Andretti Green Racing driver Tony Kanaan passed teammate Dan Wheldon for the lead on a Lap 181 restart and held off Sam Hornish Jr.’s pass attempt on the final lap to win the Firestone Indy 200 at Nashville Superspeedway on July 17.
It was the third victory of the season for Kanaan, the IRL IndyCar® Series points leader who started fifth in this race.
“I was concerned, but I knew we were strong, and I just needed to hold (Sam Hornish Jr.) up, and that is what I did,” said Kanaan, who leads Wheldon by 61 points. “We did struggle in the beginning, and we were struggling a little bit in the end, too. To capitalize, I had to finish in the top three, and they gave me the win, so I’ll take it.”
Hornish Jr. was second and his Marlboro Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves finished third.
They were followed to the finish line by Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Darren Manning and Townsend Bell, who was making his second start in the No. 2 Menards/Johns Manville Dallara/Chevrolet/Firestone.
Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice, who won the MBNA Pole Award, finished sixth after making contact with Wheldon on Lap 176.
Rice's Rahal Letterman Racing teammate Vitor Meira, who started on the front row, led the first 113 laps. But he stalled the No. 17 Rahal Letterman Racing Team Centrix Panoz G Force/Honda/Firestone during a pit stop. He finished 12th.
“I think (teammate) Vitor Meira and I had the strongest cars, but the best cars don’t always win, like tonight,” Rice said. “We’ll regroup and get prepared for Milwaukee and Michigan. I know we’ll be right at the front again at those places.”
TOP 10 IN INDYCAR SERIES POINTS:
1. Tony Kanaan 325
2. Dan Wheldon 264
3. Buddy Rice 253
4. Helio Castroneves 242
5. Sam Hornish Jr. 200
6. Scott Dixon 188
7. Darren Manning 187
8. Bryan Herta 177
9. Dario Franchitti 173
10. Vitor Meira 170
FIRESTONE INDY 200 POST-RACE QUOTES:
TONY KANAAN (No. 11 Team 7-Eleven Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “I was concerned, but I knew we were strong, and I just needed to hold (Sam Hornish Jr.) up, and that is what I did. We did struggle in the beginning, and we were struggling a little bit in the end, too. To capitalize, I had to finish in the top three, and they gave me the win, so I’ll take it. Everybody was driving aggressive, including myself. I saw some crazy stuff going on, but races like this where it is tough to pass, people race hard.”
SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Toyota/Firestone): “It was the last lap, and I knew if I didn't make it work that I would have to get way out of the throttle and that someone might get a run on me, so I wanted to save it. I just didn't get the job done, the Marlboro Team Penske guys did an awesome job for me in the pits and made sure I got in and out, and I don't think we lost a position, at least, from anyone that took tires and fuel. It does a lot for us, none of us got depressed, and none of us got down in the dumps and thought we didn't have a chance to come back. We are just trying to turn it around piece-by-piece and get a little more all the time. It's coming in our direction but just not quite there yet.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Toyota/Firestone): “I had a little push, and unfortunately, my gears were a little bit different. I tried to go a little different than Sam, and it paid off for him. But it was one hell of a race. Some of those guys are pretty aggressive, but that’s what makes things exciting. We made it to the end, and we are happy with a third. My guys in the pit stops, they are awesome. I love those guys. I believe it was a car handling (race), but we can not take the hard work away from Toyota, so hopefully step-by-step we are getting closer.”
DAN WHELDON (No. 26 Klein Tools/Jim Beam Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “It’s just a disappointing result. The Klein Tools/Jim Beam boys did a great job in the pits and the strategy was good. I just got together with (Buddy) Rice and I’m disappointed from that standpoint. But, the guys did a good tonight – a very good job.” (Are you surprised you didn’t wreck during the contact with Buddy?): “You know if you hit the wall that you’re going to lose some serious points, so you just try and keep it off there. Maybe it was more luck than judgment.”
BUDDY RICE (No. 15 Rahal Letterman Racing Pioneer Argent Panoz G Force/Honda/ Firestone): “We raced side-by-side at Kansas for many laps with no problems. Obviously, (Dan Wheldon) didn’t want me to go to the inside, and he pushed my car onto the apron. We touched. We should have had a solid finish tonight, but there are some people who think otherwise. I think there should have been racing room and they didn’t want to give any. That’s the way it goes. I think (teammate) Vitor Meira and I had the strongest cars, but the best cars don’t always win, like tonight. We’ll regroup and get prepared for Milwaukee and Michigan. I know we’ll be right at the front again at those places. It’s a disappointment because this car has been good here and in Texas and we lost valuable points with unfortunate incidents. Vitor was so fast, and he had the car tonight. He had some mechanical issues, and we were in position to win. The IRL did a good job in sweeping marbles out of the way on the caution flags. That helped racing side-by-side tonight.”
BRYAN HERTA: (No. 7 XM Satellite Radio Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “I don't know (what happened), two guys went side-by-side up ahead of me in that pack. Everyone checked up and slowed down. When I came up on them, I just lost the front. And once I got up in the marbles, I slid right up into the wall.”
