Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County Racing Report
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Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County Racing Report
Sonoma, CA - Aug 24 — Circuit: Infineon Raceway (2.30-mile road course) Sonoma, CA
2007 Winner: Scott Dixon (Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) 98.593 mph average
Weather: Sunny, warm, 84 degrees F
Race Results:
Fn. St. Driver Team Chassis Laps Average Speed/Notes 1. 1. Helio Castroneves Team Penske Honda Dallara 80 100.254 mph average, led 51 laps 2. 2. Ryan Briscoe Team Penske Honda Dallara 80 -5.2926 seconds, led 19 laps 3. 4. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green Racing Honda Dallara 80 -16.6032 seconds, led 1 lap 4. 16. Dan Wheldon Target Chip Ganassi Honda Dallara 80 -17.7720 seconds 5. 9. Danica Patrick Andretti Green Racing Honda Dallara 80 -25.8485 seconds 6. 14. E.J. Viso-R HVM Racing Honda Dallara 80 -29.3472 seconds, led 9 laps 7. 18. Vitor Meira Panther Racing Honda Dallara 80 -29.9895 seconds 8. 15. Graham Rahal-R Newman Haas Lanigan Honda Dallara 80 -40.4577 seconds 9. 7. Justin Wilson-R Newman Haas Lanigan Honda Dallara 80 -42.0357 seconds 10. 12. Mario Moraes-R Dale Coyne Racing Honda Dallara 80 -50.0106 seconds 11. 22. Buddy Ruce Dreyer & Reinbold Honda Dallara 80 -55.0361 seconds 12. 5. Scott Dixon Target Chip Ganassi Honda Dallara 80 -55.7145 seconds 13. 20. Hideki Mutoh-R Andretti Green Racing Honda Dallara 80 -56.3186 seconds 14. 10. Marco Andretti Andretti Green Racing Honda Dallara 80 -57.5400 seconds 15. 6. Oriol Servia KV Racing Technologies Honda Dallara 80 -58.3690 seconds 16. 11. Mario Dominguez-R Pacific Coast Mtrsprts Honda Dallara 80 -60.7387 seconds 17. 13. Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne Racing Honda Dallara 80 -60.9454 seconds 18. 8. Ryan Hunter-Reay Rahal Letterman Racing Honda Dallara 80 -60.9466 seconds 19. 19. Townsend Bell Dreyer & Reinbold Honda Dallara 79 Running 20. 24. A.J. Foyt IV Vision Racing Honda Dallara 79 Running 21. 27. Enrique Bernoldi-R Conquest Racing Honda Dallara 79 Running 22. 21. Darren Manning A.J. Foyt Racing Honda Dallara 79 Running 23. 23. Ed Carpenter Vision Racing Honda Dallara 78 Running 24. 26. Jaime Camara-R Conquest Racing Honda Dallara 78 Running 25. 3. Will Power-R KV Racing Technologies Honda Dallara 77 Running 26. 25. Marty Roth Roth Racing Honda Dallara 76 Running 27. 17. Tomas Scheckter Luczo Dragon Racing Honda Dallara 24 Did not finish - mechanical R - Series Rookie
Penske Perfect at Sonoma
Helio Castroneves did exactly what he had to Sunday at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, winning the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County and leading the most laps to keep his IndyCar Series championship hopes alive and close the gap to points leader Scott Dixon from 78 to 43 with two races remaining.
Castroneves' win was his first of 2008, ending a 29 race drought. The Team Penske driver previously had kept his championship fight alive through consistency, having finished out of the top five only twice this year. Castroneves has finished second a total of seven times in 2008, adding one third, three fourths and a fifth.
In today's 80-lap event on the twisty, hilly Infineon road course, an early caution flag on Lap 15 led to teams using one of three different pit strategies. The middle group, which included Castroneves and Dixon, proved to be the right call as the race ran caution-free for the remainder of the day. But Dixon's efforts were repeatedly blunted by slower traffic, dropping him to an uncharacteristic 12th-place finish.
On a track where a driver shifts more than 3,000 times in an 80-lap race, 27 drivers completed 10,874 miles this weekend at Infineon Raceway, without a single failure for the Honda Indy V-8 engine used by all competitors in the IndyCar Series. So far this season, the IndyCar field has completed 209,351 miles without a single race-day failure, extending a record-setting season for Honda, dating to when the manufacturer started supplying the entire IndyCar field in 2006.
Behind Castroneves, the group led by his Team Penske partner, Ryan Briscoe, and Andretti Green Racing's Tony Kanaan appeared to be in the best position. Briscoe duly followed his teammate across the finish line in second, while Kanaan was occupied in the final laps blunting the advances of Dan Wheldon to finish third. Kanaan and Wheldon entered the race weekend here with slim championship hopes, but both have now been mathematically eliminated from title contention.
