2007 IRL Rd. 4--Kansas Lottery Indy 300

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With the teams hopefully getting reacclimated back to North America, it is time to travel to America's heartland and the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway, home to the last pre-Indy 500 race on the 2007 schedule, the Kansas Lottery Indy 300. Just outside Kansas City(on the Kansas side of the KS/MO border), this race was on the schedule in July(which meant high temperatures and humidity); will the move up the calendar affect how the teams perpare? One storyline that I'll be following during the weekend is this one......Going into the season, everyone knew the key to beating the "four red car" juggernaut would be to beat them on the IndyCar Series' main set of tracks, the 1.5-mile superspeedway ovals; with the win in Motegi by AGR's Tony Kanaan, has Penske and Ganassi finally been caught up to by the collective peloton', or will they still continue to dominate?


Here is the event schedule for the weekend..................
Practice Session #1} 9-11 am, 28 April 2007
Practice Session #2} 11:20 am-1:20 pm, 28 April 2007
Qualifying Session} 3:15-4:15 pm, 28 April 2007
Kansas Lottery Indy 300, 3:30 pm, ESPN-2(radio simulcast on the IMS Radio Network, XM Satellite Radio Ch. 144-Sports Nation and Ch. 145-IndyCar Racing and on the United States Armed Forces Network)

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~~Event name...........Kansas Lottery Indy 300
~~Location................Kansas Speedway, Wyandotte Co.(a/k/a KC), Ks.
~~Start time..............4 pm, 29 April 2007
~~Distance................200 laps/300 miles
~~Racecars...............Dallara/Honda using 100% grade ethanol fuel
~~Track specifics.......Frontstretch, 2685 feet banked at 10 degrees; turns banked at 15 degrees; backstretch, 2207 feet banked at 5 degrees; track width from track apron to outside wall 55 feet

Now the Friday notebook...............
~~Cleared to drive.............after three successful tests(2 at Kansas, 1 at Texas), SAMAX Motorsports driver Milka Duno will be making her first IndyCar Series start; IndyCar Series techincal chief Kevin "Rocketman" Blanch gave his assessment as to her test...........

She understands the car. She can feel the car with her seat; it's telling her what the car is doing. I asked her several questions and she gave me the answers that I felt other drivers with more experience would have given. In two laps she was up to the same speed as she was prior to every pitstop (during the test). That's the main key--to be able to go back out there and run the same speed each time. That's one of the things we look for. Also, her lines out there were consistent, each time. She's (at) the point now where she needs to run with other cars and see where she stacks up. We'll be watching her this weekend, especially in traffic, just as we would with any other driver.

Over the past few weeks, Duno has picked up support from former IndyCar Series driver Eddie Cheever and from current competitor Tomas Scheckter, who had this to say to USA Today's A.J. Perez about Duno(the two competed in the then-Formula Nissan series in Europe in 2001),

She's very competent. She puts forth maximum effort; she's always had great concentration and is a quick learner. I think you'll see that (in her) in IndyCar.

In addition, former Grand-Am Series competitor and driving partner Andy Wallace had this to say about her in regards to criticism over whether she can drive a racecar*,

For me (at the time) it didn't matter whether I'm driving with a man, a woman or an ape. All that matters is if the person can drive the car. And if I didn't think she could, I wouldn't have been her driving partner (then).

.
*-Wallace and Duno won three times in the Rolex Series at Homestead(twice in 2004) and at Mt. Tremblant in 2005; Duno also has five wins in the American LeMans Series

All I can say is......from someone who potentially could be eating a lot of crow(just read my commentary in the Commentaries from the Paddock thread about whether I felt Duno was qualified to drive an IndyCar.....), I want to wish Duno the best of luck in her debut this weekend at Kansas.

~~Hoping for better results.......Vision Racing's Tomas Scheckter has had some success at Kansas Speedway, with a pole in his rookie season w/then-Red Bull/Cheever Racing in 2002 and a 5th-place finish in 2005. With three top-10 finishes this year, the Cape Town, South Africa native is looking for continued good fortunes in America's heartland.........

Last season we had a good race car at Kansas and put in a decent showing; we could've performed better, but we ran a solid race and finished seventh. We've got a great run going so far this season and I think we can continue that this weekend in Kansas and get ourselves in a good position to do well at Indy.

