. Now he would go after Pedrosa and claim the lead, right?
Nope. Stoner stayed stuck to the back of Rossi’s bike and neither of them were making in-roads into Pedrosa’s lead. Indeed, the Spaniard was getting away from them with every passing lap. And then to make matters worse for Rossi, Stoner actually managed to blast past him off the final turn onto the start/finish straight, and Rossi spent nearly ten laps staring at the back of a Ducati while Pedrosa made good his escape before he himself was finally able to get past the Aussie again, this time for good.
Further back, the hurting Jorge Lorenzo had dropped back from second on the grid to 8th with in a few metres of the start. But after that he’d pulled himself together, steadied the ship and climbed back to 5th behind Pedrosa, Stoner, Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso. And when Dovizioso washed out on lap 7 (leaving him sitting in the gravel with a erfect picture of “What the hell just happened?” body language) Lorenzo suddenly found himself up into fourth place. Suddenly this was looking like a very nice piece of damage limitation to keep him in the championship stakes. Still, the group ahead seemed too far away for him to do anything more about.
As well as Dovizioso, we lost Gabor Talmacsi, Loris Capirossi and Sete Gibernau to similar accidents that happened unseen off the television footage. Laguna Seca was proving to be a very accident prone circuit – possibly the cooler-than-expected weather (still in the 70s, but that’s much cooler than expected for the California desert in July) combined with hard tyres was proving costly, as Rossi had suggested after Stoner and Lorenzo’s twin accidents in qualifying on Saturday.
The most ignominious retirement, however, was that of James Toseland: he was judged to have jumped the start from 15th place and given a drive-thru penalty on lap 5, but despite it being hung out on his pit board Toseland apparently completely missed it and failed to come in within the allotted time. So out came the black flag on lap 11, meaning that he was disqualified. Oddly Toseland then tried to perform the drive-thru only to be told that in MotoGP the black flag could not be undone: he was out. He had to crawl back into his garage under the disapproving gaze of the team boss.
Back up at the sharp end of the proceedings, things were pretty stable up to about lap 20. Stoner had been continuing to stick to the rear of Rossi’s Yamaha, but two-thirds of the way into the race and Stoner’s physical capability suddenly hit the wall. He was done. Rossi disappeared into the distance and in the same lap, Stoner was in the clutches of Lorenzo – who made short work of passing him and leaving him for dead. Stoner continued to circulate and had built up enough of a lead never to be under threat for fourth, but in eleven laps he lost as many seconds to the leading trio.
That seemed to spur on Lorenzo, who appeared to forget he was among the walking wounded himself. He cut the distance to Rossi and with half a dozen laps to go was right on the back of his team mate and seemed determined to serve up revenge for being beaten on the final corner of the last lap of his home race at Catalunya. He lined up Rossi for an overtaking move, and seemed about to pull it off when the Yamaha locked up and sent driver and bike into a violent spasm. Lorenzo shouldn’t have been able to hold onto it, especially with his damaged shoulder from the previous day’s qualifying accident, but somehow he did – and still managed to make the next turn without ploughing into the gravel. Of course Rossi was now safe and scampering off, and Lorenzo’s chance for second place was gone, but it was still a great piece of damage limitation.
“I didn’t imagine I could race today,” said Lorenzo afterwards. “Things were so difficult, but with the bad start, plus the physical difficulty, I did the best I could. The pain was terrible. In the right hand corners it was a big pain. I couldn’t do so much with that hand, so I used the left arm and it got tired. It was terrible.”
No longer under threat from Lorenzo, Rossi could reapply himself to trying to catch Pedrosa in the hope that the Spaniard might have shot his tyres. But while Rossi did succeed in closing the gap, Pedrosa seemed to have everything under control. And then in the closing turns of the final lap, all of a sudden Pedrosa’s lead evaporated – almost 2s gone in the final lap – and there was a sudden flurry of excitement: was Dani in trouble? Well, no – he’d just relaxed a little too much on those final corners, he admitted, but he was still able to keep the race under control and take the chequered flag all the same.
Dani was rightfully delighted – it’s Honda’s first MotoGP victory in over a year, since the 2008 Catalunya race in fact, so it broke a severe brought for both driver and team. Even arch-rival Lorenzo hobbled over to him to congratulate him on the win. In fact the only man looking happier than Pedrosa was Nicky Hayden, whose home race this was and where he’d managed to chalk up a remarkable fifth place right behind his Ducati team mate Casey Stoner. He was beaming from ear to ear as the crowd cheered.
Rossi might not have been able to pull off the expected win, but as he surveyed the limping Lorenzo, and Casey Stoner practically falling off his bike and crawling into his garage, Rossi could be happy that in the battle that counts most – the championship points standings – this had been a very good day at the races.
Race result
Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1. Dani Pedrosa Honda 44m01.580s
2. Valentino Rossi Yamaha + 0.344s
3. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha + 1.926s
4. Casey Stoner Ducati + 12.432s
5. Nicky Hayden Ducati + 21.663s
6. Toni Elias Gresini Honda + 22.041s
7. Colin Edwards Tech 3 Yamaha + 30.201s
8. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki + 32.857s
9. Randy de Puniet LCR Honda + 40.325s
10. Marco Melandri Hayate Kawasaki + 48.028s
11. Alex de Angelis Gresini Honda + 48.810s
12. Niccolo Canepa Pramac Ducati +1m18.531s
Retirements:
Andrea Dovizioso Honda 6 laps
Sete Gibernau Hernando Ducati 6 laps
Loris Capirossi Suzuki 3 laps
Gabor Talmacsi Scot Honda 3 laps
James Toseland Tech 3 Yamaha DSQ
MotoGP Championship standings
Pos Driver Points 1 Valentino Rossi 151 2 Jorge Lorenzo 142 3 Casey Stoner 135 4 Daniel Pedrosa 92 5 Colin Edwards 76 6 Andrea Dovizioso 69 7 Marco Melandri 61 8 Chris Vermeulen 61 9 Randy de Puniet 58 10 Loris Capirossi 56 11 James Toseland 39 12 Nicky Hayden 38 13 Toni Elías 37 14 Alex de Angelis 36 15 Mika Kallio 26 16 Niccolò Canepa 16 17 Sete Gibernau 12 18 Yuki Takahashi 9 Pos Constructor Points 1 Yamaha 185 2 Ducati 135 3 Honda 123 4 Suzuki 79 5 Kawasaki 61
Fourth of July weekend certainly gave us the best in US motorsport venues: Daytona for NASCAR, Laguna Seca for MotoGP – and the beautiful, historic Watkins Glen road course for IRL. Which driver would this former F1 track suit best?