Finishing fifth, Danica Patrick had her best road-racing result of the season, as did rookie E.J. Viso in sixth for HVM Racing. The IndyCar Series continues its three-week championship-concluding run with the final street-circuit event of the season, the Labor Day weekend Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix, on August 31; followed by the season-ending Peak Antifreeze Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway on September 7.
IndyCar Series Drivers' Championship Standings (after 16 of 18 races):
1. Scott Dixon 576 points (6 wins) 7. Marco Andretti 327 points 2. Helio Castroneves 533 (1 win) 8. Hideki Mutoh-R 315 3. Dan Wheldon 452 (2 wins) 9. Oriol Servia 313 4. Tony Kanaan 446 (1 win) 10. Ryan Hunter-Reay 310 5. Ryan Briscoe 390 (2 wins) 11. Vitor Meira 301 6. Danica Patrick 345 (1 win) 12. Ed Carpenter 294 Helio Castroneves (#3 Team Penske Honda) Started 1st, finished 1st, his first win of 2008 and 13th career victory, the first IndyCar driver to win at Infineon from pole since the series began racing here in 2005: "I've been looking forward to this [winning] for sooooo long! This has been such an incredible week for us, with the problems we had earlier [a transporter fire en route to the event]. But the team responded in an incredible fashion. Everyone pitched in, even guys from our NASCAR and ALMS teams, so that we could race here this weekend. We never lost faith. It was hard, really hard, racing today, but it also was really fun. TC [team manager Tim Cindric] called a perfect race for me. He kept telling me to "push, push' and that's exactly what I did!."
Scott Dixon (#9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) Started 5th, finished 12th, maintains a 43-point championship lead with two races remaining: "It wasn't a very good race for us today. We did nothing right, staying out on track while stuck behind a car that was three seconds a lap slower than us. We still have a good lead in the championship, but we can't afford another race like this one next week in Detroit."
Erik Berkman (President, Honda Performance Development) on today's race: "It was an interesting race from a tactical point of view, and I was impressed by the performance by the entire Team Penske organization this weekend, both in recovering from their transporter fire earlier in the week and the calls made in the race today. Congratulations to them for a 1-2 finish, and to Helio Castroneves for his excellent victory today."
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2007 Winner: Scott Dixon (Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) 98.593 mph average
Weather: Sunny, warm, 84 degrees F
Race Results:
Fn. St. Driver Team Chassis Laps Average Speed/Notes 1. 1. Helio Castroneves Team Penske Honda Dallara 80 100.254 mph average, led 51 laps 2. 2. Ryan Briscoe Team Penske Honda Dallara 80 -5.2926 seconds, led 19 laps 3. 4. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green Racing Honda Dallara 80 -16.6032 seconds, led 1 lap 4. 16. Dan Wheldon Target Chip Ganassi Honda Dallara 80 -17.7720 seconds 5. 9. Danica Patrick Andretti Green Racing Honda Dallara 80 -25.8485 seconds 6. 14. E.J. Viso-R HVM Racing Honda Dallara 80 -29.3472 seconds, led 9 laps 7. 18. Vitor Meira Panther Racing Honda Dallara 80 -29.9895 seconds 8. 15. Graham Rahal-R Newman Haas Lanigan Honda Dallara 80 -40.4577 seconds 9. 7. Justin Wilson-R Newman Haas Lanigan Honda Dallara 80 -42.0357 seconds 10. 12. Mario Moraes-R Dale Coyne Racing Honda Dallara 80 -50.0106 seconds 11. 22. Buddy Ruce Dreyer & Reinbold Honda Dallara 80 -55.0361 seconds 12. 5. Scott Dixon Target Chip Ganassi Honda Dallara 80 -55.7145 seconds 13. 20. Hideki Mutoh-R Andretti Green Racing Honda Dallara 80 -56.3186 seconds 14. 10. Marco Andretti Andretti Green Racing Honda Dallara 80 -57.5400 seconds 15. 6. Oriol Servia KV Racing Technologies Honda Dallara 80 -58.3690 seconds 16. 11. Mario Dominguez-R Pacific Coast Mtrsprts Honda Dallara 80 -60.7387 seconds 17. 13. Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne Racing Honda Dallara 80 -60.9454 seconds 18. 8. Ryan Hunter-Reay Rahal Letterman Racing Honda Dallara 80 -60.9466 seconds 19. 19. Townsend Bell Dreyer & Reinbold Honda Dallara 79 Running 20. 24. A.J. Foyt IV Vision Racing Honda Dallara 79 Running 21. 27. Enrique Bernoldi-R Conquest Racing Honda Dallara 79 Running 22. 21. Darren Manning A.J. Foyt Racing Honda Dallara 79 Running 23. 23. Ed Carpenter Vision Racing Honda Dallara 78 Running 24. 26. Jaime Camara-R Conquest Racing Honda Dallara 78 Running 25. 3. Will Power-R KV Racing Technologies Honda Dallara 77 Running 26. 25. Marty Roth Roth Racing Honda Dallara 76 Running 27. 17. Tomas Scheckter Luczo Dragon Racing Honda Dallara 24 Did not finish - mechanical R - Series Rookie
Penske Perfect at Sonoma
Helio Castroneves did exactly what he had to Sunday at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, winning the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County and leading the most laps to keep his IndyCar Series championship hopes alive and close the gap to points leader Scott Dixon from 78 to 43 with two races remaining.
