IRL IndyCar Series Round 06 : The Milwaukee Mile, Milwaukee
Briscoe Takes Wild Milwaukee Mile
In an action-filled event that featured some of the best
IndyCar Series racing seen this season, Team Penske’s
Ryan Briscoe out-dueled Indianapolis 500 winner and series
points leader Scott Dixon to win Sunday’s ABC Supply/A.J.
Foyt 225 at The Milwaukee Mile.
It was a race that saw front-runners falling by the wayside
as their handling went away due to changing track conditions,
while others charged through the field from lowly grid positions
or after problems in pit lane. Through it all, however, Dixon
was constantly at or near the front, leading a race-high 147
laps around the famed one-mile oval in suburban Milwaukee.
It was another successful race weekend for the Honda HI8R
Indy V-8 engine, with almost the entire field using the same
engine as in last weekend’s Indianapolis 500 (only crash-damaged
units were replace for this event). In Milwaukee, IndyCar
teams and drivers completed a total of 9,012 miles/laps without
failure throughout the weekend.
Starting 11th, Briscoe had to fight his way to the front,
reaching the lead for the first time only on Lap 177. The
Penske driver and Dixon fought close and hard for the next
44 laps – with an equally entertaining battle just behind
for third place between Tony Kanaan and Dan Wheldon.
But with just four laps remaining, Ed Carpenter and pole-starter
Marco Andretti made wheel-to-wheel contact while battling
for seventh place. Both went hard into the Turn Two wall,
with Panther Racing’s Vitor Meira unable to avoid the
spinning Carpenter, launching into the air before landing
upright. All three drivers were uninjured in the crash and
the race would end under the caution flag due to the extensive
debris.
Ninth-place Hideki Mutoh also was caught up in the carnage,
making contact with the Turn Two wall while avoiding the other
spinning race cars. He was able to limp to a 12th-place finish
with right front suspension damage, maintaining his lead in
series Rookie of the Year standings.
Briscoe’s win is his first in 25 career IndyCar Series
starts, also the 300th major race series victory for Team
Penske. Dixon’s second-place finish is his fifth top-three
result in six starts this year, and solidified his lead in
the drivers’ championship to 28 points over fifth-finishing
Helio Castroneves.
Seeking his third consecutive Milwaukee Mile victory, Kanaan
had to settle for a third-place finish, besting Wheldon in
their own battle just behind the leaders. Oriol Servia bounced
back strongly from first-lap contact that left him running
26th and last with a damaged front wing. A series of quick
pit stops by his KV Racing Technology team replaced the wing,
and former the Champ Car driver stormed back to finish sixth,
his best IndyCar Series result.
Two other former Champ Car drivers, Justin Wilson and E.J.
Viso, also stood out in the 26-car field today. Wilson was
another up-from-the-back story, running as far back as 24th
in the early laps before a strong final stint moved the Newman
Haas Lanigan driver up to seventh at the checkers. After starting
10th, Viso was one of the few drivers to stay in the lead
pack throughout the day, running as high as sixth before fading
slightly in the final 20 laps to finish eighth.
Ryan Briscoe(#6Team Penske Honda) Started 11th, finished
1st,first career IndyCar Series victory:
“It’s just a great day. These are the best guys
in the paddock, and I’m proud to score Roger [Penske’s]
300th major win for them. My car wasn’t the best on
new tires, but got stronger and stronger as each run went
long, so the clean race really played to our advantage today.
But I also was very, very lucky to avoid the final [Andretti/Carpenter]
crash. It was a near thing. Scott [Dixon] was very strong
as well. He raced me hard but clean and I’m grateful
to him for that as well. I’m so happy, I just have to
thank everyone!”
Scott Dixon (#9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda)
Started 3rd, finished 2nd, led 147 of 225 laps:
“It was a pretty good day. Our car was good early in
each run, but I couldn’t run up high like Ryan [Briscoe].
But I have to say this was the most fun I’ve had in
a race car in a long, long time. There’s more driver
imput on these smaller tracks and we’re always passing
other cars, or being passed, dealing with lapped traffic or
almost crashing! It’s just a lot of fun for a driver.”
IRL IndyCar Series
Round 06 : The Milwaukee Mile, Milwaukee
1 Ryan Briscoe (Team Penske)
2 Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing)
3 Tony Kanaan (Andretti Green Racing)
4 Dan Wheldon (Chip Ganassi Racing)
5 Helio Castroneves (Team Penske)
6 Oriol Servia (KV Racing Technologies)
7 Justin Wilson (Newman Haas Lanigan)
8 Ernesto Viso (HVM Motorsports)
9 Danica Patrick (Andretti Green Racing)
10 Buddy Rice (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing)
11 Townsend Bell (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing)
12 Hideki Mutoh (Andretti Green Racing)
13 Darren Manning (A.J. Foyt Enterprises)
14 Will Power (KV Racing Technologies)
15 Ryan Hunter-Reay (Rahal Letterman Racing)
16 Enrique Bernoldi (Conquest Racing)
17 A.J. Foyt IV (Vision Racing)
18 Bruno Junqueira (Dale Coyne Racing)
19 John Andretti (Roth Racing)
20 Ed Carpenter (Vision Racing)
21 Marco Andretti (Andretti Green Racing)
22 Vitor Meira (Panther Racing)
23 Mario Moraes (Dale Coyne Racing)
24 Jaime Camara (Conquest Racing)
25 Graham Rahal (Newman Haas Lanigan)
26 Mario Dominguez (Pacific Coast Motorsports)
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