Form the start, it was clear that Justin Wilson was the class of the field. Starting second, he was immediately all over polesitter Ryan Briscoe and determined to get past; finally he pulled off a neat pass on the Penske car on lap 4 and started to pull away.
In early incidents, Ryan Hunter-Reay was an premature exit on lap 1 when he was caught out by a compression effect at the back of the field caused by Raphael Matos spinning ahead of him exiting turn 7. Hunter-Reay himself ended up going off the track and into the barrier to avoid crashing into the mess in front of him.
“Everybody just stopped,” Hunter-Reay said afterwards. “We were just in fifth gear, sixth gear at top of the hill. It was the accordion affect. Everyone just stopped and ran into each other. It was just a bunch of cars racing in the back of the pack. We’re just a victim of circumstances from where we were starting. It was just bad luck.”
Marco Andretti and EJ Viso also had a minor collision, where Viso tried a lacklustre move to overtake Andretti and had his front wing crushed for his troubles; but ironically it was Marco who came off worse from the encounter with a cut right rear tyre from the wing’s sharp edges and had to pit.
Well down the timesheets, Marco then proceeded to make a nuisance of himself, first holding up the leaders who came up to lap him – allowing Briscoe to close right up on Wilson and threaten to go three-wide to overtake them both – and then also delaying Mario Moraes in third place to the cost of some 6s before he was able to get past the Andretti-Green Racing car. It was a graceless showing from Marco.
By lap 10, Wilson and Briscoe were pulling away from Moraes, Scott Dixon, Mike Conway and Dario Franchitti making up the top six. The front two continued to pull away from the rest of the field at an alarming rate, making this a two-car race unless we got a yellow soon – but it seemingly came at a price for race leader Wilson who had to pit a lap before the optimal lap 20, calling into question whether he could pull off a two-stop strategy.
But it turned into a stroke of luck for Wilson when, seconds after he pitted and just before Ryan Briscoe could come in a lap later, the race went full course yellow after Richard Antinucci went off at turn 1 and the safety car had to come out to allow recovery. Briscoe couldn’t get into the pits before they were closed, except for an emergency top-up of fuel to keep him running, and so when he did finally get to pit he emerged in 11th position on the track – a cruel twist of fate and one that Franchitti will know all about, as a similar situation last week cost him the race win in Richmond.
So now Wilson led Conway, Graham Rahal, Hideki Mutoh, Helio Castroneves and Dan Wheldon away at the restart – all cars that had been forced to pit early, or had chosen to get off-sequence before the caution.
But the green flag racing didn’t last long, with an impact between Ed Carpenter and Mario Moraes colliding through the bus stop chicane, and then behind them Dario Franchitti getting caught out by the incident unfolding in front of him and spinning as he tried to brake crossing the chicane kerbing, landing deep in the gravel trap. He was pulled out and sent back on his way, but a lap down. Several of the off-sequence cars including Graham Rahal used the opportunity to pit, while Moraes got a penalty for causing the collision with Carpenter before green flag racing resumed on lap 25.
As the race past the halfway point, we got the third caution of the afternoon – Paul Tracy got on the throttle too early out of turn 7, spun all by himself and put the back of his car into the barrier, putting him out of the race from 11th position. It was too early for the leaders to come in for the final pit stop, but the laps under caution saved valuable fuel and made a two-stop race a comfortable reality.
The leaders started to pit on lap 42, but Ryan Briscoe stretched it two laps longer and Scott Dixon a lap still further with impressive fuel conservation. It helped speed up their refuelling time and when they emerged from the pits, Wilson was leading Briscoe, Dixon and Castroneves with Mike Conway losing out and falling to 6th place.
Wilson’s lead was around a second – not helped by a slight stutter getting away from his pit box – and Briscoe was closing the gap ever so slightly every lap. And the lap disappeared altogether when the fourth caution of the day came out on lap 52 after Hideki Mutoh spun off turn 7 in the same spot where both Tracy and Moraes had done before him.
Now there were just 6 laps to go at the restart: could Wilson get a good enough restart to hold off the challenge from Penske and Ganassi? He had the advantage of running the softer red wall tyres and got the jump on Briscoe at the restart, who seemed to be struggling on the harder compound and creating something of a logjam. A couple of laps later and Wilson had a 2.8s gap over Briscoe. Surely Wilson’s job was done, barring another full course yellow?
There was no yellow, and WIlson made no mistakes. By the time he took the chequered flag he was almost 5s in front, and his victory – the first for team owner Dale Coyne in his 23 years of IndyCar and Champ Car competition – was a genuine David versus Goliath achievement for both driver and team.
And after getting in the way in the opening laps, Marco Andretti pulled off a good recovery to finish 5th, pipping Conway in the closing laps. Andretti had managed to regain his lost lap in the yellow-interrupted first round of pit stops, and then stayed out to lap 45 before his second and final stop to climb up the standings.
