Blocking penalty on Castroneves hands Edmonton win to Dixon
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After Helio Castroneves held off Will Power on the final restart of the Honda Indy Edmonton, it appeared that the three-time Indianapolis 500 champion was on his way to Victory Lane. But instead of celebrating after the race, he was in a state of outrage instead.
With three laps remaining, Castroneves was able to keep Will Power from passing him on the outside of Turn 1. But IRL president of competition and race chief steward Brian Barnhart determined that the Brazilian stopped Power’s progress by going wide in Turn 2 and gave him the black flag. After failing to do a drive-through penalty on pit road, Castroneves was penalized 20 seconds and dropped to tenth place at the finish.
That decision moved Scott Dixon — who managed to squeeze by Power for second place after Castroneves’ alleged block on his Penske teammate — up to first at the end of the 95-lap race. After an official review, the penalty on Castroneves was upheld and Dixon was officially declared the winner.
Immediately afterwards, Castroneves made his displeasure known by arguing with League official Kevin Blanch and then started to grab and shake the shirt of IndyCar security chief Charles Burns. Penske Racing president Tim Cindric had to separate his driver from Burns and eventually, the situation was diffused.
In post-race, both Dixon and Power said that Castroneves was guilty of blocking.
“[Barnhart] always says that if you’re blocking going into any corner and you are on the right side – especially into Turn 1, you’re going to get a penalty,” said Dixon. “We get told every week, so you could see something was going to happen.”
“I got a run on him and he blocked me,” Power said. “I would say a black flag is a pretty harsh penalty, but it is what it is. It was just one of those racing things. When you’re leading on the last restart, you want to keep the lead.”
On the restart, Castroneves maintained the inside line going into Turn 1 while Power moved to the outside lane. Both were side-by-side and while Castroneves’ No. 3 Team Penske machine twitched slightly to the left in order to set up for the right-hand Turn 3, it appeared that both drivers would stay on their collective paths. But Power went wide on the outside, enabling Dixon to scoot by him at the entrance of Turn 3.
Castroneves proclaimed innocence on the matter.
“I never moved my line,” he said. “I actually did move him outside. When you go side by side like that with your teammate and they just take it away from you, it’s just absurd.”
As for Barnhart’s decision, the key to why it was carried out may lie in what he said in Sunday morning’s closed-door driver meeting about blocking rules.
“You have plenty of options on where to put your car and we should not have any defending or blocking,” he said. “Again, we will be visually dividing the braking point through the entry into the corner in half.
“You can only be on the inside half if you are attempting to pass someone. If you are on the inside half because you are under attack from someone else, it is blocking. Don’t move your car in reaction to a following car and don’t impede the progress of a car with a run on you.”
In any case, the penalty ruined what would have been Castroneves’ second victory of 2010 — a win he seemed assured of getting after he was able to pass Power for the lead at the Turn 1-2 complex on Lap 78. His gap over Power stabilized at around one second until the caution flag came out on Lap 89 for Simona de Silvestro, who pulled off-course in Turn 7 after running out of fuel.
That yellow would set the stage for one of the more controversial calls in IZOD IndyCar Series history and a victory that Dixon admitted he wasn’t expecting. But he’ll take it, even if it wasn’t how he’d prefer to win a race.
“When I win, I want to win being faster or putting in a good pass on someone,” Dixon said. “The way our season is going, I’ll be taking anything at the moment.”
IZOD IndyCar Series
Honda Indy Edmonton
Official results
1. 9-Scott Dixon, Ganassi, led two laps, avg. of 101.666 m.p.h.
2. 12-Will Power, Penske, -2.6688 seconds
3. 10-Dario Franchitti, Ganassi, -3.2831 seconds
4. 6-Ryan Briscoe, Penske, -8.8652 seconds
5. 37-Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti, -11.1482 seconds
6. 15-Paul Tracy, KV Racing Tech., -11.9091 seconds
7. 32-Mario Moraes, KV Racing Tech., -16.9015 seconds
8. 8-E.J. Viso, KV Racing Tech., -18.2206 seconds
9. 5-Takuma Sato, KV Racing Tech., -21.5880 seconds
10. 3-Helio Castroneves, Penske, penalized for blocking
11. 26-Marco Andretti, Andretti, one lap down
12. 11-Tony Kanaan, Andretti, one lap down
13. 2-Raphael Matos, DFDragon, one lap down
14. 36-Bertrand Baguette, Conquest, one lap down
15. 7-Danica Patrick, Andretti, one lap down
16. 14-Vitor Meira, Foyt, two laps down
17. 06-Hideki Mutoh, Newman/Haas, two laps down
18. 19-Alex Lloyd, Coyne, three laps down
19. 24-Tomas Scheckter, Dreyer & Reinbold, five laps down
20. 4-Dan Wheldon, Panther, five laps down
21. 22-Justin Wilson, Dreyer & Reinbold, seven laps down
22. 78-Simona de Silvestro, HVM, out of fuel on Lap 87
23. 77-Alex Tagliani, FAZZT, contact on Lap 52
24. 34-Mario Romancini, Conquest, contact on Lap 52
25. 18-Milka Duno, Coyne, handling on Lap 4
Race Statistics
Time of race: One hour, 50 minutes, 37.0551 seconds; Winner’s average speed: 101.666 m.p.h.; Margin of victory: 2.6688 seconds; Cautions: Four for 10 laps; Lead changes: Four among three drivers; Lap leaders: Power 1 – 34, Dixon 35, Power 36-77. Castroneves 78-94, Dixon 95.
Point Standings
Power 420, Franchitti 370, Dixon 349, Briscoe 324, Hunter-Reay 316, Castroneves 305, Kanaan 291, Wilson 252, Andretti 244, Wheldon 243.
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All quotes used in this article were taken from the post-race press conference transcript and Sunday trackside report. Video credit: Versus/Indy Racing League.
