For Marlboro-Team Penske's Sam Hornish, Jr., it was a doubly-sweet 27th birthday.....he finally gets the Kansas monkey off his back, winning today's Kansas Lottery Indy 300, and snatches the points lead away from teammate Helio Castroneves. On a 95-deg.(F) day, with track temps around 128-130 deg.(F), it was a dogfight for most of the race.
When polesitter Dan Wheldon(#10 Target D/H) took the green flag, both he and Hornish pulled away early, neither giving an inch for the first 7 laps until Hornish made a high-side pass entering turn 1, completing it and taking the lead btwn. turns 3-4. He would slowly start to eke out a lead, eventually leading Wheldon and TGR teammate Scott Dixon(#9 Target D/H) by just over 2.3 seconds......until the first caution came out, for a spin by Hornish's teammate, who knocked the rear wing off of his car brushing the turn 4 outside wall. The ensuing caution period gave most all the teams a chance to put new slicks on and fill up fuel tanks, and then it was back out on track......except for Castroneves; to keep from falling a lap behind Dixon, the #3 pitcrew sends helio back out a lap without the rear wing, having him come back into the pits, where they bolt the new rear wing on, somehow keeping him on the lead lap. Others had bad luck of their own making; when the green fell, three drivers, Dario Franchitti(#27 Canadian Club/Klein Tools D/H), Danica Patrick(#16 Argent/PEAK D/H) and Buddy Rice(#15 Argent/Pioneer D/H) all had to serve drive-through penalties on lap 45(first green-flag lap follwing lap 44 restart). Franchitti's was for passing raceleader Dixon under yellow, while Patrick and Rice copped drive-throughs for running over airgun hoses on their respective stops.......all three fell one lap down, and any chance of winning for them flew away like waves of Kansas grain.
When the green fell on lap 44, Dixon led entering the backstretch, only to see Hornish retake the lead at the stripe on lap 45; Wheldon got past his teammate and took up the chase, staying within one second of Hornish. Then, citing "debris" in turn 3, race control throws the yellow flag on lap 89(
why is beyond me....no one saw any debris whatsoever......), and teams once again took tires and fuel, and unlike the first round of stops.....everybody managed to get back ontrack
without passing the leader under yellow OR running over airgun hoses.
Top 5 once all the stops were made.......Hornish, Wheldon, Dixon, Kanaan and Meira.
At the midway point, Hornish quickly retook the lead and, like before, slowly began to pull away from the field, only this time he couldn't shake Wheldon loose; the two stayed within .1-.2 secs. of each other....on eight of the next 50+ laps, the two were side-by-side those entire laps! By lap 148, the leaders begin to make their final stops of the day.....first in was Hornish, who relinquishes the lead Wheldon. Wheldon, in turn, relinquishes the lead to Kanaan, who likewise gives way to Dixon, and so on. By lap 157, everyone has made their final stops of the day, and it was Wheldon who was in the lead, holding a 1.2-sec. lead over Hornish. Then the caution comes out again on lap 167, as Scott Sharp(#8 Delphi D/H) crashes into trhe outside wall btwn. 3 and 4; his race is done, and the field is bunched up for the restart. It was a short restart(2 laps, from 174 to 176) before another caution comes out; this time, it was Rice who crashes into the turn 4 wall, ending an otherwise dismal day for the 2004 Indy 500 winner. When the green flag flew on lap 182, it was soon apparent that either Sam Hornish, Jr. or Dan Wheldon would win today; they pulled away from the pack and began an 18-lap duel which saw Hornish lead for a few laps, then Wheldon lead a few laps; both drivers drove side-by-side for several laps. Finally, Hornish pulled just a bit ahead, planted his car squarely on the bottom white line, challenging Wheldon to try an outside pass for the lead. Wheldon tried on the last 2 laps, but wasn't able to pull it off, as Hornish would win by .079 secs, finally erasing memories of his 2002 race, when a botched restart cost him the victory that year. Here is the top-10 from a sweltering, hot Kansas Speedway.......
1}#6 Sam Hornish, Jr.................................200 laps
2}#10 Dan Wheldon...................................-.0793 secs
3}#4 Vitor Meira........................................-5.389 secs
4}#9 Scott Dixon.......................................-5.519 secs
5}#11 Tony Kanaan...................................-5.776 secs
6}#3 Helio Castroneves.............................-7.043 secs
7}#2 Tomas Scheckter..............................-9.629 secs
8}#55 Kosuke Matsurra.............................-9.988 secs
9}(R)#26 Marco Andretti............................-1 lap
10}(R)#17 Jeff Simmons............................-1 lap
Post-race observations later this evening..................