Race result
Pos Driver Team Gap
1. Justin Wilson Coyne
2. Ryan Briscoe Penske + 4.9906s
3. Scott Dixon Ganassi + 5.1632s
4. Helio Castroneves Penske + 7.0755s
5. Marco Andretti Andretti Green + 8.5595s
6. Mike Conway Dreyer & Reinbold + 9.3646s
7. EJ Viso HVM + 11.3804s
8. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green + 13.0020s
9. Robert Doornbos Newman/Haas/Lanigan + 13.2633s
10. Dan Wheldon Panther + 18.0412s
11. Danica Patrick Andretti Green + 18.5656s
12. Raphael Matos Luczo Dragon + 18.9342s
13. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan + 23.0413s
14. Mario Moraes KV + 23.3821s
15. Dario Franchitti Ganassi + 1 lap
16. Ed Carpenter Vision + 1 lap
17. Milka Duno Dreyer & Reinbold + 2 laps
18. Richard Antinucci 3G + 13 laps
Retirements:
Hideki Mutoh Andretti Green 51 laps
Paul Tracy KV 29 laps
Ryan Hunter-Reay Foyt 0 laps
Championship standings
Scott Dixon settled for third place in the race and is rewarded for his troubles by the points lead in the IRL championship, after Franchitti went a lap down early in the proceedings.
Pos Driver Points 1 Scott Dixon 313 2 Dario Franchitti 294 3 Ryan Briscoe 294 4 Hélio Castroneves 257 5 Danica Patrick 238 6 Dan Wheldon 224 7 Marco Andretti 215 8 Tony Kanaan 214 9 Graham Rahal 197 10 Justin Wilson 187 11 Hideki Mutoh 186 12 Robert Doornbos 163 13 Raphael Matos 162 14 Ed Carpenter 157 15 Ryan Hunter-Reay 155 16 Mário Moraes 138 17 Mike Conway 136 18 Ernesto Viso 129 19 Will Power 99 20 Tomas Scheckter 99 21 Alex Tagliani 75 22 Vitor Meira 62 23 Milka Duno 51 24 Stanton Barrett 50 25 Paul Tracy 47
One of NASCAR’s top races, the Independence Day night race at Daytona is always tense, absorbing stuff with the cars packed close together and the potential for bumping, big accidents, drama and amazing finishes ever present. And this year was no different – just make sure you read to the final lap!
As the race got underway at dusk, Denny Hamlin proved to be the early dominant driver, first pushing Kurt Busch past Tony Stewart to the front and then claiming the top spot for himself. Jeff Gordon got shuffled out of the tight two-line racing as a result and dropped to 25th before he could slot in again – a salient warning for everyone about the consequences of such close formation running.
The first yellow came out on lap 13 when Mark Martin drifted up the track off turn 2 and into Matt Kenseth. The contact was light, but Martin was sent into a spin and skidded at right angles for a long distance right into a heavy front impact with the inside wall. Juan Montoya got a side impact from Martin along the way but managed to swerve enough to keep the damage light.
After pit stops, Tony Stewart led at the restart ahead of Hamlin, followed by Jimmie Johnson, Marcos Ambrose and Kasey Kahne. Kurt Busch had overshot his pit box, resulting in a delay that put his down to 21st and which also caused problems for Ryan Newman into whose pit box he strayed.
The next yellow came on lap 28, which started with David Stremme getting horribly loose off turn 2 and veering into Casey Mears on the inside. It saved Stremme, but Mears was sent spinning into the infield to finally hit the infield wall at almost exactly the same place Mark Martin had earlier made such an impression.
Tony Stewart’s prime pit position helped him emerge from the pit stops in the lead once again, but when the race went green on lap 32 Denny Hamlin was quick to surge past again while Kyle Busch pulled off an eye watering lane change to also dart past Stewart for second place. Hamlin held the lead until lap 46, and then got into a fierce battle for the lead with Stewart that saw them trade the top spot several times until Stewart finally emerged in control on lap 49 with Busch quickly slotting back into second.
Juan Montoya’s day was continuing to be eventful and not in a good way: he had to pit early on lap 44 with a cut right tyre, that meant he went a lap down shortly afterwards as the leaders sailed past him. He got the lap back with a free pass at the next yellow only to get black flagged for some bodywork damage hanging from the car. It meant losing the lap again, but there was still time to recover.
The third yellow was a result of a blown tyre for the 77 of Sam Hornish Jr which did the car a serious among of bodywork damage and scattered debris along the track. Matt Kenseth had already been in the pits from third place when the caution came out, and as a result took the lead when everyone else came in under yellow: he led the restart from Stewart, Hamlin, Busch and Johnson, but didn’t keep the top spot long before Hamlin once again proved to have the best form at the start of a new stint on fresh tyres, taking the lead on lao 63 and pulling Busch and Stewart through with him.
A big accident erupted on lap 77, when Kasey Kahne bumped David Stremme who spun, collected Kahne – and then triggered a whole series of secondary accidents down the tightly packed field as cars reacted to the accident and just got caught out in the massive amount of tyre smoke thrown up. Eleven other cars got involved with greater or lesser damage as a result: Clint Bowyer, David Gilliland, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman, Reed Sorenson and Brian Vickers, together with David Reutimann who managed to violently compress Dale Earnhardt Jr. into the wall. Earnhardt Jr retreated to the garage, streaming smoke from every orifice. The onboard shot of the floodlights strobing through the smoke looked like a Ridley Scott movie pastiche.
Once the smoke cleared – literally – and the pit stops had cycled through, Stewart was again front of the pack for the restart on lap 83 and flanked by Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch, with Carl Edwards now in fourth ahead of Johnson. Once more, Hamlin was quick to take the lead back on the following lap.
Tyre wear was increasingly becoming the key issue of the day. Jamie McMurray only made it to lap 99 before having to give up his top ten spot to pit for fresh tyres, and the rest of the field were spared their own green flag stops when a caution came out on lap 102 for a blown tyre on David Reutimann’s car – although in the case of the double zero this was almost certainly the result of damage from his earlier collision with Dale Earnhardt Jr. Whether the car could (or should be allowed to) continue was questionable considering flames were visible licking around the inside of the CoT bodywork when Reutimann came into the pits.
During the pit stops, Stewart once again used his superior pit position to retake the lead from Hamlin, ahead of both Busch brothers and then Jeff Burton in 5th. This time Stewart not only kept the lead at the restart, but the bottom line’s surge saw Hamlin caught out on the high side and shuffled all the way back to 10th on the first green lap.