~~Quote of the day.........

It was a lot warmer the last time we raced here.

Marco Andretti, Andretti-Green Racing.
(Mod's thought......no kidding, genius; of course it was warmer.....it was in July!!!! )

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Practice Groups/Qualifying Order,
Kansas Lottery Indy 300

~~10 drivers in group 1; 11 drivers in group 2
Group 1............
A.J. Foyt, IV, Vision Racing
Kosuke Matsuura, Agrui-Panther Racing
Alex Barron, CAB Racing
Sam Hornish, Jr., Team Penske
Marty Roth, Roth Racing
Ed Carpenter, Vision Racing
Scott Dixon, Target/Ganassi Racing
Dario Franchitti, Andretti-Green Racing
Buddy Rice, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
Scott Sharp, Rahal-Letterman Racing

Group 2............
Tomas Scheckter, Vision Racing
Jeff Simmons, Rahal-Letterman Racing
Tony Kanaan, Andretti-Green Racing
Vitor Meira, Aguri-Panther Racing
Dan Wheldon, Target/Ganassi Racing
Marco Andretti, Andretti-Green Racing
(R)Milka Duno, SAMAX Motorsports
Helio Castroneves, Team Penske
Darren Manning, A.J. Foyt Racing
Danica Patrick, Andretti-Green Racing
Sarah Fisher, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing

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Practice Session #1 top-5..............
1} #10 Dan Wheldon, Target/Ganassi Racing.....................25.685 sec/213.046 mph
2} #11 Tony Kanaan, Andretti-Green Racing......................25.745 sec/212.549 mph
3} #9 Scott Dixon, Target/Ganassi Racing..........................25.760 sec/212.426 mph
4} #7 Danica Patrick, Andretti-Green Racing......................25.838 sec/211.779 mph
5} #3 Helio Castroneves, Team Penske.............................25.8841 sec/211.761 mph

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Practice Session #2 top-5...................
1} #9 Scott Dixon, Target/Ganassi Racing............................25.585 sec/213.876 mph
2} #6 Sam Hornish, Jr., Team Penske..................................25.610 sec/213.671 mph
3} #11 Tony Kanaan, Andretti-Green Racing........................25.656 sec/213.284 mph
4} #10 Dan Wheldon, Target/Ganassi Racing........................25.688 sec/213.015 mph
5} #7 Danica Patrick, Andretti-Green Racing.........................25.741 sec/212.578 mph

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During the post-qualifying press conference following AAMCO Transmissions Pole Qualifying for Sunday's Kansas Lottery Indy 300, Andretti-Green Racing's Tony Kanaan was asked how it felt to give the team their first pole on a superspeedway since Dario Franchitti's pole position effort at Fontana in 2005.......his response:

When? Wow, that's a long time. It's a great feeling, especially since we struggled on this kind of track last year. Did we expect to be better? Yes. Did we expect to start on the pole? No; but's it a good feeling.

*note--the pole position was Kanaan's first since the 89th Indianapolis 500 in 2005

Kansas Lottery Indy 300 Starting Grid..............
1} Tony Kanaan, #11 Team 7-11.........................................25.548 sec/214.188 mph
2} Sam Hornish, Jr., #6 Team Penske..................................25.571 sec/213.992 mph

3} Helio Castroneves, #3 Team Penske...............................25.592 sec/213.817 mph
4} Dan Wheldon, #10 Target..............................................25.593 sec/213.812 mph

5} Scott Dixon, #9 Target...................................................25.595 sec/213.793 mph
6} Dario Franchitti, #27 Canadian Club/Vonage....................25.681 sec/213.071 mph

7} Tomas Scheckter, #2 Indy Vision....................................25.807 sec/212.033 mph
8} Vitor Meira, #4 Delphi....................................................25.832 sec/211.834 mph

9} Marco Andretti, #26 NYSE Group.....................................25.835 sec/211.808 mph
10} Danica Patrick, #7 Motorola..........................................25.836 sec/211.796 mph

11} Darren Manning, #14 ABC Supply Co.............................25.851 sec/211.672 mph
12} Kosuke Matsuura, #55 Panasonic/ARTA..........................25.872 sec/211.502 mph

