INDYCAR: Hunter-Reay Wins Wet And Crazy Loudon 225

IndyCar

INDYCAR: Hunter-Reay Wins Wet And Crazy Loudon 225

IndyCar's return to Loudon will be remembered for crashes, rain, contentious restarts, a red flag and Will Power flipping the bird to Race Control.

Marshall Pruett | Posted August 14, 2011

After dominating practice and qualifying, it was Dario Franchitti's race to lose. By the end of the event, Ryan Hunter-Reay was the victor, the driver in second believed he was the rightful winner and Will Power let the series--and the world know what he thought of IndyCar's officials.

And after leading the first half of the race from pole, putting Power one lap down and stretching a lead to second by more than 12 seconds, Franchitti's cruise to his fifth win of 2011 ended against the wall under odd circumstances, setting up a crazy run to the finish.

On the Lap 118 restart for the crash that ended the day of Tony Kanaan, Tomas Scheckter and Marco Andretti, Franchitti and Takuma Sato came together on the front row, with the Ganassi driver spinning left across the bow of the KV Racing-Lotus entry, hitting the inside wall on the pit straight.

With Franchitti's car resting backwards with broken suspension and Sato forced to pit for a new right front tire and nose, Ryan Hunter-Reay was promoted to the lead from fourth where he'd take command of the event.

Late in the race, after pausing for the second yellow flag of the day for light rain, the Lap 217 restart--done on a track that was too slick for the race to resume--saw Danica Patrick spin in front of half the field on the front straight and mayhem ensued.

Will Power was collected in the chain reaction, as was Ana Beatriz, Takuma Sato and Ed Carpenter, ending their respective races on the spot.

Power, Patrick's team owner, Michael Andretti, Sato's team owner Jimmy Vasser and others fired scathing criticism towards the series for resuming the race after drivers advised Race Control the conditions were unsuitable.

After leaping from his car, the Team Penske driver was seen giving Race Control the middle finger with both hands before he was swept away to cool down in the paddock.

"I was begging [Race Control], 'please, do not go green, it's too slippery,'" he said "And from what [his strategist] Tim Cindric was saying, so was everyone else. So everyone was saying it."

Power said he would not bother going to talk to IndyCar Race Director Brian Barnhart about the choice to throw the green flag.

"There's no use," a heated Power continued. "He makes such bad calls all the time. This has got to be it. They cannot have the guy running the show, because that was the decision that put a lot of drivers in danger and you saw how many people crashed on the front straight. Shame on him. I just can't believe they make decisions like that.

"What are those guys up there doing? [Race Control member] Little Al [Unser Jr], he's raced; he'd never races in those conditions. To me, it was disgraceful."

The Aussie also knows a fine is likely on the way for his post-race actions.

"Yeah, I know that I lost my temper, and that was bad of me to do that, but I was so emotional about it," he admitted. "We had such a good day. We begged them. We begged them not to do it."

When the madness finally came to a end, Ryan Hunter-Reay stood atop the field, earning his first win of the season for Andretti Autosport. (LAT)

A red flag followed on Lap 220 and the race was soon checkered where the order was reverted back to Lap 215, restoring the crashed cars to their respective positions.

Vasser made his feelings known before Race Control hit the rewind button on the results, forecasting what ultimately took place.

“It was still clearly damp on the track, [with] raindrops coming down," he said. "I don’t know what they were thinking in race control. It was just an asinine decision. They should revert the order back since the race didn’t go green.”

Barnhart owned up to the mistake to go green and explained the call to revert the running order.

"It was a mistake on the race official’s part," he said, "and obviously the only fair thing to do is go back to the running order before that restart."

Power and Patrick benefited the most from getting their positions back, but more frustration and controversy was brewing due to that decision made by Race Control.

As the five-car accident was happening, Hunter-Reay--leading the field--failed to get away in a timely manner and was passed by Oriol Servia and Scott Dixon. Although the yellow flag flew right away, Servia and Dixon were rather emphatic that the race went green; therefore their positions at the time of the yellow should have been honored.

“They called it, ‘leader Car 2,” Servia said of the radio transmission he heard in his helmet from Race Control before the yellow came out. "I think it was really wet out there and we shouldn't have gone out, but they threw the green and I was ahead when the yellow went out. Any racing, even here, when you call the leader that is the way it stands. They called me the leader and then they decide to [rescind] it. I am very upset. Race control called leader car No. 2 and that is when the yellow came, we were ahead."

Dixon, who has become open-wheel's VP of Common Sense in recent years, explained the situation and his feelings in a crystal-clear manner.

“It went green," he said, backing up Servia's assertion. "We’re not racing USAC; we’re not racing on dirt. [Those in Race Control] just need to be consistent. It’s not ‘make things up as you go’ racing, it’s IndyCar racing. I’m fine if they make decisions, they just need to be consistent. To be honest, it should have never of gone green. In my eyes, Oriol won the race and I finished second. Ryan [Hunter-Reay] just didn’t go [at the start]. It’s just a bizarre day.”

The IndyCar Series told SPEED.com that Rule 7.1A1bIIIe was used to determine the finishing order, which states: "Laps completed will be scored, unless stated otherwise."

The rule is written in such a ways that it leaves open the possibility for great interpretation.

The field lined up to take the restart and Servia crossed the start/finish line in first, which completed that lap. The fact that Race Control called Servia as the leader upon completing the lap support his claim.

But looking at a replay of the sequence of events, the green flag waved briefly before the yellow waved once again, meaning the cars did not cross the start/finish line under green.

One of the first drivers to cross the start/finish confirmed the in-car yellow light system that Race Control triggers to signal a caution period did not appear until he was almost in Turn 1, highlighting the disparity between when the yellow flag waved (the waving of the yellow flag is not the official start of a caution period) and when the yellow lights went active (the official start of a caution period)...

Ignoring the waving yellow, it's possible the the cars did indeed cross start/finish under green.

One final note on the topic was the question of which lap was used to officially score the race. Cars circulated for three laps under yellow before the red flag came out. Why the series chose to go back multiple laps to set the finishing positions is another curiosity.

The series confirmed to SPEED.com it had received protests from its competitors, and distributed an initial results list Sunday night with the finishing order listed as tentative until final rulings are made.

With strong convictions held on both side of the protest, the decision--whatever it is--won't be easy for some to swallow.

Prior to the post-race flipping of birds and war of words, the series threw the checkered flag as drivers sat in their cars under the red flag, awarding Hunter-Reay the win.

Hunter-Reay, despite the bobble on the Lap 217 restart, was the class of the field after Franchitti's exit, building upon his podium finish at Mid-Ohio last weekend with a much needed win at Loudon.

“It was crazy," he said. "You never knew what was going to happen. Traffic was really hard to negotiate at times. We have great chemistry in the team. After the year we’ve had, we’ve just been chipping away at it. After the gearbox problem at Long Beach (which cost him the win), maybe this is payback.”

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