In the first practice at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the MoveThatBlock.com Indy 225 on Thursday, Dario Franchitti led the way with a lap of 21.5665 seconds (171.099mph).
“My first order of business today was to learn the track and the first run felt good,” Franchitti said. “It is definitely a lot easier to learn a place when the car is doing what you want it to. I think we are in good shape now and we will be chasing the track a little bit. We’ll see if we can continue this form into the weekend.”
His lap is only a tenth off of the record at New Hampshire, which was set by Andrew Riberio in 1995 at a lap of 21.466 seconds. Ribeiro is now the manager for series driver Ana Beatriz.
Franchitti’s Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon was in second (21.6204 seconds), followed by Graham Rahal (21.6644).
“The car felt good today,” Dixon said. “We struggled at the beginning of the day with a few set-up changes we had to go through. Traffic is chaotic here because it seems like some cars are very slow and you catch them fast. So must of the challenge is dealing with that. We spent a lot of time on working on the race car and I feel pretty comfortable now. The Target cars were quick today and so was Graham (Rahal) so we are in good shape for now but we will see what happens Saturday and Sunday.”
KV Racing Technology-Lotus teammates Tony Kanaan (21.7368) and Taku Sato (21.7713) rounded out the top five. The top 10 in the 27-car lineup were separated by less than four-tenths of a second.
“We had a pretty solid day today,” Kanaan said. “We took our time to go out in the morning practice, but we were fast right away and kept improving the car during the afternoon run. I think that there are some minor tweaks that we can try on Saturday before qualifying to see if we can get the car a little bit faster, but overall I’m happy with how the day went.”
“It was a good first day,” Sato said. “We ran a lot of miles and I learned a lot. This track is quite unique, but we were up to speed very quickly and worked on various things. It was a very productive day.”
During the session, Pippa Mann made significant contact with the wall, however was cleared to drive for the rest of the weekend by medical staff.
“We worked very hard throughout the morning on making the car better and the RLL guys made some really good changes to the car that felt like they were going to help us,” she said. “We found some grip and some stability and were working on gathering speed over the bumps when we had our incident. I am disappointed but I know that the whole team will work very hard to get everything where we need it to be for Saturday’s qualifying!”
The race on Sunday August 14th marks Team Penske’s 1,300 start in open-wheel racing and Helio Castroneves is set make his 200th career Indy car start for the team.
“Our Guidepoint Systems Team Penske car still needs a little something,” he said. “We me made a lot of changes today and we learned a few things. Now we just have to sort through the data and take the next step. We will be ready to go on Saturday.”
There are two practice sessions Aug. 13 prior to two-lap qualifications with no practice planned for Friday August 12th.
After taking the lead on lap 71, Dario Franchitti led teammate Scott Dixon to the checkered flag for his third win in Toronto and the 30th IndyCar Series win of the year for the points leader.
“I was pretty happy just be in the company of Rick and J.R., and to get my 30th win today means a lot, especially here in Toronto,” Franchitti said. “I got my first pole here in 1997. I love racing in Canada. We had that incident with Will. He out braked himself to out brake me and opened up the door, I went down the inside, I held the wall and Will came down. I put my nose in there, I was trying to get my nose out, but ultimately he closed the door and paid the price.”
The incident, in which Franchitti spoke of with pole sitter and points rival Will Power, happened on lap 56 when they were battling for fifth in turn three. Power kept soildering on, till hitting the tire barrier on lap 66 in turn five after contact with Alex Tagliani.
“It’s just a really disappointing finish for the Verizon car today,” Power said. “My team did a great job in the pits and we were working our way back toward the front and we got past (Dario) Franchitti. We went into the corner and I gave him room and then he just drove into me. I understood he was going to get penalized but then there was no call – I just don’t understand that. After that we were just trying to get the best result possible before Tag (Alex Tagliani) hit me from behind. It’s very tough to have two DNFs (did not finish) in a row. All I can say is we’ll keep working hard and hopefully come back strong at Edmonton.”
“The contact with Will was also a shame,” Tagliani said afterwards. “Will was on blacks. I tried to pass him a couple of times in turn three. He was blocking a bit, and then I made a move on the inside in turn eight and it got tight.”
Meanwhile, it was Franchitti’s teammate Dixon who came home second for his fourth podium finish in the last five races.
“It’s frustrating because these street races are part luck, you know,” Dixon said. “Will and I were one and two, then he comes out like 18th or something like that, so it’s—and the 10 car gets it everytime, so I’ll call back on the radio and say, ‘Let me guess who’s leading. The 10 car.’ Which, is good on him, they make good strategy, and obviously Dario is quick as well and we all had to pass a lot of cars, but it’s frustrating. We were getting into a nice rhythm there, car was quick and good, and then the strategy throws it all off.”
