4: Honda Unleashes The Hellhounds At Indy

Heading into the Indy 500, Round 5 of the 15-race championship, Chevy had mopped the floor with Honda. That’s not to say Honda wasn’t competitive; its drivers were on the podium at each of the first four rounds, and had taken second place on three occasions, but Chevy had won every race and held an edge that was expected to continue through IndyCar’s most important event.

And once practice at the Brickyard got under way, Honda’s lack—lack of torque, top end and overall power—was evident. When it came time to qualify, rookie Josef Newgarden was the only Honda-powered driver to crack the Fast 9, taking seventh in his Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing entry as Chevys flooded the sharp end of the grid.

With qualifying over and the race just a week away, it looked like the S.S. Honda had run aground but, and in one of the best kept secrets of the year, a cure was on the way for Carb Day.

It was a masterful and somewhat fortuitous bit of scheduling that saw all of Honda’s full-time entries receive uprated engines to use for the race and the final pre-race practice, and boy did it show.

Honda’s anchor team, Ganassi Racing, had a forgettable month of May until Carb Day where Dario Franchitti and teammate Scott Dixon topped the session. In fact, they were the only two drivers to break the 222mph barrier, more than .5mph clear of Chevy-powered Marco Andretti in third.

Honda-powered cars would lead 112 of the 200-lap race, with Franchitti and Dixon authoring a Ganassi 1-2, along with making the Scot the newest member of the 3-time winners club. Surprisingly, it would be Franchitti’s only victory of the year.

Franchitti’s accomplishment and Honda’s amazing display of horsepower and fuel efficiency wasn’t the only memorable aspect of Indy 2012. Takuma Sato, whose post-race comment of “Job done” in relation to his failed attempt to pass Franchitti for the race lead on Lap 199, became Robin Miller’s favorite new catch phrase, and the star-crossed ex-F1 pilot almost shocked the world by coming so close to winning his first IndyCar race at the Indy 500.

Toss in all of the wild restarts and constant passing, and Indy 2013 will have a hard time matching the memories this year’s race gave its fans and competitors.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway also did a nice job of farewelling 2011 Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon by filling the stands with a version of the Brit’s trademark white sunglasses for everyone to wear on the first parade lap, and on laps 26 and 98—the car numbers he used to claim both of his 500 victories.

Honda’s good mojo would continue at the next two rounds as Dixon delivered the most dominant, ‘lights out’ drive of the year at Detroit, and Dale Coyne Racing’s Justin Wilson would go on to win at Texas after Honda-powered drivers led 191 of the 228-lap race. After Texas, and barring Dixon’s win at Mid-Ohio, Chevy would take seven of the remaining eight rounds.

INDYCAR: Franchitti, Honda Wins Thrilling Indy 500

INDYCAR: An Indy 500 To Remember