IndyCar title fight takes a turn as Franchitti wins and Power fades at Chicagoland
Ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves a championship.
Will Power came into tonight’s Peak Antifreeze/Motor Oil Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway with a 59-point advantage and with just a few laps to go, he was sitting in third position. He may or may not have been able to catch leader and title rival Dario Franchitti, but he’d minimize the points hit he’d take.
But with five laps remaining, Power was victimized by a refueling issue that had emerged during his final stop of the night and caused his No. 12 Verizon Team Penske machine to not take a full tank of ethanol. He was forced to come to pit road and get enough fuel to make it to the finish, knocking him out of the hunt.
That left Franchitti to ward off the twin assaults of Dan Wheldon and Marco Andretti and claim his 26th American open-wheel racing victory. As a result of his win and Power’s fuel woes, the latter’s lead in the IZOD IndyCar Series championship is now down to 23 points going into next Saturday’s Kentucky Indy 300 (8 p.m. ET, Versus).
When Power conquered Infineon Raceway last weekend, it seemed like he had enough of a cushion to hang on in the final four events and win the 2010 IndyCar crown. That is no longer the case.
“I think we saw tonight, we see how quickly these things can change, especially on these one-and-a-half mile tracks,” said Franchitti. “We’re just going to keep going. It would have been easy to give up halfway through the race there when we were running in sort of 10th or whatever, and that’s how you get it done, and I’m lucky to be part of Team Target.
“I’ve been on the receiving end of getting beaten from them sometimes when they managed to pull things out of seemingly nowhere, so it was nice to be on the end of actually winning the thing tonight.”
Franchitti and his No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing team decided not to take new tires on their final stop at Lap 172, which helped enable the Scotsman to beat Power out of the pits. Shortly after that stop, word came that Power may not have gotten enough fuel to get through the final laps — a fear that was eventually realized.
Power was credited with a 16th place finish, but his confidence clearly remains high. He told an IMS Radio Network reporter after the race that he would win at Kentucky.
“[The refueling problem] was just a mistake that we couldn’t afford,” Power said. “This obviously makes things tougher for the championship, but we’re still in front and we proved how competitive we can be on the ovals. We’ll move on and we will work harder next week at Kentucky.”
Up to Lap 196, Power had a front-row seat to a dicey battle for second between Wheldon and Andretti that was eventually claimed by the former Indy 500 winner. It’s Wheldon’s first top-five finish since the Indianapolis 500.
“I tried to do what I did to Helio [Castroneves] in 2006 at Homestead to Dario, and I probably just dropped back a little bit too much to really get the run that I should have,” he said. “I probably mistimed it by 40 or 50 feet, so that was my bad. But I certainly utilized the two Push-to-Passes that I had left on the back stretch to start the white flag lap, and then as soon as that ran out, I hit it again. I just left it a bit too late.
“Like I said, I was about 40 or 50 feet wrong on my decision.”
Andretti came away with a podium finish after a night of riding the high groove successfully for the most part.
“…You know, if it didn’t work up there, I’m not sure if I would have been able to come from seventh because we lost a few in the pits, and obviously, some guys didn’t take tires,” he said. “So you know, we had to come from seventh, and I normally set my car up to run there because if you’re one of the few that can run up there, it’s normally clean air and you can just stay flat-out. If somebody is running on the white line, you can’t pass them, so [the high groove’s] the only way to pass them.”
Andretti and pole sitter Ryan Briscoe fought for the top spot during the first half of the race until Sarah Fisher stayed out under yellow at Lap 80 to take the lead. She held the lead at the Lap 90 restart, but lost it to Briscoe one lap later.
As Fisher battled a swarm of drivers to stay in second position, Briscoe pulled away from the two and three-wide antics behind him until Power and Franchitti managed to get by Fisher and set sail for the point.
On Lap 136, Briscoe relinquished the lead to Power for pit service. But instead of the lead cycling back to him after the green flag stops, it was Wheldon and Ryan Hunter-Reay that emerged up front.
