Ed Carpenter finally has his first victory in the IZOD IndyCar Series after defeating Dario Franchitti by .0098 of a second to win today’s Kentucky Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway — the sixth-closest finish in series history.
Carpenter had been running in the top five for much of the day and then climbed his way to the front and Franchitti in the closing laps. The two spent the final stages of the race locked together side-by-side, but in the end, the day belonged to Carpenter, who claimed an emotional win for himself and his Sarah Fisher Racing team despite having to drive for a time with his left hand holding his helmet visor to keep it from flying off.
“It felt way better than I ever thought it was going to feel,” an exuberant Carpenter said about his first win in Victory Lane.
Meanwhile, Franchitti moved back to the lead in the IndyCar championship by 18 points over Will Power, who led a chunk of laps from the pole early on but suffered a run-in on pit road with Ana Beatriz that put a gash in his No. 12 car’s left sidepod. Power never recovered and finished 19th.
The title fight will once again come down to the final race of the season — the IZOD IndyCar World Championship on October 16th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In last year’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Franchitti finally chased down Power after several weeks of hacking into the Australian’s lead and claimed the 2010 championship by five points via an eighth-place finish.
More to come later tonight/early tomorrow…
