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IndyCar
INDYCAR: Kansas Notebook
“You lied to us,” Brzozowski said to Sato. “You said you’d never done this before but you can’t be this good your first time.”
Takuma Sato, right, impressed for the first 186 laps on his first oval race. Lap 187? Not so much. (LAT)
Just past halfway in Saturday’s Turbo Indy 300, KV Racing team manager Dave Brzozowski was chatting with Takuma Sato during a caution period.
“You lied to us,” Brzozowski said to Sato. “You said you’d never done this before but you can’t be this good your first time.”
As it turned out, Sato’s debut on an oval track wound up against the wall at Kansas Speedway but, up until he tangled with countryman Hideki Mutoh on Lap 187, the ex-Formula One regular looked like anything but a rookie.
Starting 11th, Sato steadily moved up and stayed on the lead lap until finding himself in a helluva battle for fifth place with three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves by Lap 160.
“That was very exciting, running side-by-side with him (Castroneves) and it seemed like my car just got stronger and stronger,” said Sato.
With only 15 laps left, the 32-year-old native of Tokyo found himself right behind Mutoh (in fifth) coming down for a restart. The Newman/Haas driver got pushed up the track and into his boyhood hero – both smacking the outside wall.
“There was a pack in front on the restart while I was racing Hideki and it looked like he pushed up to the wall and I had nowhere to go,” said Sato.
“I talked with Hideki and we both had nowhere to go so it was very unfortunate and I feel bad for all the Japanese fans.”
Mutoh, who started fourth and ran as high as third, was doubly distraught. “My team gave me a good car and it was a shame our race ended like that. But I hated to crash Takuma because I respect him a lot.”
Considering he had never turned a lap on an oval until last Wednesday during rookie practice, Sato’s performance was pretty extraordinary.
“I didn’t see what happened but I’m not sure he put a wheel wrong all day and overall he was very impressive,” said Mark Johnson, general manager for KV Racing Technology.
“He had a good understanding of what was going on and his in and out laps were quite good. I know Kansas is a whole lot different than Texas will be but I thought he did a good job of coming to grips with oval racing.”
PENSKE DUSTED
It doesn’t happen very often but Team Penske got smoked, collectively, at the first oval race of 2010.
Starting on the pole, Ryan Briscoe led the first 31 laps before Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti blasted past and drove off. Neither Briscoe, Helio Castroneves or Will Power got a decent look at the Target cars the rest of the afternoon.
“Man, we had nothing for those two guys today and that kinda worries me heading for Indy,” said Castroneves, who started eighth and finished fourth. “I mean, they were just on a different track and I’m not sure why.
“But the good news is that Kansas doesn’t have much to do with Indianapolis.”
Briscoe salvaged sixth after losing a wheel and having to make an extra pit stop.
“I passed a lot of cars out there, probably more than anybody else, but it was a tough day,” said Briscoe, the only Team Penske driver yet to win this season.
“All things considered, I guess it was pretty good we got back to sixth after being as far back as 12th.”
Power, who captured the first two races of 2010, qualified seventh, dropped back immediately and wound up 12th – two laps behind winner Dixon.
AGR’S MIXED BAG
Andretti Autosport’s five-car assault ended up with three positive results and two not so much.
Tony Kanaan charged from 15th to third, Ryan Hunter-Reay bolted from 22nd to fifth and John Andretti went from 17th to ninth while Danica Patrick finished 11th and Marco Andretti was 13th.
“I relied on good restarts, good pit stops and a lot of hard driving,” said Kanaan, the last winner on an oval (June of 2008) that wasn’t a Ganassi or Penske driver.
“We definitely didn’t have the fastest car but we made the most of what we had.”
Coming off his Long Beach victory for sponsor IZOD, Hunter-Reay kept his momentum by scoring his best oval result ever.
“It was wild out there and I nearly crashed several times but my crew is so good and gave me another good car,” he said. “This was good for the championship and all I can say is that this is such a great group of people.”
Andretti, driving for cousin Michael at Indy for the first time ever with Window World as a sponsor, used KC as a warmup and turned in a spirited effort.
“I can’t be disappointed because I felt if we finished in the Top 10 it would be pretty good,” said the longtime NASCAR regular who began his career in CART in 1987. “It was good for me and we were good on long runs so that bodes well for Indy.”