Castroneves' win was his first of 2008, ending a 29 race drought. The Team Penske driver previously had kept his championship fight alive through consistency, having finished out of the top five only twice this year. Castroneves has finished second a total of seven times in 2008, adding one third, three fourths and a fifth.
In today's 80-lap event on the twisty, hilly Infineon road course, an early caution flag on Lap 15 led to teams using one of three different pit strategies. The middle group, which included Castroneves and Dixon, proved to be the right call as the race ran caution-free for the remainder of the day. But Dixon's efforts were repeatedly blunted by slower traffic, dropping him to an uncharacteristic 12th-place finish.
On a track where a driver shifts more than 3,000 times in an 80-lap race, 27 drivers completed 10,874 miles this weekend at Infineon Raceway, without a single failure for the Honda Indy V-8 engine used by all competitors in the IndyCar Series. So far this season, the IndyCar field has completed 209,351 miles without a single race-day failure, extending a record-setting season for Honda, dating to when the manufacturer started supplying the entire IndyCar field in 2006.
Behind Castroneves, the group led by his Team Penske partner, Ryan Briscoe, and Andretti Green Racing's Tony Kanaan appeared to be in the best position. Briscoe duly followed his teammate across the finish line in second, while Kanaan was occupied in the final laps blunting the advances of Dan Wheldon to finish third. Kanaan and Wheldon entered the race weekend here with slim championship hopes, but both have now been mathematically eliminated from title contention.
Finishing fifth, Danica Patrick had her best road-racing result of the season, as did rookie E.J. Viso in sixth for HVM Racing. The IndyCar Series continues its three-week championship-concluding run with the final street-circuit event of the season, the Labor Day weekend Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix, on August 31; followed by the season-ending Peak Antifreeze Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway on September 7.
IndyCar Series Drivers' Championship Standings (after 16 of 18 races):
1. Scott Dixon 576 points (6 wins) 7. Marco Andretti 327 points 2. Helio Castroneves 533 (1 win) 8. Hideki Mutoh-R 315 3. Dan Wheldon 452 (2 wins) 9. Oriol Servia 313 4. Tony Kanaan 446 (1 win) 10. Ryan Hunter-Reay 310 5. Ryan Briscoe 390 (2 wins) 11. Vitor Meira 301 6. Danica Patrick 345 (1 win) 12. Ed Carpenter 294 Helio Castroneves (#3 Team Penske Honda) Started 1st, finished 1st, his first win of 2008 and 13th career victory, the first IndyCar driver to win at Infineon from pole since the series began racing here in 2005: "I've been looking forward to this [winning] for sooooo long! This has been such an incredible week for us, with the problems we had earlier [a transporter fire en route to the event]. But the team responded in an incredible fashion. Everyone pitched in, even guys from our NASCAR and ALMS teams, so that we could race here this weekend. We never lost faith. It was hard, really hard, racing today, but it also was really fun. TC [team manager Tim Cindric] called a perfect race for me. He kept telling me to "push, push' and that's exactly what I did!."
Scott Dixon (#9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) Started 5th, finished 12th, maintains a 43-point championship lead with two races remaining: "It wasn't a very good race for us today. We did nothing right, staying out on track while stuck behind a car that was three seconds a lap slower than us. We still have a good lead in the championship, but we can't afford another race like this one next week in Detroit."
Erik Berkman (President, Honda Performance Development) on today's race: "It was an interesting race from a tactical point of view, and I was impressed by the performance by the entire Team Penske organization this weekend, both in recovering from their transporter fire earlier in the week and the calls made in the race today. Congratulations to them for a 1-2 finish, and to Helio Castroneves for his excellent victory today."
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