TOWNSEND BELL (No. 2 Menards/Johns Manville Racing Dallara/Chevrolet/ Firestone): “These guys really needed and deserved this finish (fifth). When the chips are down, you need to be patient and not do anything drastic. It was pretty busy that last 50 laps, and we had a few close calls, but really wanted to keep the Menards/Johns Manville car out of trouble. The Panther Racing guys did an amazing job in the pits. We moved up the grid on every stop. Our Chevrolet has been this good all season. We've just run into a lot of bad luck.”
VITOR MEIRA (No. 17 Rahal Letterman Racing Team Centrix Panoz G Force/Honda/ Firestone): “We had a misunderstanding in the pits, and we made some mistakes. Everyone here knew the Centrix Honda was the car to beat. (Teammate) Buddy (Rice) and I ran away from the rest of the pack, but things don’t always go your way. Everyone is human, and you make mistakes. This Rahal Letterman team is good, and we’ll be back at the front of the field again. I’m disappointed of course. Again, Honda won and that is very good. We just thought we could do it for them. I got stuck in fourth gear on the last 20 laps and couldn’t hold off the field. I was running in fourth on the restart, and then they drove around me. Overall, we lost the race tonight, and I am disappointed about that.”
DARREN MANNING (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Panoz G Force/Toyota/ Firestone): “It was so up and down. I had such a great car. I could run wherever I wanted. I was just taking my time. The Toyota has been strong. In the race, I could hold my own with anybody. I was going high. It was tough to pass. You had to have a good car on the high line, and the high line is where we've really found some speed in all these races. With 20 laps to go, I went on the outside of everybody. It was great. I thought I was going to come out in the lead if we had kept going.”
SCOTT DIXON (No. 1 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Panoz G Force/Toyota/ Firestone): “Considering some of the challenges we overcame throughout the race, I’ll take the eighth-place finish. I realized that I had lost my clutch during that first yellow. The Target crew did a good job trying to get me out fast on each pit stop but we lost some precious positions. I had a fair amount of understeer in traffic but the Toyota/Panoz G Force improved throughout the race and we were able to race when we needed to. We took a gamble not to change our tires on the third stop and I made up a few positions that way, but on the last restart I could see that the left rear was getting down to the cords so we came in for new tires. All in all we’re happy with our effort. We’ll take all the positives from this weekend and get set to improve on this result in Milwaukee.”
MARK TAYLOR (No. 13 Access Motorsports Panoz G Force/Honda/Firestone): “Absolutely happy to finish, that was the main game this weekend. Of course, with a new team, it's always going to be a little bit tougher. We've got a fair bit to work on for next race, but it was a great finish. We just had a bit of luck on our side, and if we just had a little more time, we could have been even further up. So we're delighted to get a finish, and delighted with the result.”
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ (No. 5 Quaker State Telmex Tecate Panoz G Force/Honda/ Firestone): “I had a good car, and we had a good strategy on old tires. We didn’t change tires on our second pit stop and moved up to the front. We were running fourth, but I was really suffering on the restarts. I don’t know what happened, but every time on a restart I was losing positions dramatically. We have to investigate what the problem is, because it was pretty obvious. A few times I anticipated the restart, and I still got beat. There were also a few accidents in front of me where I lost some positions, but we lost most of our positions on the restarts. It was really a frustrating day.”
KOSUKE MATSUURA (No. 55 Panasonic ARTA Panoz G Force/Honda/Firestone): “First of all, I am very happy to finish this race. The last three races were unlucky races. We had a few big problems tonight because I lost the radio after 30 laps. I was able to finish the race and not have contact with anybody which is very good because at this type of racetrack, it is difficult to go two wide. I also had a pit stop mistake, but the rest of the pit stops were really good. I think the team did a very good job and me also. When we lost the radio, it was very lonely and very difficult to drive on the restarts. I was able to finish in the top 10 which is very good."
JAQUES LAZIER (No. 20 Patrick Racing Dallara/Chevrolet/Firestone): “
Unfortunately, leaving the pits, we broke another axle. It's very unfortunate. We'll diagnose the problem and find out exactly what's going on. It's very unfortunate because during the last pit stop, we made some changes to the car, and everything was starting to come to us. It's really too bad because the Patrick Racing Stacker 2 Chevy was getting real good and strong, and we were looking forward to the end of the race.”
ED CARPENTER (No. 52 Red Bull Cheever Racing Dallara/Chevrolet/Firestone): “Vitor (Meira) went under me going into (Turn) 3. I was just respecting the leader and giving him a little room, but there is no second groove here. I went a little higher and tried to bring it back down. It just wasn't going to happen.”
TOMAS SCHECKTER (No. 4 Pennzoil Panther Dallara/Chevrolet/Firestone): “I just got a little bit high as someone got inside of me. At this track, once you try and bring it down low and wait for someone to get by, I became a passenger. I was going slow, and the car drives itself once it gets high”
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