Hildebrand crash on final lap gives Englishman his second Indy win
Dan Wheldon (above) has won his second Indianapolis 500. Photo: Chris Jones/IZOD IndyCar Series.
Speedway, Ind. — What will the next century of the Indianapolis 500 be like? If today’s 100th anniversary running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing was any indication, they’ll be unbelievable.
As a game of fuel strategy Russian roulette played out in the final laps, J.R. Hildebrand found himself leading as a rookie with Panther Racing and took the white flag. He made it through three turns on the final lap.
He didn’t make it through the final one. Coming upon the lapped car of Charlie Kimball, Hildebrand tried to pass him on the outside but got caught in the marbles on the high groove and skidded into the wall to the shock and disbelief of all in attendance. As the Californian skidded along the wall, Dan Wheldon chased him down and passed him on the front stretch to claim his second Indianapolis 500 victory.
INDYCAR reviewed the finish to see if Wheldon had passed Hildebrand before the yellow caution lights came on. It took eight seconds between the crash and the light coming on, but Wheldon nonetheless made the pass. Panther Racing did not file a protest.
A shock finish delivered a shock result: Wheldon winning with Bryan Herta Autosport, an Indy 500-only program.
“I just knew when I started this race that I wanted to do everything in my power to deliver a win for not just myself — I didn’t feel we had anything to prove — but for such a great group of people,” Wheldon said.
“It’s a fantastic day. I just love Indianapolis, I really do. I love Indiana. It’s been so good to me, so good to my career…This is a Cinderella story.”
Meanwhile, Panther’s own Cinderella story as the runner-up team for three straight 500s ended with the proverbial clock striking midnight. Once again, another near miss. And even worse, the most crushing of them all.
Yet somehow, someway, Hildebrand summoned the courage to face the media and showed unbelievable poise considering the circumstances. Still, he was sad for his team.
“It’s not really like a personal thing right now,” he said. “Maybe down the road, it will turn into a personal thing that I’ll just be pissed off at myself for not doing whatever. In the end, it’s really more about the people, for me at least. This team has worked so hard. It’s such an integral part of being here and Indianapolis and being successful at Indianapolis. That’s really where the sort of heartbreak is for me right now.”
Hildebrand and defending 500 winner Dario Franchitti emerged as the big winners of that aforementioned roulette game, which began to play out following a series of late-race stops. The two had pitted on Lap 164, putting them at or very close to making it to the finish.
With 20 laps remaining, Danica Patrick had taken the point but she didn’t have enough fuel to make it and she blinked on Lap 190 after relinquishing the lead to Bertrand Baguette one lap previous. Baguette, who drove full-time last year, stretched the lead over Franchitti to as much as 10 seconds but had to give it up on Lap 197.
At that point, Hildebrand managed to get by Franchitti for the lead. When the Scotsman was forced to pit with about two laps remaining, it looked as if it was Hildebrand’s race.
Instead, through a jaw-dropping turn of events, it wound up Wheldon’s race.
Wheldon parted ways with Panther after last season and was unable to find another full-time ride. As such, he’s spent most of his time at home in St. Petersburg, Florida, spending time with his young family.
He decided to focus on the 500 with Herta, an old teammate of his at Andretti Green Racing (now Andretti Autosport) in the early 2000s. They proved to be a quick combination but no one was sure if they could really take down the big teams of Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi.
Turns out that while Ganassi drivers were a factor, the Penske boys were not. All three suffered problems — Will Power (finished 14th) lost a left rear tire early on after a pit stop, Ryan Briscoe (finished 27th) crashed out in an incident with Townsend Bell, and Helio Castroneves (finished 17th) shredded one of his tires.
Indeed, the little guys ruled.
“I think the biggest thing with Indianapolis and the partial programs is that it is a partial program, but the talent is there,” Wheldon said. “What it allows you do at Indianapolis is you have more track time. The simulation programs that the big teams work on, the fine tuning, the wind tunnel, the shaker rigs — that’s all well and good. But it allows the smaller programs the track time to be able to catch up a little bit.”
Not that Ganassi was shut down completely, though. Graham Rahal put on a late-race charge and led some laps before winding up in third position. While he wished for two more laps, the American was still pleased with his work — which included passing a whopping 67 cars.
“We knew we had probably one of the best cars out there,” he said. “At the end, we were running probably a little bit too much downforce to do some of those big numbers…I didn’t quite have the pace out front. But in traffic, I was as good as anybody.”
Tony Kanaan also had a very hectic afternoon, charging from the back to the front, then doing it all over again to claim a hard-fought fourth-place finish.
“We had a problem on a pit stop because of somebody else, but we had a good car,” he said. “We drove hard all day. It was a lot of fun…You have to remember, five days before the [St. Petersburg season-opening race], we didn’t have a team.”
Scott Dixon led five times for a race-leading 73 laps, but was unable to hang on and came home fifth after having to pit on Lap 179.
“We stopped 10 laps later than anybody else on any strategy; there’s no way we should run out of fuel,” he said. “…It just didn’t go our way. I definitely leave here thinking that I should have won my second 500.”
Rounding out the top ten were Oriol Servia, Baguette, Tomas Scheckter, Marco Andretti and Patrick.