With the race coming down to the last quarter, new names were starting to make in-roads into the top ten. Marcos Ambrose was up to 4th behind Stewart, Burton and Kyle Busch, while Joey Logano and David Ragan were also starting to featured. Ragan made his impact felt first with an attempt to pass Kyle, which Busch blocked in no uncertain terms; and then by closing up on brother Kurt who had had to lift and started to fall back. As Ragan passed the blue deuce, Busch’s handling was too unstable and the two cars touched Ragan was sent spinning round onto the infield grass, damaging his front splitter and bringing out the sixth caution.
After the latest round of yellow flag pit stops, Tony Stewart once again led away at the restart ahead of Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton and Matt Kenseth. But for once, the inside lane proved to be the wrong place to be as the outside line finally had the upper hand. Edwards took the lead , only for Jeff Burton to follow him past Stewart and claim the lead for himself, before finally Stewart came back and bumped Burton out of the draft to reclaim the lead on lap 128. Burton’s woes were compounded when he found his tyre had been cut, forcing him to make an emergency pit stop and effectively ending his hopes of a win.
There was no yellow flag, and the top four started to break away as they ran in tight formation in contrast to the disorganised chasing pack. By lap 145 they were some 3s ahead of 5th placed Juan Montoya who had done well to recover from his earlier problems and going a lap down at one point. But even though the margin they had was impressive, the front runners were still earnestly hoping for a final yellow as tyre wear started to result in some horrible vibrations that threatened to wreck any one of them at any time.
The yellow did indeed come out – for some rather convenient debris – and the leaders got to come in for fresh tyres just in time. The top four came out in exactly the same order they came in – Stewart, Kyle Busch, Hamlin and Kenseth. But Montoya dropped out of the top ten after coming in too steep into his pit box and needing to reverse to get out around Jeff Gordon’s car in the pit box in front.
The full drama of double file restarts was now revealed for all to see, as the top four all jockeyed for position, drafting and pushing to get their lane out in front. Despite getting a good boost from Johnson, Busch wasn’t able to get around Stewart and ended up dropping a place, slotting in third behind his team mate Hamlin. That might almost have been the race decider, but the restarts weren’t over yet: on lap 152, Scott Speed got jostled in traffic, moved to avoid contact with Jamie McMurray and ended up begging clipped by AJ Allmendinger, sending him into a thumping impact with the wall and out of the race.
It took a few laps to clean up, and the green wasn’t thrown until lap 156. This time the restart saw the inside line of Stewart and Busch once again get the best of things, reversing the position change from the previous restart. Busch was clearly planning his move, and with a little over lap to go he pulled to the outside with Hamlin right behind pushing him past Stewart and into the lead for the first time all night. Now all Kyle had to do was to keep the lead for a full lap – surely he could do it?
Stewart was all over him, and Busch swerved to block – once, twice. It put Stewart’s nose under Busch’s rear bumper and the contact spun the 18 car around. briefly airborne, it hit the wall side-on going backwards, then continued to spin around until it was hit in the rear at high speed by Kasey Kahne whose windscreen and hood were demolished by the impact which also annihilated the rear of Busch’s car. For good measure Busch then got a side impact from his own team mate Joey Logano further down the field as chaos ensued. It was a bruising, battering end to the race for Kyle, but the multiple impacts did at least drive the 18 across the line and mean that Kyle ironically finished in 14th place – even if the car was a total wreck by that point.
Stewart reaped the rewards and took the chequered flag while the mayhem was in progress, followed by Jimmie Johnson – who had never looked to be a threat or to have the fastest car, but as ever played a brilliantly smart strategy that kept him right in touch so that when others fell away, he was there to pick up the rewards ahead of Denny Hamlin.
Stewart however wasn’t happy with the way the win had been earned: “It’s just a bad situation,” Stewart said. “It’s not bad because we’re put in a bad position. It just is what it is. I don’t feel as much gratification from winning this race as I probably should, I guess, because I don’t like the way the outcome happened.”
“There is nothing to do to stop it,” Jimmie Johnson agreed. “It’s plate racing. We’re damned if we do, we’re damned if we don’t. They’re just racing. Tony didn’t mean to dump him. Same thing with Talladega. It’s just the product of restrictor-plate racing and every time we leave these restrictor-plate tracks, there’s questions about how we can keep from having the big wreck and things like that, and you just can’t. When you run plates and run wide-open all the way around the track, situations like this come around.”
When the winners are worried about the outcome, it’s hard to avoid wondering whether something isn’t rotten in the state of restrictor plate racing. Not that anyone has any better ideas right now, either.
Race results
Pos Driver Make Laps 1. Tony Stewart Chevrolet 160 2. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 160 3. Denny Hamlin Toyota 160 4. Carl Edwards Ford 160 5. Kurt Busch Dodge 160 6. Marcos Ambrose Toyota 160 7. Brian Vickers Toyota 160 8. Matt Kenseth Ford 160 9. Juan Montoya Chevrolet 160 10. Elliott Sadler Dodge 160 11. Jamie McMurray Ford 160 12. Regan Smith Chevrolet 160 13. David Ragan Ford 160 14. Kyle Busch Toyota 160 15. Kasey Kahne Dodge 160 16. Jeff Burton Chevrolet 160 17. AJ Allmendinger Dodge 160 18. Greg Biffle Ford 160 19. Joey Logano Toyota 160 20. Ryan Newman Chevrolet 160 21. Bobby Labonte Ford 160 22. Robby Gordon Toyota 160 23. Paul Menard Ford 160 24. Brad Keselowski Chevrolet 160 25. Martin Truex Jr Chevrolet 160 26. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 160 27. John Andretti Chevrolet 160 28. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 160 29. Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 159 30. Tony Raines Dodge 158 31. Scott Speed Toyota 152 32. Sam Hornish Jr Dodge 152 33. Reed Sorenson Dodge 146 34. Casey Mears Chevrolet 144 35. David Stremme Dodge 129 36. David Reutimann Toyota 127 37. Michael Waltrip Toyota 124 38. Mark Martin Chevrolet 79 39. Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet 76 40. David Gilliland Chevrolet 76 41. Joe Nemechek Toyota 25 42. Patrick Carpentier Toyota 18 43. Dave Blaney Toyota 2
Sprint Cup standings
Mark Martin’s early accident means he drops out of the Chase, falling two spots to 13th, although there was some consolation that he managed to rejoin the race late on after the car was repaired to enable him to pick up six extra positions. Ironically his place in the top twelve is taken by Kasey Kahne, despite Kahne’s eventful race and the fact that he slid across the finish line in a total wrecked car underneath the 18 of Kyle Busch.
