Pos Driver Team Time 1. Helio Castroneves Penske 1:50:15.8282 2. Ryan Briscoe Penske + 5.2926 3. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green + 16.6032 4. Dan Wheldon Ganassi + 17.7720 5. Danica Patrick Andretti Green + 25.8458 6. E.J. Viso HVM + 29.3472 7. Vitor Meira Panther + 29.9895 8. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan + 40.4577 9. Justin Wilson Newman/Haas/Lanigan + 42.0357 10. Mario Moraes Dale Coyne + 50.0106 11. Buddy Rice Dreyer & Reinbold + 55.0361 12. Scott Dixon Ganassi + 55.7145 13. Hideki Mutoh Andretti Green + 56.3186 14. Marco Andretti Andretti Green + 57.5400 15. Oriol Servia KV + 58.3690 16. Mario Dominguez Pacific Coast + 1:00.7387 17. Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne + 1:00.9454 18. Ryan Hunter-Reay Rahal Letterman + 1:00.9466 19. Townsend Bell Dreyer & Reinbold + 1 lap 20. A.J. Foyt IV Vision + 1 lap 21. Enrique Bernoldi Conquest + 1 lap 22. Darren Manning Foyt + 1 lap 23. Ed Carpenter Vision + 2 laps 24. Jaime Camara Conquest + 2 laps 25. Will Power KV + 3 laps 26. Marty Roth Roth + 4 laps 27. Tomas Scheckter Luczo Dragon + 24 laps
Kudos to Helio & Ryan, and all of team Penske, for an unbelievable recovery from the trailer fire (and yes I have to eat my words as Roger specifically thanked Chipster for lending a hand). Not a particularly exciting race, Helio was on pole, led the most laps, set fastest lap, won the race. But Dixon finished 12th...which almost cut his points lead in half. That will make things interesting with two races to go! Also, Danica drove a nice quiet race, no drama, no hissy fits, and finished 5th (her best road course finish of the year). I hope she learns the lesson in that!
They only had one caution flag when Roth spun, but was right back out quickly after the safety crew got him restarted. Nice road course. Wish it was wider in spots to allow more passing opportunties. Still, when the driver's would bunch up, they'd go for it when possible without really forcing anything dangerous. Congrats to the whole Penske crew. Job well done. They did this back when they had the flood. Looks like they really thrive on adversity. Maybe Roger needs to throw something like this at them every week. j/k
Didn't get to see the race unfortunately but a great job by Penske and about time for Helio! Still no chance at the championship imo but at least this adds some excitement.
they'll be burning stuff down left and right! They said on the ESPN broadcast that Helio's car in the fire was also submerged in the flood back in PA. What are the odds? And can I get a carfax on that chassis number?
Definitely adds to the excitement, but don't write him off yet. He's only down 43 points and he has seven 2nd place finishes this year. That's a serious CONSISTENT record!!! If something goes wrong with Dixon, and we all know things happen, then he could actually stand a chance. I'd like to see the comeback happen in the finally minutes of the last race just for the drama of it all. There are still a number of drivers biting at the bit for their first win and the season is rapidly closing, so watch for some overally aggressive driving. Detroit's concrete walls will not allow the same mistakes as Sonoma did with it's dirt runouts. Scott has done an excellent job this year and so far deserves the title. Still, its Helio, just love the guy's energy and driving. So either way it falls, I think well done to both teams for being in this. Too bad TK was mathmatically ruled out of the championship with this last finish. It'd been great to have this close and coming down to more than just two.
It was a boat race in some pretty hot weather. Penske was utterly dominant, while Ganassi completely fouled up Dixon's race strategy. Weldon went from 16 to 4, while Dixon slipped from 6 to 12. Bad pit stops and too much gambling on the safety car. It was a pretty boring race. Fortunately, the traffic back to SFO wasn't too bad though.
Totally agree, I'll be happy with whoever brings home the championship, though I would like to see Helio finally get one. Even though he only has one win I think this is his best season ever, would have been nice to see some of this consistency with the greater amount of wins he has had in past seasons.
