Dan Wheldon took advantage of Tomas Scheckter’s late-race misfortune to capture his second consecutive IRL IndyCar® Series victory at Twin Ring Motegi.
Wheldon, the driver of the No. 26 Klein Tools/Jim Beam Honda-powered Dallara inherited the lead on Lap 198 when Scheckter’s No. 4 Pennzoil Panther Dallara/Chevrolet/Firestone ran out of fuel while leading the 200-lap event.
When Helio Castroneves crashed on lap 199, Wheldon sealed his third win in four IndyCar Series starts this season.
Scott Sharp finished second, followed by Buddy Rice and rookie Danica Patrick, who recorded her career-best finish. Bryan Herta rounded out the top five.
POST-RACE QUOTES:
DAN WHELDON (No. 26 Klein Tools/Jim Beam Dallara/Honda/Firestone): “I think all in all, everybody did a really good job with getting the best out of what we had. Certainly, as my experience level builds, that is the one thing that is made more and more apparent to me: you don't necessarily have to have the fastest car or best car in traffic to win. You've just got to basically make the best of what you have. If you do that, chances arise like today. Obviously, you've got to give credit to Tomas Scheckter as well. He was pretty quick out front.”
SCOTT SHARP (No. 8 Delphi Dallara/Toyota/Firestone): “Very good day, obviously, for the Delphi team. You know, we've been very competitive this year, but in two of three races we've gotten knocked out by other cars. Put us a little behind in the points. I really wanted to come into -- this starts a stretch of races that I really like and I think the team's really strong at. It's great to get second place here.”
BUDDY RICE (No. 15 Rahal Letterman Racing Pioneer Argent Panoz/Honda/Firestone): “Our Pioneer/Argent crew had the strategy today. We knew it was going to be a fuel race and we played it out. That’s why I kept making pit stops late in the race with the yellow flags. We knew some of the leaders couldn’t make it to the end and you saw that today. I think I did one hundred pit stops but it paid off. I don’t know what was happening with (Tomas) Scheckter. We were both trying a lot of things and it was both of our faults. The IRL gave me a blocking penalty. Then I had to pit again after a rear tire puncture. I think I ran over some debris from one of the crashes. It was pretty wild out there at the start too. Once everything and everybody settled down the race got going and we were playing a conservative game with fuel. It’s obvious we haven’t had a good start to the season but this finish is good for the team entering Indy. We had a good test at Indy a few weeks ago and! I’m very excited to get back to the Speedway again. It still seems like the other day that we won that race. I know I am ready for it again now.”
DANICA PATRICK (No. 16 Pioneer/Argent Mortgage Honda Panoz Firestone): “The start was pretty exciting for me as I slid the car into turns one and three. I was able to hold off Sam and get into a rhythm. We had a good racecar today. You have to get the timing right entering the corners. I’m little upset at the end because we had to save so much fuel. But that also got us to the end. We knew we would have to save fuel throughout the race but it was frustrating as I was dropping back in the field. In the end, it paid off. Overall, it was a very good weekend by qualifying second and finishing fourth going to the Indy 500. It was a challenging race for the standpoint that you can’t always drive the car as hard as you would like. You have to have patience too. And our team did a great job with the calculations today. Some of the other teams did calculate as well as ours. That made a big difference in the end.”
BRYAN HERTA (No. 7 XM Satellite Radio Dallara/Honda/Firestone): "We were running up higher, and I had to let everybody go except for Dan (Wheldon) because we were trying to make it to the end. We were going to make it, but unfortunatley that yellow came up. I think maybe we could have picked up a few more spots. It was a difficult for the XM Satellite Radio team, but at least a top five.”
TOMAS SCHECKTER (No. 4 Pennzoil Panther Dallara/Chevrolet/Firestone): "We thought we were good on fuel, and didn't know we wouldn't make it until it was too late. It's a pity for everybody, our Panther guys, Pennzoil, Chevrolet and ROCKSTAR. It's too bad the race ended up this way, but we'll get it together for Indianapolis, and I look forward to my teammate (Tomas Enge) getting back on track. It hurts now because the car was unbelievable, and our Chevy power almost ruined the other engine manufacturer's party over here. I was almost flat through three and four simply because my engineering crew is awesome. And heading into Indianapolis the motorsports world knows that Chevy has come to win. Everybody associated with Panther Racing did a great job this entire weekend.”