Ryan Hunter-Reay finished third for his best finish of the season.
“I got third and now we just have to go win one,” he said. “The Ganassi boys did a great job. Congrats to Dario. Those cars were the class of the field today. The two red and white cars – they just took off.”
Hunter-Reay’s day wasnt’ totally clean, however, as he made contact with Graham Rahal on lap 80 in turn three, though no caution was brought out due to the incident.
“Unfortunately, it is a bit of a product of Toronto,” Hunter-Reay continued. “I feel really bad for Graham on that. When Dixon went by him,
[media-credit id=4 align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Graham kind of chopped him on the straight. Dixon went by him and really ran him wide in the corner into turn three. There’s a football field worth of real estate there and I went for it and Graham slid across so. I’m not going to blame it on him and I certainly did not deliberately do that. That was just part of Toronto. As you can see, what we had out here today was a little bit of a crash test unfortunately. I hope the fans enjoyed it and I am just really happy to get DHL, Circle K and Sun Drop on the podium. It was a hard fought day. It wasn’t a straight forward podium that’s for sure.”
Marco Andretti and Victor Meira rounded out the top five.
The race was halted by five full course yellows throughout the 85 laps this afternoon.
The first caution was on lap three when Ryan Briscoe and Tony Kanaan made contact in turn three, causing Kanaan to go airbourne, but he’d be okay.
“I gave Briscoe plenty of room and he still took me out,” he said. “It was too early in the race to be doing stupid moves like that. I had a good car and was moving up the field, I guess I overtook four cars in the first lap, so I was going to the front. It’s a shame for the GEICO KV-Lotus guys.”
The second caution was on lap 30 when Helio Castroneves and Tagliani made contact in turn three, halting Tagliani to a stop in turn three on the course. He’d get the car restarted and carry on.
The third caution was on lap 39 when James Jakes stopped on the course.
The fourth caution came out on lap 48 for a multi-car wreck involving Paul Tracy, Victor Meira, Charlie Kimball and Sebastain Bourdais.
The fifth caution came on lap 56 for the incident involving Franchitti and Power, while the sixth caution came out on lap 71 for a multi-car accident involving Danica Patrick, Jakes and Tagliani.
“It was just a really frustrating day,” Patrick said. “I thought we had a good race car. After we would pit for new tires, it would feel really good, but we kept getting caught out by the yellows. I have to thank the GoDaddy.com crew for working so hard all weekend.”
The last caution was on lap 76 for another multi-car wreck involving Justin Wilson, Oriol Servia, James Hinchcliffe, Charlie Kimball, Mike Conway and Marco Andretti.
Last year, Will Power won the Honda Indy Toronto and in beginning the quest to go back-to-back, Power won the PEAK Performance Pole Award at Exhibition Place in Toronto. Power’s lap of 59.5771 seconds gives him his fifth road course pole award of the season and eighth in a row over the past two seasons.
“I think it’s impossible to get a good balance around this place with so many different surfaces and the bumps,” he said. “So you got to make the most of it.
“It seems impossible to put a perfect lap together, too. You gain somewhere on one lap and you lose it somewhere else. It’s such a fun track because you absolutely ring the car’s neck in every possible way, under brakes, on power, everywhere. It’s always fun.
“I don’t think qualifying is a big deal because I really think you can come from the back and win this race. It’s just that sort of track. Plenty of passing, lots of mayhem.”
Scott Dixon qualified second to start on the front row for the second time this season with a lap of 59.6646 seconds.
“It was pretty tough,” he said. “As I said yesterday, I think the track’s very demanding, more so this year with the bumps, just where you got to try to get the speed out of the car.
“Qualifying was pretty smooth for us for the first two groups. I think the big question for most people today was how much you’re actually going to gain on the reds. Maybe some speculation they weren’t going to be much quicker at all. Turned out they were. So, you know, pretty decent. Little disappointed with Q3. We might adjust. Had enough in it. I’m sure Will didn’t get the most out of his lap as well. At least we’ve made improvements. The cars are quicker and obviously quicker to the No. 12 that’s been dominating on the road courses. Pretty happy all in all. Pretty confident both Target cars will be strong in the race.”
IZOD IndyCar Series Points Leader Dario Franchitti qualified third (59.900), followed by Mike Conway (59.9330) and Graham Rahal.
“I thought that my car was good,” he said. “That last Fast Six, I didn’t get the most out of it. I kept screwing up one corner and eventually got it halfway right, by which point was about lap five. Probably the best of the tire had gone. That was totally my fault. I didn’t get into rhythm quick enough. So ended up third.