“To get a 15th-place finish and gain in the driver point standings is pretty cool,” Kahne said after leaving the infield care center. “It could have been a lot worse” – especially after Kahne was also one of the cars involved in the big accident on lap 77.
Juan Montoya also gained a spot in the standings despite a turbulent day. But otherwise, the drivers in the all-important top twelve remained remarkably static despite the on-track drama.
Pos Driver Points 1 Tony Stewart 2719 2 Jeff Gordon 2539 3 Jimmie Johnson 2525 4 Kurt Busch 2414 5 Carl Edwards 2317 6 Denny Hamlin 2302 7 Ryan Newman 2235 8 Kyle Busch 2234 9 Greg Biffle 2215 10 Matt Kenseth 2201 11 Juan Pablo Montoya 2187 12 Kasey Kahne 2166 +==== SPRINT CUP CHASE ===== 13 Mark Martin 2101 14 David Reutimann 2092 15 Jeff Burton 2061 16 Clint Bowyer 2031 17 Brian Vickers 1998 18 Marcos Ambrose 1948 19 Jamie McMurray 1863 20 Joey Logano 1847 21 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1810 22 Casey Mears 1808 23 Elliott Sadler 1794 24 Martin Truex Jr. 1730 25 Sam Hornish Jr. 1705 26 Kevin Harvick 1683 27 Bobby Labonte 1679 28 Reed Sorenson 1668 29 A.J. Allmendinger 1646 30 David Ragan 1620 31 Paul Menard 1504 32 David Stremme 1499 33 Michael Waltrip 1481 34 Robby Gordon 1468 35 Scott Speed 1218 36 John Andretti 1201 37 David Gilliland 1027 38 Regan Smith 943 39 Brad Keselowski 720 40 Joe Nemechek 678 Pos Constructor Points 1 Chevrolet 138 2 Toyota 100 3 Ford 84 4 Dodge 74
An entertaining and hard fought race at Loudon was given extra frisson by the weather gradually closing in: would anyone be able to play the rain card to perfection and pull off a shock win? Yes, actually, they could …
The starting order for today’s race was set by championship standings after qualifying on Friday was rained off, giving Tony Stewart pole with Jeff Gordon alongside. Rain had also hit the New Hampshire circuit overnight, wiping away any the rubber that had been laid down and causing NASCAR to opt for a competition yellow at lap 35. Would the race itself get away without any rain delays?
Stewart had a poor start on the inside line and fell back to fourth by the end of the first lap as Gordon, Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman took the lead spots. Stewart continued to fall back and was grateful to be able to pit under an early yellow on lap 16 caused when Patrick Carpentier had some sort of mechanical problem and ran into the wall in turn 4.
Kurt Busch had taken over the lead on lap 7 and led Gordon, Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards at the restart. He opted for the inside line at the double file restart and had the same sluggish results as Gordon had at the start of the race; Gordon duly took the lead back. A second caution followed almost immediately, when Kevin Harvick gave the lightest of taps to the rear of Jamie McMurray’s car, sending the 26 backwards into the wall at turn 4.
Gordon stuck to the inside line at the restart and this time made it work; and Kurt Busch even briefly lost the second spot to Greg Biffle as the racing was astonishingly fast and furious for such an early stage of the race, with three-wide racing a lot of jostling going on. Biffle’s surge was rash and he flirted with a slide before dropping back to 4th behind Busch and Johnson. But again the racing action was short-lived, with a third yellow out on lap 28 for a spin by AJ Allmendinger.
Busch made the outside line work at the next restart and took the lead again on lap 32 ahead of Gordon, Edwards, Biffle, then Kyle Busch battling Jimmie Johnson for 5th. With all the yellows in the early laps, the competition yellow was moved back to lap 45 and this was finally reached without further incident. At last, the cars could come in for a proper stop and finally take on some fuel for the first time.
Jimmie Johnson claimed the honours at the restart ahead of Gordon and Kyle Busch. Greg Biffle managed to get away with hitting the wall hard in turn 4 on lap 53 but kept it going, although falling back two spots to 7th behind Mark Martin, Kurt Busch and a back-on-form Tony Stewart.
The fifth caution came out on lap 60 when Elliot Sadler got loose on the inside, tapped Scott Speed who in turn tapped Michael Waltrip, who spun; along with Robbie Gordon who was coming up behind. It was all a minor affair with no lasting damage and the race quickly resumed.
Finally an extended period of green flag racing: and Jimmie Johnson dominated, stretching out more than a 2s lead before finally encountered lapped traffic that put him right back into the sights of Jeff Gordon and the chasing pack. As the caution-free period approached 60 laps, green flag pit stops loomed for the majority of the field from lap 117: it was a frenetic few minutes as the cars cycled through. Juan Montoya was one of the few cars off sequence and inherited the lead for a few laps from lap 123; but it was clear that fresh rubber was a significant advantage of some 4mph, and when Montoya found himself passed by several lapped cars it was clear that they needed to pit earlier than strictly necessary before losing too much ground.
Jimmie Johnson therefore recovered the lead on lap 135 ahead of Gordon, Kurt Busch, Stewart, Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt Jr. and green flag running continued through to lap 151 (88 in total) for debris on track at turn 2. This allowed the leaders to get a chance for a breather and come in for a relatively relaxed pit stop under caution; Jeff Gordon beat Kurt Busch off pit road by the narrowest of margins, with Johnson falling back to 3rd ahead of Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch in 6th.
