INDYCAR: Dixon Wins; Dario Takes The Title

IndyCar

INDYCAR: Dixon Wins; Dario Takes The Title

Target Chip Ganassi takes all of the spoils in Homestead as Scott Dixon wins the race and Dario Franchitti wins the title after Will Power brushes the wall.

Marshall Pruett | Posted October 02, 2010

Dario Franchitti had to have everything go his way to take the title from Will Power, and that's just what happened after taking pole, leading the most laps and motoring to the finish as Power crashed. (LAT)

After 17 rounds, the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series championship came down to just five points separating Dario Franchitti and Will Power. The driver who came in leading the championship, however, left the track wondering how a seemingly insurmountable points lead in August was whittled down to almost nothing through September and was eventually handed over to his fiercest rival on Saturday night.

Whether you attribute it to the efforts of a wily veteran executing an error free end game -- to taking the title back as the season closed out on a run of four straight ovals, or to a young lion who wasn't quite prepared to withstand the pressures that were thrust upon him, the fact is that in a race where both drivers needed to achieve perfection, one of those drivers came up short and kissed his championship aspirations goodbye.

To maintain his championship lead, Power would need to keep Franchitti in sight as they crossed the finish line, but after 200 laps of racing at Homestead-Miami, the driver who stood atop the points for the entire season was forced to watch from pit lane as Franchitti secured his second straight title for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, his third IndyCar championship in four years.

Power's plan of keeping his championship lead intact and Franchitti in sight came unraveled on Lap 135 as the Aussie went wide while trying to pass Ryan Hunter-Reay, sliding up the track on the marbles and bumping along the wall with the right side of his Verizon Wireless IndyCar. His Team Penske crew quickly changed the right rear upper wishbone, but Power reported over the radio that the car was still pulling to the right after he returned to the track.

With a lengthy repair required to replace his right front suspension, it was game over for the mercurial Power. Yet even without his race-ending crash, Power teetered on the verge of finishing too far behind Franchitti to hold onto the championship.

The Scot, earning the bonus point for pole and the two extra points for leading the most laps, stayed at the front of the pack while Power hovered between fourth and ninth for most of the race. Unlike the previous three oval races, Power never looked like a threat to lead, and had no answer to match the pace the Target cars.

"I'm very disappointed obviously," said Power. "I was trying to get around some backmarkers and got up into the grey. It was very hard to predict what the guys are going to do. Hunter-Reay was up there and took some air off [the front of my car].

He would be credited with 25th.

Power was succinct in his summary of how the championship fell from his grasp. "The championship is won over 17 races, not one."

To Power's point, Franchitti finished outside the top-10 just twice in 2010, and despite having five wins to Franchitti's three, Power finished outside the top-10 on four occasions -- including Homestead -- which allowed the fight to fall in Franchitti's favor.

With the Verizon Wireless car parked in the infield, Franchitti cruised home to eighth as he switched to a strategy of simply finishing the race with enough points to overcome Power's lead.

According to Franchitti, racing for points instead of the win proved to be rather nerve racking.

"It was all going really well until that last pit stop when we got back of the pack and everyone was going four-wide and banging wheels. The 18 car crashed right in front of us and almost took us out. It was a little too action-packed at the end of the race."

PHOTOS: A look back at Dario Franchitti's 2010 championship run

The other aspect of the championship that had served Power so well -- having his teammates taking points away from Franchitti -- also faltered. The opposite was true for Franchitti, who ran the last three races without the help of his teammate, 2008 Series champion Scott Dixon, yet the Kiwi came to life at Homestead, playing the role of tail gunner to perfection.

If knowing when to peak in a championship run is the difference between winning and losing, it was clear that Team Penske reached that peak two weeks ago at the Motegi oval in Japan while the Ganassi organization hit their stride Saturday night in Florida.

At the front of the field, Scott Dixon went on to claim his third win of the year ahead of Danica Patrick, who pipped Tony Kanaan to the finish line by .0111. Dixon would secure third in the championship with his victory.

“It’s a big deal trying to get to third," said Dixon. "With so many yellows, it turned into a fuel race and we had a few rough restarts. This was a huge night for us, but more importantly for Dario for taking another championship. We definitely had a rough year and a lot of missed opportunities, but everyone is very excited about the outcome.”

