2006 IRL Rd. 12--Meijer/Coca-Cola Indy 300

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With three races left in the 2006 IRL IndyCar Series season and the championship points the tightest in series history, the stage now moves to the low-banked, and very bumpy, 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway, set in amongst the heart of bluegrass country not far from another great racetrack, Churchill Downs. But instead of actual horsepower, the drivers of the IndyCar Series get 650-hp stallions. It's also been a track has been the friendliest to female drivers in NA motorsports. Here are a few examples.....

2000--IRL rookie driver Sarah Fisher finishes 3rd for Walker Racing
2002--Fisher qualifies on the pole(first woman to do so), setting to date the fastest qual. speed there(221.390 mph, 10 Aug. 2002)
2005(1)--ARCA series driver Erin Crocker qualifies on pole; finishes 2nd
2005(2)--IRL rookie driver Danica Patrick qualifies on pole; finishes 16th but sets fastest lap of the race
2006--Crocker qualifies on ARCA pole for 2nd cons. year.

However, the focus, as it has been for the bulk of the season, will be on the drivers for Marlboro-Team Penske and Target/Ganassi Racing; can anyone stop the combined juggernaut. We shall see......Here is the event schedule for the race weekend(note, all times U.S. EDT; -4 hrs GMT)


Practice Session #1}11 am, 12 August 2006
Practice Session #2}1:45 pm, 12 August 2006
Qualifying Session}4:30 pm, 12 August 2006
Final Practice Session}10:30 am, 13 August 2006
Meijer/Coca-Cola Indy 300......3:30 pm, ABC Sports
~~Spanish-language broadcast on ESPN Desportes; radio broadcasts on the IMS Radio Network(domestic AM radio and webcast through indycar.com), XM Satellite Radio Ch. 145, and TV/radio simulcast ont eh United States Armed Forces Network

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With three races left in the 2006 season, there are storylines a'plenty flying aboust the Bluegrass State, and here are a few of them..............

1}The Rumble in the Bluegrass.........only once before in the history of the IndyCar Series have two women raced in the same event(Indy-2000; Lyn St. James and Sarah Fisher). Kentucky will be the second, and while Fisher returns to the series at Kentucky, it wont' be St. James she'll face on-track but 2005 Bombardier Rookie Award winner Danica Patrick instead. So.....the million-dollar question is, how does Fisher feel about the upcoming race? When asked, she replied,

I'm here to race against everyone. I hope to do the best that I can and get back to the level of IndyCars that put me up front. Every driver has the same goal and drive that I have and that is to win races. Danica and I are two individuals racing out there in a man's world, whether it is in stock cars or IndyCars. I don't look at her any differently than all the other drivers. We are different people who want to achieve the same result. Danica has done so much for the sport of IndyCar racing and I respect that as a fellow competitor.

2}The Championship Fight. In the closest title fight in series history, 5 drivers are within just 56 pts. of each other. Here are some more points to ponder in the championship fight......
~~Only eight points separate points leader Helio Castroneves and second-place Sam Hornish, Jr., the closest since 2002 when the two were separated by only four points with three races left.
~~3 of the top 5(Hornish, Wheldon and Meira) have had strong finishes at Kentucky(all three have average finishes of 6th or better)
~~on the other hand, Target/Ganassi's Scott Dixon hasn't fared well at Kentucky(avg. finish in three starts is 12.7; finished 2nd in 2003, 23th in 2004 and 13th in 2005)

3}Could it be Meira's day? If the Penske and Ganassi boys get into trouble, one driver who could sneak away with the checkers could be Panther Racing's Vitor Meira. 5th in points, he was runner-up last year to Scott Sharp and is expected to do well there, especially considering all the success Panther has had there in the series.

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For the fifth time in the 2006 IndyCar Series season, the all-too-familiar red/white liveries of Marlboro-Team Penske will pace the field to the green in Sunday's Meijer/Coca-Cola Indy 300, as current points leader Helio Castroneves took the pole with a flyer of 24.404 sec(218.328 mph). He'll have familiar company around him at the start; teammate Sam Hornish, Jr. starts P2, and their main rivals this year, Target/Ganassi Racing's Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon, will start P3 and P5. Here is the starting grid for the race............

