Scoring his second consecutive victory on the streets of St. Petersburg,
Helio Castroneves found a place to park his Team Penske Dallara-Honda
and ran approximately 50 yards over to the same fence area that he
climbed last year to the delight of the fans.
"The team did a great, great job," Castroneves said. "Team Penske was
incredible. After a restart, I heard 'green, green, green' in my ear and
went to change gears, I don't remember if it was first or third .. the
gears started to wear a little. I had to really concentrate and focus to
not make any mistakes."
Castroneves dominated the 100 lap race on the 1.8-mile temporary street
circuit and after the final restart, the Brazilian racer had to hold off
the charge by Scott Dixon in today's Indy Racing League's IndyCar Series
race and he did it with a 0.6007 seconds margin to earn his 12th career
IRL victory.
The Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the second round on the 2007
calendar, had five full caution yellow periods covering a total of 20
laps. Castroneves, Marco Andretti and Dan Wheldon each led the race, the
race winner had the most at 95, Andretti notched three laps as the race
leader with Wheldon at two.
In the 40 years as a team owner, Roger Penske also earned a place in the
history books with today's win combined by last night's American Le Mans
Series LM P2 victory for the Penske Racing Porsche RS Spyder, the Penske
organization had two top podium finishes at the same venue on the same
weekend.
It was deja vu here in sunny, warm Florida in the top three. Following
Castroneves and Dixon across the line was Tony Kanaan -- the trio
repeated the 2006 finish -- but under slightly different circumstances
during the race itself.
"It was tough the last laps, the three of us pushing and I could not let off
or they could make the move, especially Scott," admitted the race winner.
"It was a very tough one (race)."
Last year, Chip Ganassi Racing's Dixon had to see his final run for the
victory disappear when the final caution forced the race to end under
yellow. And this year, the Kiwi pushed hard, breathing down the rear of
the Penske machine and using every inch of the racing surface and as the
laps wound down, Dixon ran out of luck.
The duo put on a final show, even on cold Firestone tires after the
final restart at lap 78 as the margin between them kept bouncing with
Dixon gaining and then Castroneves pulling away.
"I put tons of pressure on Helio and hoped he would make a mistake, but
he never did," commented Dixon, who with his back-to-back second place
finish in the first two races on the calendar is now the points leader
in the chase for this year's championship with 80 points. Today's race
winner has 75 tied with Dixon's teammate Dan Wheldon.
"Pretty good for us," Dixon added. "It was a tough race. Helio had us
covered, but I think we had a little more speed on cold tires. We didn't
make any mistakes and had a clean race, so it was a good day for us."
And this year, Kanaan had the comeback of the race to land on the final
podium step. The Andretti Green Racing driver lost the pole due to a
hard crash in the Fast Six qualifying, causing the red flag and had to
start sixth today.
In the opening lap, he and his teammate Dario Franchitti touched wheels
and Kanaan spun and from that point on, had to make a charge by putting
pressure on his fellow competitors to break into the top ten, then the
top five and finally the top three. And he did it racing a car with
band-aids on its nose!
"Let's make it clear, the band-aid was on the nose of my car, not on my
nose," Kanaan said with a smile and a laugh as he added, "Although they
fit here, it wasn't on my nose!"
Kanaan's team plus two members from each of his three teammate's cars
spent a long day and night after qualifying to repair the broken
Dallara. If they had to use the back-up tub, he would have had to start
from the back of the grid.
"I looked at the guys (when he returned to the track after attending a
sponsor dinner) and we have a mechanic, Steve Price, he's always hurt,"
explained Kanaan on why the new nose decoration. "If you see him, he
always has a band-aid or something like that. I had band-aids all over
the place, myself. They started to make fun of both of us, then we
looked at the car. First thing I said 'Hey, looks like Steve'. It was
all banged up, different colors. One of the guys said, 'Well, we're
missing some band-aids'. I went and got some."
The team place three bandages on the nose and during warm-up this
morning, "one of them tried to come off, which I was very upset", said
Kanaan as he continued his story about not only the band-aids but he
was also the fastest car in the final practice prior to the race start.
"When the car is good, you don't touch it, so I'm a bit superstitious.
Let's put clear tape over those things, so we did and we left it there.
I hope the car feels better now."