The embattled Patrick, whose efforts in NASCAR this year have been less than flattering, ended her IndyCar season on a high with an impressive, gritty drive to lead her teammates home.

"Hopefully Tony and I put on a good show at the end," said Patrick. "It was a tough 19 laps. The GoDaddy.com car was strong. After the start, we were really able to bring it to life. I have to thank the GoDaddy crew for a great job this whole year, even during the rough times. It was a good race, and I think we finished out the season on a strong note."

Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves took fourth and fifth for Penske, as the two briefly led but were forced to watch as Dixon and the two Andretti Autosport cars filled the podium.

Vitor Meira bookended his season, overcoming a long dry spell since he opened the championship with a third in his native Brazil by taking sixth for A.J. Foyt and ABC Supply Co.

"We knew we had a good car," said Meira. "On the first stint, I thought, 'Hell, this is a very, very good car.' Good job by ABC Supply/A.J. Foyt Racing because to go from 21st to sixth and to be there all day long. I mean, we passed a lot of people. We passed everybody. So it's good to finish the season on an up note. Now we have six months, six months of positive thinking. Hopefully that will carry over for next year."

Scott Dixon celebrates winning the final race of the 2010 season alongside Andretti Autosport's Danica Patrick and Tony Kanaan. (LAT)

Behind Patrick and Kanaan, teammate Marco Andretti showed promise at the beginning and the end of the race, finishing seventh while Hunter-Reay had the rare distinction of being the final car home amongst the Andretti stable, taking a rather quiet 11th. Except for an on-track spat with Graham Rahal -- one where contact from the No. 37 IZOD car took Rahal's left front wing end plate off -- the Floridian never figured in the race.

"The Venom car was good tonight," said Andretti, "but we made a wrong decision as a team and pitted during that second-to-last yellow. I almost took it upon myself to stay out; I saw Dixon high in my mirrors and knew he wasn't going to come in. It was a replay in my head of Richmond a couple years ago; the win is right in front of you and you risk throwing it away. It's disappointing, but we win and lose as a team."

A bemused Rahal said Hunter-Reay's actions on the track were completely unnecessary.

"I'm really disappointed with Hunter-Reay and I'm not normally someone who is going to say something, but I'm definitely going to talk to him. It was a racing incident from my standpoint. I drifted up toward him after Danica cut across me, and I'm not sure he understood that was what happened. But then he came down the front straight and pulled his hand off the wheel to give me a gesture and drove into the side of me and took off my front wing."

Dan Wheldon ended his season -- and likely his final drive for Panther Racing -- with ninth, while his teammate Ed Carpenter -- the star of Kentucky -- had a frustrating run to 13th, one lap down.

"It was a little bit of a difficult night for us," said Wheldon. "Not the way we wanted to finish. We just seemed to be very, very loose as the run progressed, but the team continued to work very, very hard. It just wasn't for us tonight."

Alex Lloyd, on the heels of his 12th-place finish, earned Rookie of the Year honors for Dale Coyne Racing and the Boy Scouts of America.

"The year 2007 was the last time I ran a full season until this year," said Lloyd. "It has been three seasons now, and that created a tough couple of years out of a car. I only ran three races in two years, so when coming back full-time at the beginning of the season, I had to knock off the rust. We had ups and downs throughout this season. It was great to get the opportunity from Dale Coyne and Boy Scouts of America for a full-time ride. We came into this year with two goals. Our first goal was to have a good run at the Indy 500, and our second goal was to get Rookie of the Year. I am so proud that we achieved that today. There were some low points in the year, but it was a great season overall. We had to get everything to blend together, and I feel that we accomplished that. There were some things in the last few races that cost us top-10 finishes, but Rookie of the Year is great for myself and the whole team."

Behind Lloyd, the rest of the finishers had unremarkable races to close out the 2010 season, with only Sebastian Saavedra -- making his second IndyCar start -- impressing on the way to 16th after starting 24th.

Of those to find the wall in addition to Power, Brazil's Ana Beatriz crashed on her own on Lap 42, while Milka Duno also spun without help on Lap 170, crashing directly in front of Franchitti.

Although Franchitti's name will be the one to grab the headlines on Sunday morning, his boss will likely dominate the history books when the year comes to an end.