The race had passed the halfway point, which was good news as the weather was closing in and the teams were reporting spots of rain on the grandstands. Radar suggested this was a very minor front, but it certainly focused the minds of the teams and crew chiefs.
Gordon managed to fight off Busch at the restart despite intense pressure and three-wide racing with the 48; Jimmie Johnson came off worse and got shuffled backwards, while suddenly Earnhardt Jr was on song and roaring into contention at the front, battling Busch for second. A breathless period of battle came to a temporary end on lap 169 when Paul Menard locked up and hit the wall in turn 3 bringing out the 7th caution, allowing for some further pit stops down the field.
It seemed inevitable that – with tensions rising as the weather deteriorated – the combat was going to trigger an accident, and sure enough it happened at the restart on lap 175: Dale Earnhardt Jr seemed to get a poor getaway and checked up a fraction across the line, forcing Martin Truex Jr immediately behind him to brake in turn. Kyle Busch meanwhile thought he saw a middle line opening up, went for it – and then found Truex Jr braking back into the spot he was going for. Busch’s impact tipped Truex into a spin, and after that it as a case or blind luck as to who would get involved in the ensuing ruck: Jamie McMurray, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, Casey Mears, Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers and David Ragan lost the lottery.
With so many cars involved, a red flag was needed to allow the clean up crews a chance to work, but it didn’t stop the intensity of the battle when the race did eventually restart on lap 180 with Gordon having to fight hard to hold off Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson. Ryan Newman hit the wall on lap 181 but it wasn’t until the following lap that the 9th yellow came out, for Joey Logano getting a cut tyre following contact with David Reutimann.
Kurt Busch came off worst from a fierce tangle with Gordon at the restart and nearly lost the line into the next turner; he was saved only by contact with Jimmie Johnson on the outside, and poor Johnson fell back to 9th as a result of the contact. Seconds later and there was the 10th caution as Scott Speed hit the wall hard going into turn 1 on lap 189 allowing everyone to breath again.
Tony Stewart saw off the competition at the restart on lap 195, and finally there were some serious green flag laps that allowed Smoke to open out a big lead over Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, then the 77 of an excellent Sam Hornish Jr. ahead of Kyle Busch and Juan Montoya. There was a relatively settled period of the race, marked only by an emergency pit stop from Carl Edwards on lap 219 complaining of a tyre coming loose.
With no cautions in sight, it was time for another round of green flag pit stops started by Kyle Busch on lap 233 and quickly followed by the rest of the leaders, but Tony Stewart’s crew had problems with the front right lugnuts, causing him to fall behind Gordon and Kurt Busch. Meanwhile a number of off-sequence cars had their turn in the lead limelight, staying out to the very limit of their fuel in the hope of rain closing in. Bobby Labonte took the lead and then Ryan Newman, who overdid it and ended up stalling on empty on pit lane on lap 263.
That left the only driver yet to pit, Joey Logano, in the lead ahead of Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, David Reutimann, Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch. But Logano would have to pit any second, so unless it started to rain RIGHT NOW, he was … –
And then the caution came out as the weather closed in and the mist started to condense into something more inclement. The call went out to Logano to do everything possible to conserve fuel during the caution period, and even then everyone expected him to crawl to a halt at any second. But then the rain intensified and the field had to be brought into the pits to park up, with the number 20 making it to its allotted position. Provided that they didn’t have to fire up again, Logano was about to celebrate his first ever NASCAR Sprint Cup victory a year after his first series début event.
And as the minutes wore on, the rain got heavier. Jet blowers were sent out, and then recalled as the rain came down too heavily. They were losing the track – the race was over. Logano had just become the youngest ever Sprint Cup winner at 19 years and 1 month and 5 days old, all on an incredible stroke of luck – but to give credit where it due, it also came down to a serious bit of strategic thinking by his pit crew.
Race result
FIN CAR DRIVER MAKE PTS/BNS LAPS STATUS 1 20 Joey Logano * Toyota 190/5 273 Running 2 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 175/5 273 In Pit 3 2 Kurt Busch Dodge 170/5 273 In Pit 4 00 David Reutimann Toyota 160/0 273 In Pit 5 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet 160/5 273 In Pit 6 09 Brad Keselowski Chevrolet 150/0 273 In Pit 7 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 146/0 273 In Pit 8 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Dodge 142/0 273 In Pit 9 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 148/10 273 In Pit 10 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge 134/0 273 In Pit 11 07 Casey Mears Chevrolet 130/0 273 In Pit 12 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet 132/5 273 In Pit 13 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 124/0 273 In Pit 14 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet 126/5 273 In Pit 15 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 123/5 273 In Pit 16 34 John Andretti Chevrolet 115/0 273 In Pit 17 43 Reed Sorenson Dodge 117/5 273 In Pit 18 16 Greg Biffle Ford 114/5 273 In Pit 19 99 Carl Edwards Ford 106/0 273 In Pit 20 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 103/0 273 In Pit 21 96 Bobby Labonte Ford 105/5 273 In Pit 22 17 Matt Kenseth Ford 97/0 273 