MILLER: A Kick To Honda's Crankcase

IndyCar

MILLER: A Kick To Honda’s Crankcase

Chevrolet took Honda to school on Sunday at Long Beach.

Robin Miller | Posted April 16, 2012

As the story goes, following the first CART race ever run at the Honda-built oval in Motegi, Japan back in 1998, the highest-ranking official of Japanese Honda was so mortified about losing to a Ford engine he slapped the president of the racing division at a party that evening.

In Japanese culture it was simply considered the honorable thing to do.

So I can’t imagine what the punishment would have been here Sunday night if Tokyo’s hierarchy had been in attendance.

After inheriting the first five rows on the 26-car grid because the 11 Chevrolet-powered cars were given 10-spot penalties for illegally changing engines, Honda pretty much had a free ride to Victory Lane in the 38th annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

On a street course where track position is usually everything, it turned out to be nothing.

Despite the handicap, General Motors teams not only won the race, they captured six of the first seven spots and gave Honda a massive kick in the crankcase.

Will Power came from 12th to first, kept Team Penske unbeaten for 2012 and gave the Ilmor/Chevy a perfect 3-0 record on its return to Indy-car racing.

And it wasn’t because Honda Performance Development, located in nearby Santa Clarita, doesn’t have enough horsepower or did anything wrong.

It was a combination of Power’s prowess at milking his fuel and making one less pit stop than runner-up Simon Pagenaud and a couple of Honda’s teams dropping the ball.

"It sure didn’t look good before the race started but I’m starting to think anything is possible,’’ said Power, who charged from ninth to a win at Alabama earlier this month and now leads the point standings heading for Brazil.

"It’s kind of shocking to be honest but this is the best team in the business.’’

A quarter of the way into the race, Honda held the top seven positions and Justin Wilson had amassed a 7-second lead in Dale Coyne’s Dallara/Honda. When the second caution waved on Lap 20, Wilson’s crew brought him into the pits – ending any chance of a two-stop strategy.

"I think our strategy ended up not turning out the way we wanted it to,’’ was Wilson’s very diplomatic take on the gaffe.

Chip Ganassi’s four-car Honda armada had a miserable day.

Dario Franchitti, who started on the pole as a result of being the fastest Honda in qualifying, only led four laps and was plagued by four over-boost penalties on restarts before tangling with Ryan Briscoe, who captured the pole position on Saturday.

Teammate Scott Dixon’s car simply stopped on the track and couldn’t be re-started and Graham Rahal was a DNF after clashing with Marco Andretti. Charlie Kimball was having a great run before stalling and winding up 18th.

Besides leading 16 laps in another strong effort, Takuma Sato only made a pair of pit stops and went two laps longer than Power on that final stop but couldn’t keep the fastest man in the IZOD INDYCAR series behind him for long.

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