Ganassi, who earned wins at the Daytona 500, Indy 500, Brickyard 400, the GRAND-AM Rolex Series championship and now the IZOD IndyCar Series championship in 2010, says he'll need some time to grasp the magnitude of his teams' accomplishments.

"It's pretty crazy. It might take a while to realize 2010 was real. Did it really happen?"

PHOTOS: Homestead-Miami Race 2010

If Ganassi had a dream season, Power's wasn't far behind. Losing a championship in the final hour of the season is never easy, but the motivated Toowoomba-native said won't let his missed opportunity bother him for long.

"It's definitely disappointing. I really wanted to win this championship. It was at a point in the race where I felt I really had to push because Dario had led the most laps and was leading the race. I was trying to get around Hunter-Reay, and I got up a little too high and brushed the wall and bent the suspension. The Verizon team had a great season, and we have a lot to be proud of. This has been the best season of my career in motorsport, and I've learned so much. We'll be coming back to win this thing next year."

While my pre-season pick of Dario Franchitti to win the 2010 title proved to be correct, the incredibly rapid maturation of Will Power this year must give an insight into what 2011 might have in store. If asked to predict next year's champion, I might have to follow Robin Miller's lead and choose the driver affectionately known as "DJ Willy P."

Winning road courses came easy for Power this season and by the end of the year, he seemed to have found his aptitude on ovals. With the galvanizing affect a tough loss often brings, 2011 could be the year where Power rids himself of the small mistakes that make such a major difference in the final points standings. Provided he takes this loss the right way, the thought of a stronger and more focused Will Power next season should be a source of great concern for the entire paddock.

The championship went to the team who weren't always the fastest but always played the game with an eye towards the title. Unlike 2009, Ganassi did not enjoy a slight advantage over the Penske cars at most tracks. Even with the Penske organization having found the speed to win nine of the 17 races this year, the effectiveness of their advantage was diluted by Power dominating only on road courses, Castroneves having an inconsistent season and Briscoe being well off his form from 2009.

Even Franchitti and Dixon -- who scored three wins apiece -- did not have classic years in the sense of leading the championship convincingly or going on long winning streaks, but they proved that consistency -- rather than the highs and lows experienced at Team Penske -- wins championships.

Will Power might be the easy choice to pick for the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series championship, but seeing as how the Target Chip Ganassi Racing team was able take home the title as Penske won half of the races, maybe next year's championship outlook isn't so clear after all.

Results Saturday of the Cafes Do Brasil Indy 300 IZOD IndyCar Series event on the 1.485-mile Homestead Miami Speedway, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (2) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
2. (11) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
3. (8) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
4. (4) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
5. (10) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
6. (21) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
7. (16) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
8. (1) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
9. (5) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 200, Running
10. (18) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
11. (20) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
12. (22) Alex Lloyd, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
13. (7) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
14. (19) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
15. (14) Bertrand Baguette, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
16. (24) Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
17. (23) Raphael Matos, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
18. (9) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 199, Running
19. (12) EJ Viso, Dallara-Honda, 198, Running
20. (26) Hideki Mutoh, Dallara-Honda, 198, Running
21. (6) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 198, Running
22. (17) Sarah Fisher, Dallara-Honda, 197, Running
23. (25) Simona de Silvestro, Dallara-Honda, 197, Running
24. (27) Milka Duno, Dallara-Honda, 170, Contact
25. (3) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 143, Contact
26. (15) Ana Beatriz, Dallara-Honda, 42, Contact
27. (13) Mario Moraes, Dallara-Honda, 25, Mechanical

Race Statistics
Winners average speed: 158.905
Time of Race: 1:52:08.5580
Margin of victory: 2.7587 seconds
Cautions: Five for 39 laps
Lead changes: 18 among 7 drivers
Lap Leaders: Franchitti 1-42, Briscoe 43, Franchitti 44-52, Briscoe 53, Franchitti 54-55, Briscoe 56, Franchitti 57, Briscoe 58-61, Dixon 62-68, Kanaan 69-72, Franchitti 73-95, Dixon 96-97, Tagliani 98-100, Franchitti 101-151, Dixon 152-157, Andretti 158-167, Dixon 168-172, Castroneves 173, Dixon 174-200.
Point Standings: Franchitti 602, Power 597, Dixon 547, Castroneves 531, Briscoe 482, Kanaan 453, Hunter-Reay 445, Andretti 392, Wheldon 388, Patrick 367.