In Pit 23 47 Marcos Ambrose Toyota 94/0 273 Running 24 55 Michael Waltrip Toyota 91/0 273 In Pit 25 7 Robby Gordon Toyota 93/5 273 In Pit 26 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge 90/5 273 In Pit 27 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet 82/0 273 In Pit 28 12 David Stremme Dodge 79/0 273 In Pit 29 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 81/5 270 In Pit 30 98 Paul Menard Ford 73/0 267 In Pit 31 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet 70/0 251 In Pit 32 44 A.J. Allmendinger Dodge 67/0 238 In Pit 33 26 Jamie McMurray Ford 64/0 237 In Pit 34 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 61/0 231 In Pit 35 83 Brian Vickers Toyota 58/0 190 In Pit 36 187 Scott Speed * Toyota 55/0 189 Running 37 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet 52/0 174 Running 38 6 David Ragan Ford 49/0 174 In Pit 39 187 Joe Nemechek Toyota 46/0 67 In Pit 40 171 David Gilliland Chevrolet 43/0 48 Out of Race 41 37 Tony Raines Dodge 40/0 30 Out of Race 42 66 Dave Blaney Toyota 37/0 29 In Pit 43 36 Patrick Carpentier Toyota 34/0 14 Running
Sprint Cup standings
+/- DRIVER POINTS BEHIND ST P W T5 T10
1 -- Tony Stewart 2524 Leader 17 0 1 9 13
2 -- Jeff Gordon 2455 -69 17 0 1 9 12
3 -- Jimmie Johnson 2355 -169 17 0 2 7 11
4 -- Kurt Busch 2254 -270 17 0 1 5 9
5 -- Carl Edwards 2157 -367 17 0 0 4 8
6 +1 Denny Hamlin 2132 -392 17 0 0 4 6
7 -1 Ryan Newman 2127 -397 17 1 0 5 8
8 +1 Kyle Busch 2108 -416 17 1 3 4 6
9 -1 Greg Biffle 2106 -418 17 0 0 5 8
10 -- Matt Kenseth 2054 -470 17 1 2 4 6
11 -- Mark Martin 2052 -472 17 3 3 4 8
12 -- Juan Montoya 2049 -475 17 1 0 0 7
CHASE FOR THE Sprint CUP - CURRENT CONTENDERS
13 -- Kasey Kahne 2048 -476 17 0 1 2 6
14 -- David Reutimann 2037 -487 17 2 1 4 5
15 +1 Clint Bowyer 1955 -569 17 0 0 3 6
16 -1 Jeff Burton 1941 -583 17 0 0 2 6
17 -- Brian Vickers 1852 -672 17 4 0 2 6
18 -- Marcos Ambrose 1798 -726 17 0 0 2 4
19 +1 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1764 -760 17 0 0 1 3
20 +1 Casey Mears 1747 -777 17 0 0 0 2
21 +3 Joey Logano* 1741 -783 17 0 1 1 4
22 -3 Jamie McMurray 1733 -791 17 0 0 0 3
23 -- Elliott Sadler 1660 -864 17 0 0 1 2
24 -2 Martin Truex Jr. 1642 -882 17 1 0 0 3
25 +1 Sam Hornish Jr. 1638 -886 17 0 0 0 4
26 +1 Reed Sorenson 1604 -920 17 0 0 0 1
27 -2 Kevin Harvick 1598 -926 17 0 0 2 2
28 -- Bobby Labonte 1579 -945 17 0 0 1 1
29 -- A.J. Allmendinger 1534 -990 17 0 0 1 3
30 -- David Ragan 1496 -1028 17 0 0 0 1
31 -- David Stremme 1441 -1083 17 0 0 0 0
32 -- Michael Waltrip 1429 -1095 16 0 0 0 1
33 -- Paul Menard 1410 -1114 17 0 0 0 0
34 -- Robby Gordon 1366 -1158 17 0 0 1 1
35 -- Scott Speed* 1148 -1376 16 0 0 1 1
36 -- John Andretti 1114 -1410 15 0 0 0 0
37 -- David Gilliland 984 -1540 16 0 0 0 0
38 -- Regan Smith 816 -1708 9 0 0 0 0
39 -- Joe Nemechek 638 -1886 13 0 0 0 0
40 +2 Brad Keselowski 629 -1895 5 0 1 1 3
Ganassi dominated the SunTrust Indy Challenge under floodlights at Richmond from start to finish, with the only question being whether it would be Dario Franchitti or Scott Dixon who would win. It came down to a single fuel top-up.
Franchitti led away from pole position, although the race had a false start when Jaques Lazier managed to spin the car off turn 1 and hit the wall bringing out an immediate yellow. Once the mess was cleared up, the race managed just under twenty laps before the second yellow duly came out – this time for the big name scalp of Ryan Briscoe, championship leader going into the weekend, who managed to spin off turn 2: “The car just snapped on me and caught me by surprise,” he said.
Most of the leaders – including Franchitti and Dixon – opted to come in for fuel an tyres at this point, but Andretti-Green’s Hideki Mutoh opted to stay out and inherted the laead for the next 74 laps, with the Ganassi cars closing up and running behind him until Franchitti reclaimed the lead on lap 105 when Mutoh finally came into the pits.
The critical point of the race came on lap 135, when much of the field had already come in for their second round of pits stops, this time under green. Franchitti and Rahal were just about to come in when Mike Conway understeered off turn 4 and slid into the wall. Rahal waved off his stop, but Franchitti’s fuel situation was critical and he was forced to use the legal option of coming in for a small top-off to keep him going until the pit lane officially opened for full stops.
That minor necessity put him behind Dixon for the first time in the evening, and when Dixon, Franchitti and Rahal finally got to come into the pits under yellow, Dixon duly emerged first on track. Thanks to the timing of the yelow, the three of them had three-quaters of a lap over the rest of the field who were still on the lead lap: it effectively limited this to a three-car shoot-out to the end.
The only other moment that could have upset the Ganassi apple cart was the third and last round of pit stops. Again, most of the field had pitted under green when the yellow came out and allowed the trio to pit under caution again, and once more Dixon was able to enter and exit the pits in command of the race.
The yellow had been triggered by Helio Castroneves hitting the wall in turn 2. He had come up fast on the back of Tomas Scheckter running a lap down, who had got loose and almost ended up in the wall. Castroneves was unsighted and came up so fast on the number 23 that he had no where to go himself except on the marbles and into the wall: “Unfortunately for some reason a car slowed down in front of me and in order for me to not crash him, I ended up crashing myself. I had to get out of the throttle which just pushed my car up into the marbles and then the wall.”
The wreck ended a dismal race for Penske with serious implications for the team in the IRL championship standings. “I’m extremely disappointed with the way our race ended tonight,” said the Brazilian. “We didn’t have a winning car but we had a top five car and we were just trying to stay on the lead lap and score some championship points.
