By Bruce Martin
SportsTicker Contributing Editor
RICHMOND, Virginia Dan Wheldon's victory in Saturday
night's IRL SunTrust Indy Challenge proved that the fastest car
doesn't always win, but the smartest driver often does.
Running near back of the pack for most of the race, Wheldon used
a fuel mileage gamble for his second win of the season.
Wheldon's Dallara/Honda was sputtering around Richmond
International Raceway. When a series of late caution periods
allowed him to stay on the track and out of the pits, he took
the lead and held on during a one-lap shootout.
"I agree I didn't have the quickest car today but I could run a
lot of laps on the Firestones and the car kept getting better
and better and better," Wheldon said. "The car really stuck
well. When you qualify 20th and are able to win, it's a lot of
help from the team."
Coming from a lap down early in the race, Wheldon went 121 laps
on his final set of tires and final tank of fuel. The Andretti
Green Racing driver even had enough methanol to do a few
celebratory donuts on the frontstretch.
"I went a long time on that last set of tires and they still
stuck," Wheldon said. "They did a very good job for me with
strategy. We pulled it off today. I have to give (team
manager) Tony Cotman a great job today with strategy in the
pits."
Team owner Michael Andretti admitted Wheldon's victory was
pulled out of the hat because of fuel strategy developed by
Cotman before the race.
"Sometimes you need a lot of luck but if you look at the race,
Dan passed a lot of cars," Andretti said. "At a track like this,
track position is king. Tony Cotman called a great race and it
was great strategy. The car was good enough to hold them off at
the end."
Originally, the order had Wheldon 0.2038 seconds ahead of the
Dallara/Toyota of pole-sitter Helio Castroneves. Vitor Meira
was third in a G Force/Honda, followed by Tony Kanaan and Bryan
Herta, both teammates of Wheldon's.
However, the yellow lights did not turn off on the final lap.
After the race was over, IRL vice president of operations Brian
Barnhart disallowed any passes on the final laps, which meant
Meira was second and Castroneves third, Herta fourth and Kanaan
fifth.
I saw the track lights were still yellow and I was yelling in
the radio right away but by that time, it was too late,"
Barnhart said. "Part of it was the hectic rush to get a green
flag finish by everybody. It doesn't make it right, but we
instantly admitted it was a mistake and corrected it the way it
should be."
When Ed Carpenter crashed in the second turn with five laps
remaining, it appeared the race would end under caution. But
IRL officials waved the white and green flags for one final lap,
and Castroneves passed Meira for second and Kanaan passed Herta
for fourth. After the race, it was ruled those passes don't
count.
Castroneves started on the pole and led the first 38 laps. The
race strategy became jumbled following a caution period for
brief showers on lap 110.
The lead cars decided to pit, but Dario Franchitti, who had been
running toward the rear of the field, stayed out and moved in
front.
The green flag waved on lap 131, but two laps later, Daren
Manning crashed in the fourth turn wall. Green flag racing
resumed seven laps later, and Franchitti distanced himself from
the pack, stretching his fuel.
Sam Hornish Jr. and Tomas Scheckter touched wheels on lap 188,
sending Hornish's car into a spin. He avoided the wall but fell
four laps off the pace.
After the Hornish spin, the green flag waved, with Wheldon in
the lead. Running a lighter fuel load appeared to work for
Wheldon and Meira, but Castroneves' car - equipped with new
tires - rapidly chased them down.
On lap 223, the cars of Franchitti and Britain's Mark Taylor
touched wheels in the first turn. Taylor's car slammed into the
wall while Franchitti's spun and came to rest against it.
Neither driver was injured.
Scheckter slowed in an attempt to avoid the wreck but touched
wheels with the car of Adrian Fernandez, breaking the left front
suspension on Scheckter's entry and ending his night.
When Carpenter's car hit Greg Ray's car with five laps to go, it
set up the confusing finish that ultimately resulted in a final
lap of green flag racing that didn't count.
"I was surprised," Meira said. "I thought we would finish under
the yellow flag. I was quite surprised, actually."