13} Ed Carpenter, #20 Indy Vision.......................................25.878 sec/211.454 mph
14} Scott Sharp, #8 Tequila Patron.......................................25.882 sec/211.424 mph

15} A.J. Foyt, IV, #22 Indy Vision.........................................25.909 sec/211.202 mph
16} Jeff Simmons, #17 Ethanol.............................................25.934 sec/210.994 mph

17} Sarah Fisher, #5 AAMCO Transmissions...........................25.989 sec/210.551 mph
18} Buddy Rice, #15 RollCoater/Racing for Kids......................25.992 sec/210.526 mph

19} Marty Roth, #25 Fountain Powerboats...............................26.121 sec/209.485 mph
20} Alex Barron, #98 CURB Records.......................................26.175 sec/209.058 mph

21} (R)Milka Duno, #23 CITGO...............................................26.275 sec/208.256 mph

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Race-time weather conditions...............

Temperatures...................85 degrees F
Humidity..........................31 pct.
Barometric pressure.........30.10 inches
Winds..............................10 mph--SW(headlines entering into turns 1 & 2; tailwinds along the backstretch)

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When the temperature climbs in Kansas City, racing fans don't wilt and run for cover.....they just use it as an excuse to grab more beers and watch some exciting racing.......which is exactly what today's Kansas Lottery Indy 300 was, at least for race winner Dan Wheldon, who dominated today's race, leading 188 of 200 laps.

Afterwards, the Emberton, England native congratulated his team on the effort they put forth in helping him get to victory lane.....

It was a real team effort today. Both cars and everybody involved did a real good job today. We're raring to go for the big one, the Indianapolis 500. That's the big goal for us.

Chip Ganassi, owner of Target/Ganassi Racing, added,

We're pretty happy about this; we're always to build momentum going into the month of May and this will put us in a good place for going to Indianapolis.

Rounding out the podium in second was Andretti-Green Racing's Dario Franchitti, who finished over 18 seconds behind Wheldon; Team Penske's Helio Castroneves finished in third, ahead of Wheldon's TGR teammate Scott Dixon, who finished fourth(and might've won the race if not for a late drive-through penalty for not entering the pitlane entrance on the backstretch but entering in turn 4.... ). Finishing fifth was the Vision Racing entry piloted by Tomas Scheckter, who ran in the top 1/3 of the grid for most, if not all, of the race.

On the other hand, two drivers who probably wish things had gone differently than they did were Andretti-Green Racing drivers Danica Patrick and Tony Kanaan, who collided with each other during the first round of stops........essentially, this is what happened. Patrick went in first and her pitstop is going along okay; just as her crew chief signals her to exit, Kanaan starts entering his pitstall.....and "whammo", the right-front of Patrick's car hits the left-front of Kanaan's......Kanaan got the worst of it; a broken left suspension dropped him eight laps behind Wheldon, ruining what had been a good day for the Brazilian. Afterwards, Kanaan had this to say to ar1.com,

This was an extremely dissappointing day; the Team 7-11 car was capable of winning.

(Mod's note......from all reports, Kanaan was pretty steamed over what happened, regardless of the above quote.... ). George Klotz, race strategist for the #11 team, was more circumspect.....

I don't know what to say; it's definitely unfortunate. Tony is mad, but I feel sorry for Danica too. It is just something that happened. Team 7-11 has found some speed so we'll take that to Indianapolis and hopefully give Tony a car to win with.

(Mod's note 2......get TK to an anger management class, and get Patrick's crew chief some glasses! )

Here is the top-10 from today's race...............
1} #10 Dan Wheldon......................................200 laps
2} #27 Dario Franchitti...................................-18.483 sec
3} #3 Helio Castroneves.................................-33.228 sec
4} #9 Scott Dixon..........................................-34.421 sec
5} #2 Tomas Scheckter..................................-41.826 sec
6} #6 Sam Hornish, Jr....................................-1 lap
7} #7 Danica Patrick......................................-2 laps
8} #4 Vitor Meira...........................................-2 laps
9} #22 A.J. Foyt, IV.......................................-2 laps
10} #17 Jeff Simmons....................................-2 laps