With Mutoh and Danica Patrick stuck in lapped traffic, and Rahal the only near challenger suffering from a vibration problem in the closing laps, Ganassi took the decision to run their cars in formation a second off their top times and not worry about trying to get past the lapped traffic ahead. It made for a dull closing few dozens laps, as Dixon led Franchitti to the chequered flag and Dario was left to rue the need for that small fuel top-up mid-race.
It was a race that left an unpleasant taste in the mouths of both the spectators (many of the Richmond stands ominously closed and empty as the crowd was less than half capacity) and drivers alike. With just three lead changes among three drivers, and just five cars were on the lead lap at the finis, the IRL cars simply seemed unable to manage overtaking moves on this tight oval.
“It’s not like we’re just cruising around,” said Franchitti, before admitting: “But nobody can get close enough to make passes. We need to look at that and fix it.” Even much slower lapped traffic was a problem: “We couldn’t pass. We were a second slower when we were in traffic. I have to apologise to the fans because that was an awful, awful race.
“Many things we’ve changed over the last two years have maybe stopped the amount of passing,” Dixon agreed. “But we’ve got to keep in mind what we’re here to do. We’re here to race. We’re here to put on a show. Without our fans, we don’t exist.”
It follows similar criticism of the Kansas and Texas races in particular, and IRL is looking at changes to car specifications with regard to aerodynamics and downforce, along with changes to tyre specs and the reintroduction of a “power push to pass” to give drivers a chance to try overtaking again – and give fans a reason for watching.
Not that Ganassi will be too unhappy with the fact that no one was able to pass them on track this weekend!
Race results
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1. Scott Dixon Ganassi 1h48m02.4703s
2. Dario Franchitti Ganassi + 0.3109s
3. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan + 2.4085s
4. Hideki Mutoh Andretti Green + 13.5302s
5. Danica Patrick Andretti Green + 14.1111s
6. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green + 1 lap
7. Marco Andretti Andretti Green + 1 lap
8. Raphael Matos Luczo Dragon + 1 lap
9. Robert Doornbos Newman/Haas/Lanigan + 1 lap
10. Dan Wheldon Panther + 1 lap
11. Tomas Scheckter Dreyer & Reinbold + 1 lap
12. EJ Viso HVM + 1 lap
13. Ed Carpenter Vision + 1 lap
14. Justin Wilson Coyne + 2 laps
15. Ryan Hunter-Reay Foyt + 2 laps
16. Mario Moraes KV + 3 laps
Retirements:
Helio Castroneves Penske 245 laps
Mike Conway Dreyer & Reinbold 135 laps
Ryan Briscoe Penske 26 laps
Jaques Lazier 3G 0 laps
Championship standings
Ryan Briscoe takes a hit in the standings and drops to 3rd, as the two Ganassi drivers take the top spots split by a single point. It couldn’t be closer between Dixon and Franchitti – but behind them, Ganassi is definitely drawing away from the competition.
Pos Driver Points 1 Dario Franchitti 279 2 Scott Dixon 278 3 Ryan Briscoe 253 4 Hélio Castroneves 225 5 Danica Patrick 219 6 Dan Wheldon 204 7 Tony Kanaan 190 8 Marco Andretti 185 9 Graham Rahal 180 10 Hideki Mutoh 174 11 Raphael Matos 144 12 Ryan Hunter-Reay 143 13 Ed Carpenter 143 14 Robert Doornbos 141 15 Justin Wilson 135 16 Mário Moraes 122 17 Mike Conway 108 18 Ernesto Viso 103 19 Will Power 99 20 Tomas Scheckter 99
Formula 1- Vatanen unhappy at Mosley stance
- Ferrari boosted by podium, says Massa
- Chandhok won't run for FIA presidency
- Hungary preview quotes: BMW
- McLaren to run KERS all season
- Hungary preview quotes: McLaren
- Q and A with Giorgio Ascanelli
- Ascanelli says Toro Rosso missing Vettel
- Hungary preview quotes: Renault
- Renault to retain Piquet for Hungary
- NASCAR
- NASCAR: Mayfield failed test again
- Martin not worried about points
- Truex and EGR team penalised
- Villeneuve to race at Montreal again
- Stewart-Haas plays down Patrick visit
- Martin wins at Chicagoland
- Logano wins Nationwide at Chicago
- Red Bull sweeps front row at Chicago
- Montoya still committed to Ganassi
- Busch: Stewart caused Daytona crash
- Indy Racing League
- Honda wants quick IRL rules decision
- Conquest calls for pit rule changes
- Tracy, Castroneves play down crash
- Franchitti wins amid Toronto mayhem
- Franchitti takes third Toronto pole
- Tracy tops chaotic wet practice
- Storm delays final Toronto practice
- Matos fastest in afternoon practice
- George turned down IRL-only role
- Returnee Power leads first practice
- MotoGP
- Hayden encouraged by practice form
- Stoner still 'lost' over illness
- Edwards hails set-up breakthrough
- Lorenzo disappointed with fitness
- Vermeulen escapes injury in crash
- Stoner tops drying practice session
- Kallio: Finger injury not a problem
- Stoner diagnosed with mild anaemia
- Vermeulen eyeing podium repeat
- Injured Lorenzo says podium realistic
- GP2
- Hulkenberg completes double win
- Three GP2 drivers given penalties
- Hulkenberg dominates in Germany
- Hulkenberg takes home pole
- Petrov fastest in Nurburgring practice
- Gonzalez replaces Rigon at Trident
- Perera to replace Ricci at DPR
- Maldonado wins Silverstone sprint
- Valerio takes first GP2 victory
- Nunes, Valsecchi get grid penalties
- A1GP
- A1GP season to open at Surfers
- A1GP swaps Zandvoort for Assen
- Jani gallant after losing A1GP title
- Carroll credits team for Irish success
- Ireland wins again and takes title
- Monaco to make start despite fire
- Carroll edges Ireland closer to title
- Jani baffled by lack of pace
- Carroll takes double pole for Ireland
- Carroll claims sprint race pole
