INDYCAR: Top 10 Races Of 2011

IndyCar

INDYCAR: Top 10 Races Of 2011

Compiling a “Top 10 Races” list would be easy to do for the IZOD IndyCar Series in any other year than the one we just experienced.

Marshall Pruett | Posted December 18, 2011

The 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series season got off to an inauspicious start and ended in a manner that many are still trying to process and reconcile. (LAT)

Compiling a “Top 10 Races” list would be easy to do for the IZOD IndyCar Series in any other year than the one we just experienced.

The season opened and closed with massive crashes, drivers argued, emotions flared and tensions continued to build. Race Control shot itself in the foot/made questionable calls/non-calls and, between all the nonsense, a combination of old dogs and young pups helped to stage a number of great races.

It’s nigh on impossible to pick a theme for this Top 10 list, so rather than try to select the best, most compelling or most memorable races, here’s the 10 from last season that, for whatever reason, will stay with this writer for a good while.

10: Infineon Raceway (Sonoma)

Will Power crushes the field to lead home a Team Penske 1-2-3, the first 1-2-3 for The Captain since Nazareth in 1994. In an era of spec cars, this kind of dominance is rare.

Notables: Simona de Silvestro earns her passport’s first red stamp as she’s denied entry to the US. Simon Pagenaud subs for Simona with no warning, streaks from Spain to San Francisco overnight, climbs in an ill-handling car on a track he’s never driven, and by Sunday, is badgering the top half of the field. Ho-Pin Tung also makes his IndyCar debut and Giorgio Pantano makes his return after being away since 2005.

9: St. Petersburg

Coming off a 2010 season where many believed excessive contact was damaging the sport, Helio Castroneves foreshadows more of what’s to come by locking his brakes into Turn 1 at the start and hitting Marco Andretti…who would eventually land on his lid after many of the best cars in the field were either taken out or in need of repairs.

With a depleted field resuming the race, Dario Franchitti and Will Power--the only two cars ahead of the melee--took off, but Franchitti, in what was one of the ballsiest moves of the year, skirted by Power on the outside of the Turn 1-2 complex. Power, caught off guard by the cheeky pass in such narrow confines, brushes the wall yet holds onto his crabbing Dallara for the remainder of the race. The pass and subsequent visit with the wall plants the first seed in what would become a rather contentious relationship with the Scot.

Behind Franchitti and Power, and to the delight of Indy car fans, a thrilling duel for third takes place between Tony Kanaan and Simona de Silvestro, which would go to Kanaan and his rather wide KV car.

Unfortunately, St. Petersburg would set a season-long trend of crashes that would eventually rock open-wheel racing.

Notables: Rookie Sebastian Saavedra looks like a future champion in early practice, but quells future discussions on the topic after destroying the front of his Dallara by clipping Sebastien Bourdais while exiting pit lane. The Colombian then went headfirst into the cement barrier across from pit exit at over 100 mph… Bourdais suffers a brake failure in morning warmup, crashes hard and with little time for repairs, is forced to sit out the season opener.

8: Iowa

Marco Andretti ends the ‘when will he win his second race’ streak at 1763 days after moving up from 17th to lead Tony Kanaan to the checkered flag on the tough Iowa oval. Scott Dixon also motors from 23rd to third.

Notables: Takuma Sato takes his first IndyCar pole. Simona de Silvestro, who was understandably rattled after being upside down and on fire at Indy and in the wall hard backwards at Milwaukee, does not start the race. Will Power’s championship aspirations take the first major hit of the year when his pit crew launches him into Charlie Kimball, who was tuning into his stall.

7: Baltimore

Will Power reels off 10 qualifying laps to close the race and add yet another road/street course win, then climbs from the car completely exhausted. He’s rejuvenated in a matter of minutes when the liveliest victory circle of the year cheers him on along with Oriol Servia and Tony Kanaan, who came close to dying in morning warmup when his brakes fail at the end of the long front straight. Power’s mighty drive aside, the race will go down as one of the brightest spots of the year as Charm City embraces the series from start to finish.

Notables: Practice starts four hours late after the series is forced to add temporary chicanes on the front straight to slow cars over the railroad tracks. Kanaan uses his friend Helio Castroneves as a launching pad to keep from piling straight into a cement wall. Ryan Briscoe sets off a chain reaction that grinds the race to a halt in the hairpin, impacting 12 cars.

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