IRL IndyCar Series Round 07: Texas Motor Speedway, Texas
Dixon Flawless in Texas Triumph
Scott Dixon continued to put his stamp on the 2008 IndyCar
Series, completing a virtual trouble-free run when all around
him encountered problems to win the Bombardier Learjet 550
at Texas Motor Speedway for his third win of the season and
a healthy 35-point lead in the championship standings.
Starting from the pole, Dixon ran in the lead pack for the
entire 228-lap race distance while all of his challengers
– including Helio Castroneves, Marco Andretti, Ryan
Briscoe, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Vitor Meira – encountered
problems, penalties, misfortune or the unyielding walls of
the high-banked, 1.5-mile oval. It was a typically hard-fought
Texas race, with 22 official lead changes among six drivers.
Dixon’s strongest late-race rivals for the victory,
Andretti and Hunter-Reay, were eliminated in a hard crash
on Lap 222 that resulted in the race ending under caution.
The pair made contact in Turn Four while battling for second
place, but both drivers apparently escaped serious injury.
Two other potential race winners, Team Penske’s Helio
Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe, spent much of the night recovering
from early mistakes. Briscoe mistakenly pulled into the pit
stall of Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s Dan Wheldon during
the first round of stops and was assessed a drive-through
penalty, while later in the race Castroneves received the
same penalty for speeding as he entered pit lane. Both fell
off the lead lap as a result of the penalties.
Castroneves still managed to lead a race-high 85 laps to
recover to second place, while Briscoe set some of the fastest
laps in the race en route to his third-place finish.
Wheldon showed no after-effects from a rollover crash in
practice on Friday to come home fourth tonight. Andretti Green
Racing teammates Tony Kanaan and Hideki Mutoh ran fifth and
sixth, respectively, as Mutoh solidified his lead in the series
Rookie standings with another strong performance. Vitor Meira’s
Panther Racing team attempted a alternative pit strategy that
might have paid off with a long-overdue victory, but that
was spoiled by the late-race cautions. He finished a lap down
in seventh.
Through it all, Dixon sailed on untroubled, leading 58 laps,
rarely running lower than third, and with flawless pit stops
from his Target Chip Ganassi Racing crew for his first win
at Texas Motor Speedway.
After nearly eight weeks of consecutive action, the IndyCar
Series now takes a one-week break before resuming June 22
at the tight Iowa Speedway for the Iowa Corn Indy 250.
Scott Dixon (#9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda)
Started 1st, finished 1st, 3rd victory of 2008 and 13th career
IndyCar win:
“I can’t believe it. It’s a fantastic win
for the team. I’m sorry for the fans, for the race ending
under caution, but after a lot of trying, we’ve finally
won Texas. The guys on the team did a great job of taking
care of our fuel mileage tonight. There were a couple of close
calls out there with the wind out of Turn 2 and a couple of
other times with traffic, but for the most part everybody
kept it pretty clean out there. Our pit stops were phenomenal.
Every time I needed to jump up a spot, they got the job done.
We just want to win this championship, that’s the biggest
thing we need to do.”
Helio Castroneves (#3 Team Penske Honda) Started
2nd, finished 2nd:
“For the conditions we went through tonight, this was
a ‘victory’ for us. The guys in the pits did an
incredible job getting me back on the lead lap after my mistake.
I came in too fast and started to lock up the brakes, so I
had to let off the brakes to keep from spinning and was speeding
into pit lane as a result. But I had a fantastic car, and
the team did a fantastic job. We made up one full lap under
green flag conditions, and that’s pretty incredible.
We definitely had a car capable of winning tonight, it’s
just a shame that we came up a little bit too short.”
Ryan Briscoe(#6Team Penske Honda) Started 3rd, finished
3rd:
“Well, what a race. It was ‘full on’ every
single lap out there. I don’t know what I was thinking
when Iwent into the wrong pit box. It’s a mistake I’ll
be sure never to make again. Coming through the field, the
car was great in traffic. Later, coming off Turn 2, Hunter-Reay
had a bit of a wobble and I hit him, and that damaged the
nose and made for a long pit stop. Third almost feels like
a victory tonight. Maybe it’s a sign of luck turning
our way. I don’t think we’ll get away with that
every race, but we’ll take this one.”
IRL IndyCar Series
Round 07: Texas Motor Speedway, Texas
1 Scott Dixon (Target Chip Ganassi)
2 Helio Castroneves (Team Penske)
3 Ryan Briscoe (Team Penske)
4 Dan Wheldon (Target Chip Ganassi)
5 Tony Kanaan (Andretti Green Racing)
6 Hideki Mutoh (Andretti Green Racing)
7 Vitor Meira (Panther Racing)
8 Buddy Rice (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing)
9 Ed Carpenter (Vision Racing)
10 Danica Patrick (Andretti Green Racing)
11 Graham Rahal (Newman Haas Lanigan)
12 A.J. Foyt IV (Vision Racing)
13 Will Power (KV Racing Technologies)
14 Ernesto Viso (HVM Racing)
15 Bruno Junqueira (Dale Coyne Racing)
16 John Andretti (Roth Racing)
17 Milka Duna (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing)
18 Mario Moraes (Dale Coyne Racing)
19 Marco Andretti (Andretti Green Racing)
20 Ryan Hunter-Reay (Rahal Letterman Racing)
21 Mario Dominguez (Pacific Coast Motorsports)
22 Marty Roth (Roth Racing)
23 Enrique Bernoldi (Conquest Racing)
24 Jaime Camara (Conquest Racing)
25 Tomas Scheckter (Luczo Dragon Racing)
26 Oriol Servia (KV Racing Technologies)
27 Justin Wilson (Newman Haas Lanigan)
28 Darren Manning (A.J. Foyt Racing)
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