Kanaan Stays out of Trouble - Wins Richmond
Keeping his cool when almost all others were losing theirs on a hot, sultry Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway, Tony Kanaan dominated the second half of the SunTrust Indy Challenge, leading 166 of the 300 laps to score his first IndyCar Series triumph of 2008.
Kanaan’s strongest challenger through the first two-thirds of the contest was his Andretti Green Racing teammate Marco Andretti, who led 90 laps until his team elected to go “off sequence” in his pit stops due to the high number of cautions and the possibility of a rain-shortened event. However, the strategy backfired when the rain never came and the final 72 laps ran caution-free. As a result, Andretti was forced to make his final pit stop under green flag conditions and dropped off the lead lap, finishing ninth.
It was another typically successful weekend for Honda, engine supplier for the full IndyCar Series. A total of 26 Honda-powered drivers ran 6,400 miles of practice, qualifying and racing this weekend without a single engine-related failure reported.
The race was interrupted nine times by the caution flag, including seven for crashes that eliminated 10 of the 26 cars in the starting field, but all without injury to the drivers involved.
One of those to crash out was rookie Jamie Camara, who to that point was having his strongest race of the season for Conquest Racing, as the Brazilian came from his 24th starting position to lead the field for 44 laps during the middle stages of the race. Unfortunately, like several other drivers tonight, Camara lost control exiting Turn 4 on Lap 217 and made contact with the outside wall to end his night.
Almost five seconds behind Kanaan at the finish, Helio Castroneves came from 18th on the starting grid to finish second, his eighth top-five finish in nine races this year. The Team Penske driver remains second in the championship standings, 43 points behind leader Scott Dixon.
Meanwhile, Dixon passed his slowing Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Dan Wheldon, to finish third. KV Racing Technology’s Oriol Servia was the top-finishing former Champ Car driver, running fifth, with Danica Patrick rounding out the top six.
Next week, the IndyCar Series remains in the eastern U.S., but heads north to the Watkins Glen road course in upstate New York for the Camping World Grand Prix at the Glen on July 6.
Tony Kanaan (#11 Andretti Green Racing Honda) Started 1st, finished 1st, first win of 2008, 13th career IndyCar victory: “I feel bad about Marco [Andretti]. I think he had as good a car as I did and we worked very well together early in the race. But we did it. I want to dedicate this win to my son and to Robert Clarke, who is retiring and did a lot for me, and also all the guys from HPD. This shows the strength this team has. It was a great team effort tonight. We’re coming. Scott [Dixon]’s doing what he needs to do, but now we’re in the chase.”
Helio Castroneves (#3 Team Penske Honda) Started 18th, finished 2nd: “Wow! That’s the only thing I have to say. What a race! It was a lot of fun for us, we passed a lot of cars tonight. But probably not as much fun for a lot other people. We did not have the fastest car out there, but it was not the worst, either. My car was really good on new tires, but would start sliding around more and more as the run went on. AGR [Andretti Green Racing] was very consistent, and that’s what won them the race tonight. Second is definitely pretty darn good on a night like this one.”
