Written by:
Marshall Pruett
Dario Franchitti followed his 2007 Iowa win with another victory today as he led home Team Penske’s Ryan Briscoe and Iowa specialist Hideki Mutoh in a race marred by crashes.
Dario Franchitti led home Ryan Briscoe to take his second win of the year and second win at Iowa. The Scot now sits second in points. (Getty)
ยป More Photos
With a grid of just twenty cars taking the start of the Iowa Corn 250, the filed was down to thirteen by the halfway point. A spin and crash by EJ Viso on lap one was matched by Newman/Haas/Lanigan driver Robert Doornbos as he also spun and crashed, taking an innocent Ryan Hunter-Reay out in the process.
Contact between leader Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves on lap 18 was followed by Graham Rahal being hit, a solo crash by Justin Wilson on lap 35, a spin and crash by Rafa Matos on lap 55 that claimed KV’s Mario Moraes, and later a solo crash by Tony Kanaan on lap 111.
Franchitti stayed close all day long as rivals Ryan Briscoe and Tony Kanaan led the majority of the race. The Scot’s Tom Tom-sponsored car looked fast on restarts for the first two-thirds of the race but often faded after the rest of the front runners built temperature into their tires.
Briscoe led off pit lane after Kanaan’s crash only to be passed by Franchitti once racing resumed, but the Aussie got by on lap 138 and looked to be on a steady march to victory circle. After pulling a lead almost the length of the back straight on Franchitti, the Team Penske driver held a firm command over the field until his final pit stop on lap 196.
A slight delay by Briscoe’s pit-in and pit-out performance on that stop and a lightning stop by Franchitti’s Target team on 197 got Dario back in the lead. A tire pressure adjustment gave Franchitti a more consistent car to drive for the final 53 laps, allowing him to build a comfortable margin over Briscoe that he maintained until the checkered flag fell.
Franchitti claimed his tenth IndyCar Series win and moves to second in the drivers points standings, just three behind the incredibly consistent Briscoe.
"I like driving here," said Franchitti. "We tested at Iowa last Wednesday. The Target guys did a really, really good job coming up with a setup, and they were awesome in the pits. I just went out, did my job and hung on, made some good moves in traffic and here we are. More than anywhere, today is a team win because those pit stops moved us up in track position."
If Briscoe’s grown tired of playing the role of bridesmaid since his win at St. Pete to open the season, he’s building a strong case for the drivers title as his teammate Helio Castroneves continues with a ‘boom or bust’ tally over the last few races.
"It was a great day for Team Penske. Dario (Franchitti) had a bit more than us when on cold tires. On the restarts, he was a bit better than us. We were quickest throughout the middle of the stint. I was hoping I would be able to catch him in traffic, but he just got a bit more luck with those guys and actually opened up the gap. It was a tough one but a great day. The car was awesome. We had to make a bit of changes on the first pit stop, but from there the car was great."
Castroneves could only look forward to the next race at Richmond. "We just couldn't get the Team Penske car quite right today. It's difficult to get the car exactly how you want it on a short oval when you don't have the opportunity to practice very much. It was a long day out there. Toward the end of the race, I think I was a bit too conservative. I had a lot of understeer, and we just didn't tweak the car enough on that last stop. I don't think that the front wing was the problem because we were back in the game for awhile, but we didn't have enough there in the end. The good news is that it's not even halfway through the season and we still have plenty of races ahead of us to improve and work towards the championship. Now we just have to keep our heads down and focus on Richmond."
Andretti Green Racing looked like a potential winner until Tony Kanaan crashed on cold tires. TK’s third DNF in four races was only made better by the performance of teammate Hideki Mutoh. The Japanese driver has been rather quiet all year but used his affinity for the unique 7/8th oval to log his second consecutive top-3 finish. After placing second in 2008 Mutoh hoped to go one better in 2009, but was forced to settle for third.
"I was hoping to be one step up on the podium. This is one step down. But it's still a podium finish, so I'm happy. The Formula Dream team gave me a very good car. It seems like Iowa is my favorite track because of the results. Maybe it should be."
The rest of the AGR clan made it to the finish line but had largely forgettable days. Danica Patrick suffered two flat tires after running over debris from the Viso/Doornbos/RHR crash and found herself out of sequence all day. "We started off with a good car, but it just wasn't our day. We got a couple flat tires at the beginning of the race, which was a bummer, but then we just changed up the strategy a bit, which allowed us to lead a few laps. But then the yellows started to come out, and we were at the wrong place at the wrong time. But it was a top-10 finish for us, so if this is the worst finish we have this season, I can't complain."
She’d lead her first laps of the season due to staying out while the lead pack pitted, but had to settle for ninth, one lap down. Marco Andretti never found the speed in his replacement chassis, taking twelfth place, six laps down.
Panther Racing’s Dan Wheldon delivered one of the team’s stronger performances after taking second at Indy, featuring at the front of the field on the way to fourth place, 6.6038 seconds behind Franchitti and the final car on the lead lap.
"It's a good result for Panther Racing and the National Guard; to finish fourth here with this level of competition is something we can build on. There's a bunch of good guys on this Panther team, and they're all working very hard, and I know we all want to get back to victory lane together. I always tended to lose a few places on starts and restarts, but once the car came in it was as good as anybody out there. Toward the end of the race, I should have made some more aggressive changes with the front wing, because I had some understeer. My race was relatively low key. I was loose at the start of each stint, but once the car settled down it was good. I'll take a top five, and it's some good momentum to build upon. This is a good track. As it starts to lose even more grip, it's going to become even more fun. I know a lot of people say that Iowa is in the middle of nowhere, but you know what, we get such a great crowd and they're so enthusiastic. As a driver you could put me in paradise, but if there's nobody in the grandstands then it's not good racing."
