( a race won on fuel strategy, how unusual) Wheldon uses pit gamble to win Iowa Dan Wheldon used a fuel gamble to take an unlikely victory for Ganassi at Iowa Speedway, ahead of Andretti Green's Hideki Mutoh and Marco Andretti. The Ganassi cars had not been a factor in the lead battle for most of the race, but the decision to leave Wheldon on track as most of the leaders pitted under a late yellow allowed the Briton to vault to the head of the field. He then had to conserve fuel to make it to the finish - running 90 laps on his last stint - but two further cautions in the final stint allowed Wheldon and fellow fuel gamblers Mutoh and Danica Patrick to stretch their fuel mileage to the end. Andretti was the highest finisher amongst those who made the extra pitstop, having jumped past Patrick and Scott Dixon in a single move at the final restart before hunting down Wheldon and Mutoh. He was unable to get around his rookie teammate, though, and had to settle for third ahead of Dixon and the impressive AJ Foyt IV, who carved through from 18th on the grid. Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves had dominated much of the race, and staged an astonishing side by side battle for much of the opening 25 laps. Neither would feature at the finish, however, with Kanaan crashing out of third while chasing Wheldon and Mutoh with 39 laps to go, and Castroneves finishing 14th after a late pitstop with a punctur Pos Driver Team Time 1. Dan Wheldon Ganassi 250 laps 2. Hideki Mutoh Andretti Green + 0.1430 3. Marco Andretti Andretti Green + 0.9028 4. Scott Dixon Ganassi + 1.2726 5. AJ Foyt IV Vision + 1.3564 6. Danica Patrick Andretti Green + 1.9115 7. Ryan Briscoe Penske + 3.9780 8. Ryan Hunter-Reay Rahal Letterman + 4.4888 9. Will Power KV + 5.6158 10. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan + 7.7886 11. John Andretti Roth + 8.4639 12. Justin Wilson Newman/Haas/Lanigan + 8.7225 13. EJ Viso HVM + 12.5775 14. Helio Castroneves Penske + 2 laps 15. Vitor Meira Panther + 2 laps 16. Oriol Servia KV + 3 laps 17. Enrique Bernoldi Conquest + 8 laps 18. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green + 39 laps 19. Mario Moraes Dale Coyne + 58 laps 20. Jamie Camara Conquest +117 laps 21. Darren Manning Foyt +156 laps 22. Buddy Rice Dreyer & Reinbold +172 laps 23. Ed Carpenter Vision +212 laps 24. Milka Duno Dreyer & Reinbold +224 laps
I especially liked Dan's interview about giving to others in need and the donation of winnings to the flood victims. Way to go Chip! ! ! and way to go Dan ! ! Carol
Despite the floods in Iowa, the stands looked quite full. I hope this is a good sign for the future of IRL.
It was a good race. Helio and Kannan had some great battles, great run to the finish between Mutoh and Marco, etc. The IRL needs to find ways to get fans in the seats, and a TV package that treats all the races with the respect a high-level professional series deserves (i.e. not pre-empting an already tape-delayed race for a Nationwide race). Seeing the crowd at Iowa was impressive.
I find open wheel cars on oval tracks to be the most boring form of motor sports imaginable, even worse than the weekly taxi cab race (NASCAR). Also, using spec cars and engines adds to the yawn factor. To make it actually interesting get rid of the spec cars/engines and only run road courses. Until then IRL is just NASCAR without fenders. (IMHO)
You just defined CART from a couple of years ago (Cannot recall if / when they went to a spec series as well) and you saw how well that worked (It didn't). F1 is my favorite and to be honest i watch GP2 before IRL for example but in America unfortunately it seems that the oval is king. I actually find the IRL racing to be more exciting then NASCAR. Different strokes..........
Scott Dixon also donated his winnings. Early on, they mentioned sold out crowd of 40,000. They need more stands. We were lucky here in Indy. Side by side showing of race during commercials and saw the whole race uninterupted. Sounds like the Driver's Only meeting at AGR had "some" effect on Marco. He was less dangerous in crowding fellow drivers. Early interviews with him though had him saying that he felt he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He's not willing to own up to mistakes.