1}Helio Castroneves, #3 Marlboro-Team Penske D/H..............24.404 sec/218.328 mph
2}Sam Hornish, Jr., #6 Marlboro-Team Penske D/H................24.406 sec/218.307 mph

3}Dan Wheldon, #10 Target D/H...........................................24.553 sec/217.003 mph
4}Tony Kanaan, #11 Team 7-11 D/H.....................................24.580 sec/216.766 mph

5}Scott Dixon, #9 Target D/H...............................................24.586 sec/216.712 mph
6}Dario Franchitti, #27 Canadian Club/AirTran D/H.................24.591 sec/216.666 mph

7}Kosuke Matsurra, #55 Panasonic/Autobacs D/H...................24.622 sec/216.392 mph*
8}Ed Carpenter, #20 Rock & Republic D/H.............................24.622 sec/216.389 mph*

9}Vitor Meira, #4 Revive USA/Network LIVE D/H....................24.646 sec/216.189 mph
10}Scott Sharp, #8 Delphi D/H.............................................24.679 sec/215.889 mph

11}Danica Patrick, #16 Argent/Timken D/H...........................24.729 sec/215.456 mph
12}Sarah Fisher, #5 Fastenal D/H.........................................24.774 sec/215.061 mph

13}Bryan Herta, #7 XM Satellite Radio D/H............................24.783 sec/214.989 mph
14}Buddy Rice, #15 Argent/Pioneer D/H................................24.834 sec/214.541 mph

15}(R)Jeff Simmons, #17 Ethanol D/H...................................24.836 sec/214.524 mph
16}Jeff Bucknum, #14 Texas State Bank D/H.........................24.843 sec/214.468 mph

17}Tomas Scheckter, #2 Rock & Republic D/H.......................24.886 sec/214.095 mph
18}(R)Marco Andretti, #26 NYSE Group D/H...........................24.900 sec/213.997 mph

19}Marty Roth, #25 Roth Racing D/H.....................................24.972 sec/213.362 mph

*Matsurra qualified three/10-thousandths faster than Carpenter(.0003 sec)

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Two weeks ago, Marlboro-Team Penske's Sam Hornish, Jr. finished in last place with mechanical woes, falling out of first in the points race; Sunday, he regained the points lead with two races remaining in the 2006 IndyCar Series season with a late-race pass for the win at the Meijer/Coca-Cola Indy 300. Here is a race recap of what took place.............

~~the race pace was frenetic, with only one accident-related caution which occured on lap 118(three additional cautions were for debris....)
~~eight drivers led during the course of the race, with Dan Wheldon leading 66 laps, Hornish 57, Helio Castroneves 30, Scott Dixon 22, Bryan Herta 17, Vitor Meira 5, Marco Andretti 2 and Scott Sharp 1
~~although he finished in 17th place, Marco Andretti clinched the Bombardier Rookie-of-the-Year Award over Jeff Simmons
~~once again, pitstops proved to be the undoing of a potential win by Dan Wheldon, and this time Wheldon proved to be his own worst enemy; on the final round of stops, he overshot his marks and lost several seconds getting moved back into position
~~in the battle btwn. the series' two female drivers, score round one for Rahal-Letterman's Danica Patrick, who finished 8th; Dreyer & Reinbold's Sarah Fisher, making her return to the series in over two years, finished a rather competitive 12th(BTW, Fisher will race for DRR at Chicagoland on Sept. 10)

Here are the top-10 results from Kentucky..................
1}#6 Sam Hornish, Jr..........................................200 laps
2}#9 Scott Dixon................................................-.588 secs
3}#3 Helio Castroneves......................................-651 secs
4}#10 Dan Wheldon...........................................-1.891 secs
5}#11 Tony Kanaan...........................................-2.305 secs
6}#4 Vitor Meira................................................-2.519 secs
7}#2 Tomas Scheckter......................................-2.824 secs
8}#16 Danica Patrick.........................................-3.240 secs
9}#27 Dario Franchitti........................................-4.707 secs
10}#7 Bryan Herta............................................-4.797 secs