DARREN MANNING (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Panoz/Toyota/Firestone): “The #10 Target Toyota had a really good run today especially at the end there. I could go pretty much where I needed to, and we got some really good runs on people in the last stint. It was a shame that we had to come in for a splash of fuel, but everyone was really close to empty and that last yellow really buggered us. I think we would have been able to move up a few more spots. We play to win, and that’s what we were going for. It was a good day and a positive way to head into the month of May.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Toyota/Firestone): “I was just trying to finish the race, and everything was going good. Suddenly the rear end escaped from me. I guess we hit some oil, and that's what made us finish into the wall. I'm very upset and disappointed. Hopefully we'll get it fixed for Indy.”
A.J. FOYT IV (No. 14 A.J. Foyt Racing Dallara/Toyota/Firestone): “We had a lot of downforce in the car. We really just wanted to finish this race. I thought when Hornish blew in front of me, it was over. I radioed in that there was oil all over, but I got through it and we finished in one piece. That was our goal today."
DARIO FRANCHITTI (No. 27 ArcaEx Dallara/Honda/Firestone): "The ArcaEx car was absolutely fantastic all day. Our only weak point was the restarts, but we seemed to be able to recover from those within a short number of laps. On the last restart, Dan got a good run and went on my inside. It was a pretty aggressive move by him but at the same point I could have backed out of it and I think I would have been able to pass him later. I made the mistake of trying to stay on the outside and got up in the marbles and that was it. "
TONY KANAAN (No. 11 Team 7-Eleven Dallara/Honda/Firestone): "It was not a lucky day for us. I don't like to say that we had bad luck, but we didn't have enough luck today to win the race. The 7-Eleven car was very strong and we were racing very hard. But it is what it is and we didn't get the win."
***
The next IndyCar Series race is the 89th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 29 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The race will be telecast by ABC at Noon (EDT) and broadcast by the IMS Radio Network. The race also will be available on XM Satellite Radio channel 152 “XM Extreme.” The next Menards Infiniti Pro Series race is the Futaba Freedom 100 on May 27 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The race will be telecast at 2 p.m. (EDT) on May 27.
Results Saturday of the Indy Japan 300 IRL IndyCar Series event April 30 at the 1.5-mile Twin Ring Motegi, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any) and money earned:
1. (5) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 200, $148,600
2. (3) Scott Sharp, Panoz-Honda, 200, $125,250
3. (11) Buddy Rice, Panoz-Honda, 200, $103,250
4. (2) Danica Patrick, Panoz-Honda, 200, $83,700
5. (15) Bryan Herta, Dallara-Honda, 200, $76,500
6. (10) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 199, $67,700
7. (1) Sam Hornish Jr., Dallara-Toyota, 199, $75,800
8. (12) Darren Manning, Panoz-Toyota, 199, $64,200
9. (9) Kosuke Matsuura, Panoz-Honda, 199, $64,200
10. (6) Tomas Scheckter, Dallara-Chevrolet, 198, $62,400
11. (4) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Toyota, 198, Accident, $60,500
12. (13) Ryan Briscoe, Panoz-Toyota, 197, $58,900
13. (14) Patrick Carpentier, Dallara-Toyota, 196, $57,200
14. (19) A.J. Foyt IV, Dallara-Toyota, 196, $55,200
15. (7) Vitor Meira, Panoz-Honda, 166, , $53,500
16. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Toyota, 136, Accident, $51,900
17. (8) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 123, Accident, $60,000
18. (21) Roger Yasukawa, Dallara-Honda, 112, Mechanical, $50,000
19. (16) Alex Barron, Dallara-Toyota, 57, Mechanical, $48,200
20. (22) Paul Dana, Dallara-Toyota, 56, Suspension, $46,500
21. (17) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Toyota, 0, Accident, $46,500
22. (18) Jeff Bucknum, Dallara-Honda, 0, Accident, $16,500
23. (23) Tomas Enge, Dallara-Chevrolet, 0, Did not start, $46,500
Race Statistics
Winner's average speed: 133.364 mph
Time of race: 02:16:46.0711
Margin of victory: 3.4612 seconds
Cautions: 8 for 59 laps
Lead changes: 10
Lap leaders: Patrick 1-18, Hornish Jr. 19-32, Patrick 33-46, Franchitti 47-61, Herta 62-66, Franchitti 67-75, Kanaan 76-79, Franchitti 80-122, Wheldon 123-150, Scheckter 151-197, Wheldon 198-200.
Point standings: Wheldon 184, Kanaan 138, Hornish 131, Herta 104, Castroneves 101, Sharp 99, Manning 98, Meira 96, Franchitti 95, Carpentier 89.
