Posted on 09/11/2005 7:08:40 PM PDT by Perdogg
September 11, 2005 By Bruce Martin SportsTicker Contributing Editor
JOLIET, Illinois (Ticker) - Not even a penalty imposed after a pit-stop violation could keep Dan Wheldon from claiming his IRL-record sixth checkered flag of the season in Sunday's Peak Antifreeze Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway.
In addition to breaking Sam Hornish Jr.'s record set in 2002, Wheldon virtually locked up the series title. He now leads defending IRL champion and Andretti Green teammate Tony Kanaan by 102 points with two races left.
All Wheldon has to do to clinch the championship is run a practice lap at Watkins Glen International in two weeks.
"Until it's done, then I'm not champion," Wheldon said. "If it's just a practice lap, that practice lap is going to be the slowest practice lap I've ever taken in history. Don't expect me to set a flyer on the first one. I'm going to tell them not to even put the tire warmers on."
Wheldon held off a strong challenge from the Penske Racing duo of Helio Castroneves and Hornish, who set the previous record with five wins in 2002. Wheldon's Dallara-Honda finished 0.0133 seconds ahead of Castroneves' Dallara-Toyota in the eighth-closest finish in circuit history.
Wheldon led three times for 88 laps in an event that featured 17 lead changes among eight drivers.
"It's not often that you can dominate like we did," Wheldon said. "I knew I had the fastest car when I was leading, but I did make a mistake today and forgot to push the pit land speed button. I cost myself with the pit lane speed violation so I had to go to the back. At the point, the car was pretty difficult in traffic. With the aggressive setup we chose, it meant I would be quick up front, but in traffic, I was going to struggle."
Hornish was third in another Dallara-Toyota followed by Tomas Scheckter's Dallara-Chevrolet and Kanaan's Dallara-Honda.
Pole-sitting rookie Danica Patrick, from nearby Roscoe, finished sixth in front of her hometown fans but had to fend off criticism from Kanaan, who called her an "idiot" after the race.
"There were a lot of guys I could call idiots today," Patrick said. "There's a lot going on out there and people are moving all over the place and sometimes stuff happens that you don't intend to. I thought there was a chance to win after the cars got bunched up because I was 20 feet away from the lead opposed to 200 feet.
"No matter what happened at the end, it was a great race."
Patrick jumped Scheckter on the restart on lap 188 but had to relinquish the position when IRL officials said she left too early.
Afterwards, Castroneves gave her a hug and said, "I'm really proud of you. You are going to win a race soon."
There was a horrendous crash on lap 20 when rookie Ryan Briscoe's Panoz-Toyota went airborne after running over the back of Alex Barron's car. The contact with the wall and fence broke the car in two, creating a huge fireball that engulfed both cars. The radiator, gearbox and cockpit all went flying in separate directions with debris scattered across the track.
Kosuke Matsurra also was involved in the crash, which was so severe it forced the race to be halted for 17 minutes because of damage to the fence above the SAFER barrier. Briscoe, who lost the pole on Saturday because of an illegal rear-wing mount, was airlifted to Chris Hospital in Oak Lawn, complaining of head and neck pain but was awake and alert.
According to Dr. Jason Lindel, the 23-year-old Briscoe suffered a concussion, bruised lung and a broken clavicle but is good condition and will spend the night at the hospital. However, his season likely is over.
It was the 27th crash for the three-driver Target-Chip Ganassi team this season, including practice and qualifications.
"I just felt a thump from the left rear of my car," Barron said. "Ryan was up over me. He was upside-down and there was a lot of fire. It was a quick thud and then the next thing you know we were in the wall. It was all behind me and people were moving around, so I can't really say what happened. I just felt a thump and a lot of fire and that was it."
Wheldon, Castroneves, Hornish, Kanaan and Scheckter were involved in a fierce battle virtually throughout. Hornish was the only driver in that group who never led but he was running second or third for most of the day.
During a pit stop on lap 100, Wheldon forgot to hit his pit speed button and was disciplined for speeding. He had to return to the pits on lap 103 to serve the penalty after being moved to the back of the field.
Even then, he knew he still could win.
"Yeah, I absolutely knew I had a chance," Wheldon said. "On the superspeedways, with the cars we have at Andretti Green Racing, you can get to the front pretty quick. I was confident of that. It was kind of a silly mistake. I didn't think they would catch me because I didn't have it on for such a short period of time and they caught me. I couldn't believe that."
Down, but not out, Wheldon quickly found his way back to the front.
The final dash to the checkered flag was set up after the final caution period on lap 184 when Scott Dixon's Panoz/Toyota needed to be towed-in after it broke down.
The green flag waved on lap 188 with Wheldon in the lead. Patrick jumped the start and was ordered to drop two spots by IRL officials. Wheldon was hounded by Castroneves, and Hornish was trying to find his way to the lead in an 11-car pack jockeying for position.
But Wheldon's car was too fast and he won with the top 11 cars separated by .9488 seconds.
"My primary goal coming into the season was to win the Indianapolis 500," Wheldon said. "When you achieve that, you then have to set yourself another goal. My goal after that was obviously to win the championship. Then, we continued to win races. That record that Sam Hornish had for winning races, I wanted to try to beat that. To me, that means a lot.
"To win a championship and win a lot of races in the season is pretty special."
You are going to win a race soon
ill win one before she does
The IRL? There hasn't been a good race at Indy since the 70's and the STP Turbine cars.
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