Power then made a charge and battled for the lead with Wheldon and Andretti until Alex Lloyd spun out of Turn 4 and came to rest in the infield grass on Lap 169. This brought out a full-course yellow and set the stage for another tight Chicagoland finish.
The event featured plenty of wheel-to-wheel action that makes the fans happy but can also make the drivers cringe. Fourth-place finisher Hunter-Reay sounded off on questionable driving from some of his peers afterwards.
“I’m happy with a top four, but I’m upset with the way some guys drove,” the American said. “It was crazy out there. When you put 15 fast cars in a group that you could throw a king-sized blanket over, you’re going to have people who are [ticked] off. You can’t do everything right.”
His Andretti Autosport teammate Tony Kanaan echoed those sentiments.
“It’s great for the fans, but it’s hard to enjoy it as a driver,” said the former IndyCar champ, who placed fifth. “For most of the night, you’re in survival mode. Everybody is going to get mad at each other at one point or another in a race like this, because there is nowhere to hide.
“People were doing crazy things out there and it’s a bit upsetting.”
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IZOD IndyCar Series
Peak Indy 300
Chicagoland Speedway, Joliet, Ill.
Final results
1. 9-Dario Franchitti, Ganassi, avg. of 169.161 m.p.h., led 28 laps.
2. 4-Dan Wheldon, Panther, -.0423 of a second.
3. 26-Marco Andretti, Andretti, -.1051 of a second.
4. 37-Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti, -.1631 of a second.
5. 11-Tony Kanaan, Andretti, -.3408 of a second.
6. 3-Helio Castroneves, Penske, -.4868 of a second.
7. 22-Justin Wilson, D&R, -.5953 of a second.
8. 9-Scott Dixon, Ganassi, -.9137 of a second.
9. 14-Vitor Meira, Foyt, -.9588 of a second.
10. 02-Graham Rahal, Newman/Haas, -.9841 of a second.
11. 6-Ryan Briscoe, Penske, -1.0185 seconds.
12. 34-Bertrand Baguette, Conquest, -1.0833 seconds.
13. 06-Hideki Mutoh, Newman/Haas, -1.3042 seconds.
14. 7-Danica Patrick, Andretti, -1.5658 seconds.
15. 67-Sarah Fisher, Fisher, one lap down.
16. 12-Will Power, Penske, one lap down.
17. 32-Mario Moraes, KVRT, one lap down.
18. 21-Davey Hamilton, DFDragon, one lap down.
19. 18-Milka Duno, Coyne, one lap down.
20. 20-Ed Carpenter, Panther, 21 laps down, fuel.
21. 66-Jay Howard, Fisher, 38 laps down, handling.
22. 19-Alex Lloyd, Coyne, 38 laps down.
23. 78-Simona de Silvestro, HVM, 50 laps down, driveline.
24. 24-Ana Beatriz, D&R, 112 laps down, contact.
25. 77-Alex Tagliani, FAZZT, 115 laps down, contact.
26. 5-Takuma Sato, KVRT, 120 laps down, contact.
27. 8-E.J. Viso, KVRT, 120 laps down, contact.
28. 36-Tomas Scheckter, Conquest, 196 laps down, contact.
29. 2-Raphael Matos, DFDragon, 196 laps down, contact.
Point standings
1. 12-Will Power, 528.
2. 10-Dario Franchitti, 505.
3. 9-Scott Dixon, 443.
4. 6-Ryan Briscoe, 406.
5. 3-Helio Castroneves, 398.
6. 37-Ryan Hunter-Reay, 392.
7. 11-Tony Kanaan, 360.
8. 26-Marco Andretti, 319.
9. 22-Justin Wilson, 316.
10. 4-Dan Wheldon, 309.
Next race
Sept. 4 — Kentucky Indy 300, Kentucky Speedway, Sparta, Ky.
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All quotes in this article were taken from Saturday’s post-race press conference transcript and trackside report.