“I felt we probably had enough to get close to these guys, maybe not ahead. But P3 is all right. I think I’m happy with the way that the Target car is on black and red tires. We’ll see what we’ve got tomorrow.”
Franchitti set the track record at the beginning of the session in the first round of qualifying with a lap of 59.3535 seconds, however it was Power who had the quickest lap during the Firestone Fast Six Qualifying round.
The final 50 laps of the Iowa Corn Indy 250 presented by Pioneer at Iowa Speedway would be a showstopper as it’d be Marco Andretti and Tony Kanaan battling back and forth for the win.
In the end, Andretti used one of his remaining overtake boosts to get by Kanaan with 19 to go and then used the other nine in the final 10 laps to secure it.
[media-credit id=2 align=”alignright” width=”246″][/media-credit]”Never doubt these guys,” Andretti said after the race after scoring his first win since Sonoma in 2007. “We’re down a little bit on the big ovals, but when it comes down to the end, we’ll be alright. These guys in the pits got me back in front with the great pit stop. Great racing with TK – it was fun.”
The second career win for Andretti marks the first win on an oval by an Andretti since 2000 when Michael Andretti won at Japan.
After a caution on lap 186 for Takumo Sato getting in the wall, Andretti lined up side-by-side with Kanaan on the restart. The first restart with 60 to go was called off for Andretti jumping, but the second was good to go.
The pair battled back and forth, trading the lead four times before Andretti secured the lead with a thrilling pass heading into turn one underneath Kanaan.
“I had eyes in the back of my head and I made it difficult on him,” Andretti said. “No mercy at this point. I needed it.”
Kanaan would get credited with second, keeping his string of solid runs going.
“I told him if it wasn’t for the win, we were going to talk about it so fair enough,” Kanaan said afterwards of racing with Andretti. “If I was in his position, I would’ve done the same. It was a great battle. A fun race.”
Meanwhile, it was Scott Dixon finishing third after starting 23rd on the field.
“It was a great night for us,” Dixon said. “It’s a good finish. The car wasn’t that great. The guys in the pits did a helluva job. Its obviously a good points night for Dario and I. It was crazy back there early on, but there was some good, close racing near the end.”
JR Hildebrand and Dario Franchitti would round out the top five. Ryan Briscoe would finish sixth, followed by Helio Castroneves, Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe and Danica Patrick.
Throughout the night, a couple drivers took some hard hits, including Will Power, who backed it into the wall on lap 90. The incident came after substaining damage on pit road from contact with Charlie Kimball on lap 14.
“It was definitely a hard hit,” Power said, after coming into Iowa tied for the points lead with Dario Franchitti. “The Verizon car was damaged after the incident in the pits and we just had a problem with the steering and it came around on me. It’s a tough result for us tonight. We’ll do our best to get it back next race.”
Power would be evaluated and it’d be determined that he suffered a minor concussion. IndyCar officials said that before he can compete in Toronto in two weeks, he will need to be cleared.
Other drivers taking hard hits would be Ana Beatriz and Mike Conway in a big wreck early on and Sebastian Saavedra (Lap 116), though everybody was checked out and released as being okay.
On Miller Lite Carb Day, Scott Dixon led the final practice session with a quick lap of 225.474mph.
“It’s more of just a systems check,” Dixon said, who will start second on Sunday. “The car’s obviously been in a million pieces since we last drove them. It’s just to make sure they’re all functioning. We came in and did a few pit stops. Because of the lack of on-track time that we’ve had, we made a few changes. We tried some dampers, aero downforce levels, things like that. It’s obviously very cold and probably not very close or in line with what we’re going to run in on Sunday. All in all, it was pretty decent. The car was good. There was loads of traffic. There was lots of action going on out there with people speeding up and slowing down. It was pretty good for both Target cars.”
Pole Sitter Alex Tagliani was second on the speed charts at a speed of 224.739mph for Sam Schmidt Motorsports.
“Yeah, it was an amazing week that we had last week,” Tagliani said. “We’re really fortunate that we rolled the car off the trailer fast. The team has done a great job to fine-tune it. Every day we were out there, and we were strong. So it’s been a pleasure for me to drive a very competitive car. Today it was nice to be back on track. Obviously, we have a very different car that we’re going to drive in the race. And I feel the car is very racey. I love it in traffic. It got some consistency out of the car on the older tires. So I don’t know. It seems to me to be unreal and too good to be true sometimes. But I want to think that we deserve it. We did everything better than everyone else, and hopefully it will continue. All winter long, the team fine-tuned the car. They just put their love into it, brought it back this year. Same car, same aerodynamic package, same track, and the car did better. So Penske and Ganassi have done that 10 years in a row. They have done the particular program that we have done for one race 10 years in row: Have a good car and keep improving it every year. And we’re trying to close the gap in a year and a half. It’s not an easy task.”
