(from autosport) Tony Kanaan finally took his first victory of the 2008 IRL IndyCar Series season by winning from pole on an extremely destructive evening at Richmond. The race saw a total of nine cautions, mostly compacted into the event's disjointed first half, with only 10 cars completing the distance without damage. Penske's Helio Castroneves recovered from his poor qualifying to take second, as series leader Scott Dixon completed the podium ahead of his Ganassi teammate Dan Wheldon, whose car faltered - apparently out of fuel - at the final corner, costing him third. But while Andretti Green Racing could celebrate Kanaan's win, they missed out on a potential one-two when Marco Andretti lost ground by pitting under green having led much of the race, leaving the young American ninth at the flag. The opening laps set the tone for the chaos that followed, with the yellow emerging immediately for Ryan Hunter-Reay's harmless spin at the tail of the field. No sooner had the race resumed on lap six than the pace car was out again after Will Power lost control while being passed by Helio Castroneves and slammed into the wall. The field managed nine laps of green between this incident and a tangle between John Andretti and AJ Foyt IV on lap 24. While Andretti continued unscathed, Foyt hit the wall and threw debris into the path of his Vision Racing teammate Ed Carpenter, who required a long stop for suspension repairs. A prolonged green stint then followed at last, with Kanaan leading Marco Andretti, Graham Rahal and Dixon in a close lead battle. They all pitted during the lap 68 caution for debris, allowing Conquest's Jaime Camara and AGR's Danica Patrick to move to the front of the field, having both stopped out of sequence under earlier yellows. Kanaan rejoined third, with Castroneves up to fourth from 18th on the grid thanks to a superb early charge and a very rapid stop. Another plethora of yellows then followed, as at the restart Buddy Rice spun his Dreyer & Reinbold car into the wall and out of a strong seventh place, and then Ryan Briscoe tangled with both Darren Manning and Bruno Junqueira in the middle of the pack. The next attempt at a restart was equally unsuccessful, with John Andretti having his second collision of the evening - this time eliminating both himself and Vitor Meira. Patrick chose to pit under this yellow, while Marco Andretti had jumped Castroneves at the previous restart and then passed both Kanaan and Camara in quick succession once racing resumed in earnest, hitting the front of lap 116 and quickly pulling away. Andretti then decided not to stop when the pace car emerged yet again on lap 131 after Rahal crashed out of seventh place, whereas most of the rest of the field pitted under either this caution or the one that followed soon after when Hunter-Reay and Mario Moraes tangled just after the restart. That kept Andretti at the front of the field, but left him out of sequence compared to the chasing Kanaan, Castroneves and Camara. The American continued to edge away from the pack and hoped to stretch his fuel load to the next yellow, only for the race to finally run uninterrupted for a lengthy period. Andretti ultimately had to stop under green on lap 204, losing a lap in the process. His hopes depended on the rest of the leaders also having to pit under green, but 14 laps later Camara crashed out of his superb third place, allowing everyone else to stop under the resultant yellow - although Andretti at least managed to get back on the lead lap when waved around by the pace car. The race then ran trouble-free for the final 71-lap run to the flag, with Kanaan calmly inching away from Castroneves to win by a comfortable five seconds. Behind the Ganassi duo, KV Racing's Oriol Servia had a strong race to fifth ahead of Patrick, Justin Wilson (Newman/Haas/Lanigan) and Townsend Bell (Dreyer & Reinbold), as Andretti found it hard to make progress in the final stint, falling a lap down again and having to settle for ninth. Full report to follow... Pos Driver Team Time 1. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green 300 laps 2. Helio Castroneves Penske + 4.7691 3. Scott Dixon Ganassi + 6.6504 4. Dan Wheldon Ganassi + 7.7270 5. Oriol Servia KV + 10.7701 6. Danica Patrick Andretti Green + 10.9198 7. Justin Wilson Newman/Haas/Lanigan + 16.3094 8. Townsend Bell Dreyer & Reinbold + 17.5175 9. Marco Andretti Andretti Green + 1 lap 10. EJ Viso HVM + 1 lap 11. Ed Carpenter Vision + 62 laps 12. Darren Manning Foyt + 65 laps 13. Hideki Mutoh Andretti Green + 80 laps 14. Jaime Camara Conquest + 83 laps 15. Ryan Briscoe Penske +142 laps 16. Ryan Hunter-Reay Rahal Letterman +157 laps 17. Mario Moraes Dale Coyne +157 laps 18. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan +169 laps 19. Marty Roth Roth +183 laps 20. Vitor Meira Panther +209 laps 21. John Andretti Roth +209 laps 22. Buddy Rice Dreyer & Reinbold +220 laps 23. Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne +222 laps 24. AJ Foyt IV Vision +271 laps 25. Will Power KV +292 laps 26. Enrique Bernoldi Conquest +294 laps
Congrats to Kanaan but that race was a farce. It's time the IRL introduce a 10 place grid penalty for avoidable contact just like F-1 does.
Camara was strong throughout in the #34 Conquest car as was Franck Perera when he was driving for Bachelart. Either someone has an eye for talent behind the wheel over there or they've acquired quite an engineer.
So is that why we rarely see any passing in F1? Its a race and by definition, they are all trying to cross the finish line first. At some point, passing must occur, otherwise it is just a parade...oh, that brings us back to F1, huh...
Not sure if this would work in oval racing and still be safe. But it is a thought. Most of the accidents at Richmond were single car events, putting on the power too soon coming out of a turn. But I agree with the point that at least there is passing in IRL, which exposes a car to a possible incident. From a racing perspective, that's what makes IRL and NASCAR more exciting to watch than F1. I hope that in 2009, F1 will provide some on-track passing on a regular basis, except at Monaco of course.
Gone when the Marlboro money officially runs out (they still "sponsor" Penske, but can only use logos not lettering)
I like short ovals too and I always look forward to Richmond but the way they were driving yesterday was crazy. A.J.Foyt, J. Andretti, M. Moraes and R. Briscoe caused multi car wrecks and four of the nine caution flags. I agree it's a tough track and there's little room for passing but good drivers adapt to the track and don't start using other cars as pinballs just to make a pass.
Marco's strategist should get the boot, not pitting when everyone else did made no sense at all, even if the yellows had worked differently.
Best time to see passing in IRL is to either go to a race live, or turn on the TV and actually watch. You have to pay attention though as it only occurs from the time the green flag drops at the start and the checkered is waved at the end...that and everywhere in the middle of those two events.
Problem is the short ovals tend to be on the narrow side. Makes for a two groove race at best. Have to say watching 3 wide try to make it happen at Richmond made me squirm. Good thing Helio backed off when he realized Danica wasn't going to. That would have been bad. Most problems at Richmond were as stated prior, getting on the gas too hard and losing the rearend. Yzee...you are from Ohio, been to KY Speedway? Track is wide enough and short too. Great place to watch a small oval live.
Selfishly I would have liked to see Helio win, but I also really like TK and he was in a class of his own. I was just waiting for a backmarker to spin and take him out! While the cautions were numerous, at least it kept the race close until the end.