The tale at the end of the tape does not tell the complete story on
great drives by several of the IndyCar racers and/or the bad luck that
came into play. And for others, it was not the best of weekend.
Vision Racing had one of there three cars eighth on the grid while
the other two cars were struggling. While Tomas Scheckter was staying
in the top ten, ending the race in sixth, just a tad over one second
adrift of fifth place Dario Franchitti, he was just in front of the
reigning IndyCar champion Sam Hornish, Jr., his two team cars had a
flying incident.
On Lap 46, A.J. Foyt IV tagged the rear of Ed Carpenter in the first
turn lifting Carpenter in the air. Carpenter did not do a full flight,
his left wheels were still touching ground but with damage to his
suspension his race had ended. This was Foyt's second race with the team
and he was able to continue.
"It was okay. I struggled just on that last set of tires. I think
overall we were competitive though and that's good," commented
Scheckter. "We did well. We were able to keep (Sam) Hornish behind us,
which was good and to get a top-six finish for the team is great. I'm
happy with that on a road course."
Andretti Green Racing's Dario Franchitti pitted twice to fix the
left-front suspension due to the first lap contact with Kanaan. To add
to his woes, he received a stop-and-go penalty for a combined pit speed
violation and blend-line violation. He maintained running on the lead
lap as he started to make up ground and with a remarkable run, he ended
fifth for the day.
"I have to thank the Canadian Club crew for fixing the car. We had an
unfortunate incident on the first lap because we had some understeer on
cold tires. TK came around the outside and we came together. We'll just
put it down to racing. The guys did a great job putting the car back
together," Franchitti said.
"The main thing was that the last 50 laps, we lost the cooling in the
brakes and I had to time it into the corners. I was in trouble," added
the Scotsman. "The car wasn't 100 percent after the incident, but the
guys did a great job getting it as straight as possible. The main
thing is that the guys didn't give up. I really just want to thank the
Canadian Club crew."
Adding to the top finishes today by the AGR team was Marco Andretti. The
young driver wanted his car setup for his racing style on stret circuits
and it paid off when he, not only led three laps, but he also pushed
Castroneves very early in the race. Starting on the front row, Andretti
did not back off at the start, staying up with the eventual race winner.
On the sixth lap restart, he made a move to overtake Castroneves in
the first turn, he didn't make it that time and then had to watch his
mirrors as Dixon put on a charge to pass Andretti for second. The Kiwi
got the position on lap 20. "He (Marco) did a very good job," said
Castroneves. "Pushing hard right away and I truly thought 'wow', it is
just the start."
In his second year of racing, the third-generation Andretti would like
to notch his first IndyCar victory. "For that first stint, the car was
pretty bad. Of course, I was trying really hard to catch Helio and we
got a flat spot on the tire," he said. "It's just tough to pass. You
have to be at least a half-a-second faster than the guy in front of you
and there was no way I was going to be a half-second quicker than TK
(Tony Kanaan)."
Andretti did make his way past Hornish, Jr. to move up in the top four.
The day had its good moments and bad ones for the 2005 champion. Dan
Wheldon had the speed, but other factors kept him from being a major
contender and the Team Penske driver ended up in ninth in his Chip
Ganassi Racing Dallara.
"It was a frustrating weekend for the No. 10 crew," commented Wheldon.
"I think the good thing we can take away from this weekend is that we
were fast. We were quick, but it was a case of what happened on Saturday
(practice accident) put us behind the eight ball."
One of the surprises came out of the A.J. Foyt racing camp. Yesterday,
Darren Manning placed the team in their first Fast Six qualifying.
Starting from fifth on the grid, Manning clocked off consistent laps and
held his ground until near the end when he spun in the fourth turn with
Kanaan on his back. The spin by the Brit brought out the final caution
and ended his probable podium finish, he ended up in 14th.
"The last 30 minutes killed me. My feet were numb and my hands were in
such pain as I tried to keep ahead of Tony Kanaan," Manning said. "The
steering was so heavy on full tanks and new tires because this track has
so much grip. It was tough to hold on. I should have let Tony go.
It was a fantastic weekend overall for a one-car effort. It's a
testament to the spirit of this team. We've just scratching the surface
on performance."
Rounding out the top ten were Danica Patrick in eight for the AGR team
and Buddy Rice in tenth in his new ride with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.