With the single car operation, Tagliani has been turning a lot of heads, including Dixon’s.
“Tag has done a hell of a job this month,” Dixon said. “It’s good to see that it’s been working so well. You know, you’re never going to know until you get to the race. He’s a good friend, and I’m definitely proud to see what he’s achieved, obviously, with a start-up team and to be able to mix it up with the big teams.”
Tagliani says when he leads the first lap in the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 Sunday, it will mean a lot.
“I’ve been very appreciative of what’s happened to me as a driver,” Tagliani said. “But what we don’t want to forget is that we have the chance to participate in a historical event. And to just have the chance to qualify in it is already a big thing. Leading the field, I think it’s going to be something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
Meanwhile, Dixon’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Dario Franchitti was third at a speed of 224.658mph.
“We can always learn something from today,” he said. “It will be a lot different on Sunday. We think we know how to turn the car around for those conditions. It will be a tough race. I think there is less grip than last year, and that’s going to make it really interesting. The slower speed (start and restarts) will be better. We may be going 190 into the first turn on the start. Turn 2 will be Turn 1 speed from years past. Restarts, I still don’t agree with side-by-side, I think we’re just asking for a bit of marbles. Whatever happens will be interesting, it will be slick and interesting. Dixie (Scott Dixon) looks strong. He’s going to be tough. We’re pretty strong, but just like the month I had last year, he (Dixon) has been on a rail all month. I followed (Alex) Tagliani, and he looks pretty average in traffic. But when he gets off the corner, he really goes. He will be plenty tough to beat. There are a bunch of people you just know who will be there (challenging for the win). (Dan) Wheldon will contend, the Penske cars will be strong, and there will be others. It’s wide open.”
Victor Meira was fourth at a speed of 224.480mph with Dan Wheldon rounding out the top five at 224.439mph.
Meanwhile, Ryan Briscoe’s No. 6 IZOD Team Penske team won the IZOD Indy 500 Pit Stop Competition as they defeated Dario Franchitti’s Target Chip Ganassi Racing team in the final round. His pit crew received a $50,000 first prize. Penske Racing has now won the competition a record 13 times, including the last six times in a row, though marks the first for Ryan Briscoe.
“I think what you saw now is a taste of what these guys are going to be doing for me in the race, and it’s so important,” Briscoe said. “I put so much pride in their pit stops, and I’m just lucky to have the best guys in pit lane. Helio has definitely been the favorite over the past few years, but I’ve got this guy (Matt) and I was never looking at who was beside me. We were really consistent, and after the first one we just wanted to keep repeating. They did it all. The Penske pride in the competition goes back a ways, so we don’t want to show up here and not be in the competition.”
Meanwhile for chief mechanic Matt Jonsson, it marks his second win as he led Sam Hornish Jr.’s team in 2005.
“This win means a lot,” he said. “It adds confidence for Sunday, of course, and we’re planning on doing the same thing on Sunday and trying to move up through the field. We win as a team and lose as a team, and that’s our job on Sunday, to try to move up the field. Ryan came in on a consistent speed, stopped right on his marks. That’s key for us. We don’t have to adjust; we just do the same thing every time. If everyone stays calm and collected, that’s the way it turns out to be: consistent.”
The winner of the competition has gone on to win the Indianapolis 500 six times, most recently with Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves in 2009.
In the past five road course races, Will Power has started on pole and finished either first or second.
After finishing second last week, Power would not be denied this week as he qualified first and led flag-to-flag on his way to winning the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. The win marked the 10th win of his career.
“The key was to make sure I got the jump on him every time,” Power said. “It seemed like it was yellow-after-yellow. But man, that was one of the most relaxing races I’ve ever had. I am going to be a lot better on ovals and I am very determined. I am going to win that championship.”
Power is the first driver to lead flag-to-flag since Dario Franchitti at Sonoma in 2009.
Scott Dixon finished second after trying to find a way around Power all day.
“It is going to take a long time to make back the points that we lost at St. Peterburg’s with all of these teams,” Dixon said. “I think Helio jumped us on the restart, but it was better to just let him go. We worked by Ryan on the second stint and then sat behind Will all day. I pushed hard behind Will to try to catch him but in those final eight laps, I couldn’t get close as I had ran the tires off of the car.”