Franchitti’s teammate, 2008 Series champion Scott Dixon was a force early in the running until Castroneves hit and punctured the Kiwi’s left rear tire with the right front wing of the #3 Team Penske Dallara-Honda.
Dixon was able to pit for a replacement tire at the same time Helio pitted for a new nose. The two returned to the race without falling too far behind, but the incident ended their chance to fight for the win. Dixon would be lapped by Franchitti with 11 laps to go, and finished fifth. Castroneves, also a lap down, took seventh.
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing had their most competitive day on an oval in recent memory as Tomas Scheckter and rookie Mike Conway had two incredibly fast cars to drive all day long. Scheckter, reminding many of the supreme talent he can possess, used the high line to leap from sixteenth to ninth on the opening lap. The DRR team used an alternate pit strategy to move their cars into the top-3 on occasion, with Conway looking like a matured oval driver as he raced hard to the finish.
Like Patrick, the alternate strategy would catch out Scheckter and Conway in the end, leaving them in sixth and eighth, respectively.
Vision Racing’s Ed Carpenter has bursts of speed at Iowa and posed a problem for the leaders to pass. The Indiana-native held his line and drove well, but lacked the final bit of speed to challenge for a better finish. He’d finish 2 laps down in tenth. "The bumps were a factor. The car was loose over those bumps the whole race, and I had understeer in Turns 3 and 4, especially in traffic. We were pretty limited on what we could do to take understeer out of the car because I was afraid of what that it would do over the bumps. It's disappointing, because this is a great racetrack, and I'd really like to see them fix that bump. I know they tried, but we'd like to see them try something different. We're happy to be coming back the next two years, so I think it would be in all of our best interests if they tuned it a bit to open it up and make it a more exciting race. It's a top-10 but not one we can be proud of since we didn't really feel like we beat anybody. We just rode around and didn't crash like a lot of others."
Graham Rahal spent the day being bounced around in his McDonald’s Dallara. The young Ohioan spent the day holding onto his car and never factored in the action, taking eleventh place, 5 laps down.
The final runner, Jaques Lazier, did just what the Team 3G needed by getting to the checkered flag with out drama. Lazier drove a smart, heady race as he kept an eye on his mirrors and gave the leaders plenty of room. After a season filled with broken parts and unfulfilled promise by Greg Beck’s team, the Colorado native steered the all-black #98 to thirteenth, 13 laps down.
Pos, Driver, Laps, Comment
1 Dario Franchitti 250
2 Ryan Briscoe 250
3 Hideki Mutoh 250
4 Dan Wheldon 250
5 Scott Dixon 249
6 Tomas Scheckter 249
7 Helio Castroneves 249
8 Mike Conway 249
9 Danica Patrick 249
10 Ed Carpenter 248
11 Graham Rahal 245
12 Marco Andretti 244
13 Jaques Lazier 237
14 Tony Kanaan 108 Contact
15 Robert Doornbos 58 Handling
16 Raphael Matos 53 Contact
17 Mario Moraes 52 Contact
18 Justin Wilson 33 Contact
19 Ryan Hunter-Reay 2 Contact
20 EJ Viso 0 Contact
Race Statistics
Winner's average speed: 134.371 mph
Time of race: 1:39:47.9077
Margin of victory: 5.0132 seconds
Cautions: 5 caution flags for 46 laps
Lead changes: 12 among 7 drivers
Lap leaders: Castroneves 1-16, Dixon 17, Franchitti 18-19, Briscoe 20-35, Patrick 36-57, Kanaan 58-105, Wheldon 106-113, Briscoe 114-125, Franchitti 126-137, Briscoe 138-194, Franchitti 195-197, Patrick 198-199, Franchitti 200-250.
Point standings: Briscoe 241, Franchitti 238, Dixon 226, Castroneves 212, Patrick 189, Wheldon 184, Kanaan 162, Andretti 159, Rahal 145, Mutoh 142.
Notes:
· Dario Franchitti earns his 10th career victory and his second victory of the season. He also won at Long Beach.
· Franchitti has won both of his starts at Iowa Speedway. He also won the race in 2007.
· This is the 28th IndyCar Series victory for Target Chip Ganassi Racing. This is the team's fourth win of the season.
· The top four finishers came from four different teams. The top six finishers came from five teams.
· Ryan Briscoe finished second for the third consecutive race. Briscoe has led the most laps in each of those races (Milwaukee, Texas, Iowa).
· Briscoe remains the points leader and is the first driver to hold the points lead for two consecutive races this season.
· Hideki Mutoh finished a season-best third. His career-best finish of second came at Iowa last year.
· Dan Wheldon finished fourth, his sixth consecutive top-10 finish.
· Scott Dixon finished fifth, his fourth top-five finish of the season.
· Tomas Scheckter finished sixth, his best finish since fifth at Kentucky in 2007. It is the best finish for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing since a fourth last year at Watkins Glen with driver Buddy Rice.
· Mike Conway finished a career-best eighth. It's also his first top-10 finish of his career.
· The last time Dreyer & Reinbold had two cars finish in the top 10 was at last year's Indianapolis 500 when Buddy Rice finished eighth and Townsend Bell finished 10th.
· Danica Patrick finished ninth. She and Dan Wheldon lead all drivers with six consecutive top-10 finishes. Patrick led her first laps since Kentucky 2008.