Next year Toronto. Officials visiting tracks from Champ Car's old schedule. Most likely are Houston, Cleveland, and Mexico City. That's 4 road courses. What will they replace?
Curious if you have ever seen an open wheel race live at an oval? I have to admit I thought your way prior, but once I got the sound in my ears, the exhaust in my nose and the rumble in my chest while watching it live, I have been hooked on open wheel racing at ovals. Watching two cars battle at 220MPH while just inches apart, lots of passing. Just too cool in my book. I've watched F1 live as well. I go more to people watch than to watch the race. Too many turn into a parade of cars. Nice cars, but still a parade of cars. Hey...if we all liked the same thing, we'd all be stuck eatting vanilla ice cream and where would the fun be in that? Honda has stated they want competition. We'll have to wait for the next chassis and such that will be due out soon. I liked it better when there were choices. Chevy pulled out since they were having their fannies handed to them by the imports. Too embarassed to figure out how to go faster with better reliability, so they simply left.
Make your wish list bigger by adding races, not replacing. Could we be so lucky? Personally, I think they could drop Cleveland. Always felt that one was a bit contrived and the transitions between runways looked like back breakers with the bumps. Just doesn't look to be a fun course for drivers. Understand pretty good for fans though, and that's important.
+1 Well stated. I prefer road courses over ovals, but the oval races (including Nascar) are very good entertainment and contain far more passing (which is the #1 reason fans watch racing) than the F1 parade.
So what kind of racing to you watch? F1 is generally a bore, hardly any passing, so when Massa passes Heikki at Canada, the world goes crazy. At least on an oval you generally see good to great competition. I like them both, two different programs. You can not compare road racing and oval track racing. I hope the IRL sticks with ovals and does just a few road courses. IRL isn't F1, and should pretend to be. They put on a really good show on the ovals, as does NASCAR.
I perfer F1, ALMS, Grand Am-Rolex, Maxda series, euro sedan racing, etc. But as another poster said, it would be a boring world if we all liked the same thing.
Houston isn't an "add" it was bumped by the merger.. It'd be nice to finally see AJ's Team race at the Home Field, that was always weird in the CART/IRL days.... He doesn't care much for the street curcuits we have had though..... Fifth may be a new career finish for Anthony Foyt, IV??
Now wasn't that a pleasant surprise to AJ4 in the top 5? After watching him run for Grandpa, never thought he'd last this long, much less break into a top 5 finish. IMO, Vision was a good move for him. I really don't think he'd still be racing if running for Grandpa was his only option. Rahal, Foyt, Andretti...come on...we need an Unser back in the hunt again!!!
I was thinking that the other day...didn't Al Jr's son (mini Al) make it to Atlantics or Indy Lights a few years back? What happened to him? Lack of talent, lack of funding, or a combination thereof? Hyping legendary names even when they aren't performing has worked wonders for NASCAR...maybe that's what the IRL needs
Is anyone else freaked out by the way Wheldon looks now? If he caught me by surprise walking down the street looking like that, he might lose some of those crazy teeth of his!
Yeah, he looks like a cartoon version of himself...like he did a cameo on the Simpsons and it somehow came to life!
He's proud of his new dental work. Also wonder if he's trying to change his image to be more 'friendly' like Helio & TK. Their personalities and ability to drive have done wonders for their popularity. Finally, he's newly married...maybe he's getting a more frequent 'tension release'...that should put a smile on anyone's face.
The only thing I don't like is that in all this talk of road races added to the schedule no one mentions Road America
Let's hope the "newness" doesn't wear off so he won't resort back to his former grumpy, frustrated self. LOL!
You know what? This would make a good thread all on its own... Race Fan Suggestions for Tracks IRL should use Tracks include Oval, Road & Street List tracks you would like to see used and state why. List tracks you do not like and state why. Time to start a new thread. Should have some really interesting responses/discussions/arguments.