Dixon was followed by his teammate and last week’s winner Dario Franchitti.
“Its like we said at the end of last year, every point means a lot as every position means something,” Franchitti said. “Briscoe pushed me in the grass in one, left the door open into two and then off the turn, he closed the door so that was just racing. You think on these restarts you’re able to get by these guys, but Will and Scott were too far in front of us. Up until the final restart, I thought we had a good car but we didn’t get the right balance. I was just trying to get a good finish and to go from seventh to third here is pretty good.”
Marco Andretti finished fourth with Orio Servia in fifth. Tony Kanaan finished sixth after starting 26th.
“A little bit of luck and a good start,” Kanaan said. “We took the advantage to pass a lot of cars on the start and that actually changed my strategy. We were thinking of pitting on lap 10, but when we got up front, we decided to pit a little later. I got to thank my pit crew for some good pit stops as we’re a relative new team. I struggled all weekend as it wasn’t a coincidence that I was almost dead last every sesson as there was something seriously wrong. We took Takumo Sato’s set-up and on the start, I made a good jump.”
He was followed by Helio Castroneves, Sebastian Pagenaud, Simona de Silvestro and Charlie Kimball.
It wasn’t easy for Power today as there were multiple cautions for multiple incidents throughout the day.
The first caution came on lap 1 as JR Hildebrand and Raphael Matos made contact causing Matos to spin.
Then on lap 37, Alex Taglani spun and got stuck on the sand trap to bring out the caution. Though a lap before, James Jakes pits as his car was on fire.
We came in and made a pit stop,” Jakes said. “As I came out of turn three, it felt pretty hot in there and the team said to look at the telemetry. It looked a little hot so I brought it down pit road.”
The restart came on lap 41, though right away, de Silvestro, James Hinscliffe and EJ Viso wrecked. Castroneves made it three-wide, which made things tight, causing drivers to make contact with each other.
“We got off to a rough start,” Hinscliffe. “I was hoping to not make too many mistakes. I went around in lap 1 but the team was coming back in the top 10. Then Simona got into EJ, which it isn’t his fault that he spun. But any driving school you go to will tell you that you hit the clutch and the brake when you spin, not the gas. It just sucks for this Newman-Haas team.”
“Unfortunately, we were in the wrong place, wrong positoon,” EJ Viso. “Simona had a pretty good restart, passing three-or-four cars and then she spun, I tried to avoid her and Hinscliffe came down into me.”
The restart came on lap 46, which another incident then took place as Mike Conway got hooked into the wall by his teammate Danica Patrick.
“Just coming over the top of the hill, I feel we just crossed paths, made contact and unfortunately wrecked,” Mike Conway said.
The restart came on lap 50, and then six laps later, Ryan Hunter-Reay bounced off the curb into Ryan Briscoe.
“Well, I mean I think Ryan is sticking his nose in where it doesn’t belong,” Briscoe said afterwards. “I tried to give him room and looks like he just stuck the nose in there. He was that much quicker and he could’ve waited the half a lap to pass me.”
Hunter-Reay was given a penalty for unavoidable contact, in which he replied on the radio saying, “I thought I was giving him room and he just turned down. I just can’t believe this.”
The restart came on lap 62, which then on lap 63, Justin Wilson wrecked after he hit Rapael Matos, causing him to turn back into him.
“I think when I look back at it, its a racing incident,” Wilson said. “As we were racing in, Raphael gave me room and then came down, I kept backing down backing down and got into him. If you look there, he had a whole lane on the outside.”
Wilson ran the race today with a wrist injury he suffered at St. Peterburg’s.
“The wrist was bugging me, but it is fine,” he continued. “The carbonfibre brace I had broke on lap 45 so I threw that out and put this one on under caution.”
The multiple back-to-back cautions were caused in a large part due to contact on the double-file restarts, which is fresh for the series.
“From the fans point of view, it looked a lot of exciting,” Kanaan said after the race of the double-file restarts. “I think we need to work together on taking care of each other’s stuff. We crashed on almost every restart and that’s not a coincidence. This is only the second race that we’ve done it so we got to get used to it. Do I like it? No, but it worked into my favor. I think as drivers we need to learn to take care of other. Right now I am 50/50. They told me the fans like it and I am just a driver so if they tell me I have to do it, then I have to do it.”
Plenty of debates have been brought up with the rule, including how the leader restarts the race. Dixon complained that Power was crossing lines on the start, in which Ganassi added at one point during the race that if Power does it one more time, he was going to get his driver to take him out.
“Like usual, Brian did nothing about it,” Dixon said after the race. “If you’re going to make a rule, you need to enforce it.”