NOTES & QUOTES
Dixon’s win was the 14th oval in a row for the Ganassi/Penske armada – dating back to 2008 at Richmond when Kanaan won for Andretti/Green…...The crowd was woeful, estimated at less than 15,000, which brought the quote of the day from SPEED camerman Brian Clark: “I’ve got more dandelions in my yard than there were people in the grandstands.”
“You lied to us,” Brzozowski said to Sato. “You said you’d never done this before but you can’t be this good your first time.”
As it turned out, Sato’s debut on an oval track wound up against the wall at Kansas Speedway but, up until he tangled with countryman Hideki Mutoh on Lap 187, the ex-Formula One regular looked like anything but a rookie.
Starting 11th, Sato steadily moved up and stayed on the lead lap until finding himself in a helluva battle for fifth place with three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves by Lap 160.
“That was very exciting, running side-by-side with him (Castroneves) and it seemed like my car just got stronger and stronger,” said Sato.
With only 15 laps left, the 32-year-old native of Tokyo found himself right behind Mutoh (in fifth) coming down for a restart. The Newman/Haas driver got pushed up the track and into his boyhood hero – both smacking the outside wall.
“There was a pack in front on the restart while I was racing Hideki and it looked like he pushed up to the wall and I had nowhere to go,” said Sato.
“I talked with Hideki and we both had nowhere to go so it was very unfortunate and I feel bad for all the Japanese fans.”
Mutoh, who started fourth and ran as high as third, was doubly distraught. “My team gave me a good car and it was a shame our race ended like that. But I hated to crash Takuma because I respect him a lot.”
Considering he had never turned a lap on an oval until last Wednesday during rookie practice, Sato’s performance was pretty extraordinary.
“I didn’t see what happened but I’m not sure he put a wheel wrong all day and overall he was very impressive,” said Mark Johnson, general manager for KV Racing Technology.
“He had a good understanding of what was going on and his in and out laps were quite good. I know Kansas is a whole lot different than Texas will be but I thought he did a good job of coming to grips with oval racing.”
PENSKE DUSTED
It doesn’t happen very often but Team Penske got smoked, collectively, at the first oval race of 2010.
Starting on the pole, Ryan Briscoe led the first 31 laps before Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti blasted past and drove off. Neither Briscoe, Helio Castroneves or Will Power got a decent look at the Target cars the rest of the afternoon.
“Man, we had nothing for those two guys today and that kinda worries me heading for Indy,” said Castroneves, who started eighth and finished fourth. “I mean, they were just on a different track and I’m not sure why.
“But the good news is that Kansas doesn’t have much to do with Indianapolis.”
Briscoe salvaged sixth after losing a wheel and having to make an extra pit stop.
“I passed a lot of cars out there, probably more than anybody else, but it was a tough day,” said Briscoe, the only Team Penske driver yet to win this season.
“All things considered, I guess it was pretty good we got back to sixth after being as far back as 12th.”
Power, who captured the first two races of 2010, qualified seventh, dropped back immediately and wound up 12th – two laps behind winner Dixon.
AGR’S MIXED BAG
Andretti Autosport’s five-car assault ended up with three positive results and two not so much.
Tony Kanaan charged from 15th to third, Ryan Hunter-Reay bolted from 22nd to fifth and John Andretti went from 17th to ninth while Danica Patrick finished 11th and Marco Andretti was 13th.
“I relied on good restarts, good pit stops and a lot of hard driving,” said Kanaan, the last winner on an oval (June of 2008) that wasn’t a Ganassi or Penske driver.
“We definitely didn’t have the fastest car but we made the most of what we had.”
Coming off his Long Beach victory for sponsor IZOD, Hunter-Reay kept his momentum by scoring his best oval result ever.
“It was wild out there and I nearly crashed several times but my crew is so good and gave me another good car,” he said. “This was good for the championship and all I can say is that this is such a great group of people.”
Andretti, driving for cousin Michael at Indy for the first time ever with Window World as a sponsor, used KC as a warmup and turned in a spirited effort.
“I can’t be disappointed because I felt if we finished in the Top 10 it would be pretty good,” said the longtime NASCAR regular who began his career in CART in 1987. “It was good for me and we were good on long runs so that bodes well for Indy.”
NOTES & QUOTES
Dixon’s win was the 14th oval in a row for the Ganassi/Penske armada – dating back to 2008 at Richmond when Kanaan won for Andretti/Green…...The crowd was woeful, estimated at less than 15,000, which brought the quote of the day from SPEED camerman Brian Clark: “I’ve got more dandelions in my yard than there were people in the grandstands.”
INDYCAR BRAZIL
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