It’s fair to say Justin Wilson and his Z-Line Designs Dale Coyne Racing team entered the Watkins Glen IndyCar race on a low after suffering a seemingly endless string of crashes and poor finishes after taking third at St. Pete to open the season. The next seven races would see ‘Bad a#%’ finish in 22nd, 14th, 23rd, 15th, 15th, 18th and 14th. But when it came time for redemption, Wilson drove his #18 Dallara-Honda into the distance, leading 46 laps of the 60 lap race.
After watching the Ganassi and Penske drivers win every round in 2009, being the unlikely man to break their domination (and with a privateer effort) wasn’t lost on Wilson.
“We’ve put our efforts into the road courses because we knew that’s where we could be strong. To think, at the start of the year I didn’t think I’d be driving and here I am having won a race. I was grinning from ear to ear on that last lap. We’ve been trying to tell people we’re on our way, and I think this lets them know.”
For team owner Dale Coyne, his first win in a quarter century of trying as an owner and driver wasn’t met with an overflow of emotions. The faithful entrant knew his dedication would eventually pay off, saying “It took too long” with a smile.
Runner-up Ryan Briscoe honored the efforts of Wilson and Coyne. “Big congrats to Dale Coyne and the whole team and Justin (Wilson). We got caught out by the yellow. We went a lap further than him in the first stint. That was going to get us the lead back, but unfortunately the yellow came, and we had to make two pit stops. That put us back. We had to work hard to come through the field. We had some great pit stops, and it was pretty exciting at the end with everybody on the softer compound. I had my hands full defending them.”
Watkins Glen got off to a mostly clean start, despite Ryan Hunter-Reay finding his left front wheel at odd angles after a first lap tangle with Luczo Dragon’s Rafa Matos. The defending race winner’s hopes for a repeat win were over by the end of lap 1. It was his second first-lap exit with A.J. Foyt in three appearances for the Texan.
Polesitter Ryan Briscoe took the lead into turn 1 and used a higher downforce package to hold off a persistent threat from Wilson in the early going as the Briton came close to passing the Aussie going into the Bus Stop chicane. Wilson finally got by under braking into the chicane on lap three after Briscoe got a poor run out of turn one.
The Z-Line Designs car went for a lower downforce package – different than what we’d soon learn the all of the Penske and Ganassi cars would utilize, and Castroneves, Dixon and Franchitti often found themselves on the rev limiter on the longer straights. Wilson held onto his Dallara in the opening laps and leapt at the chance to pass Briscoe. Once past, it became clear that Bad a#% would be the man everyone had to beat on Sunday.
KV Racing’s Mario Moraes made an impressive move to jump the third, holding off Target’s Dixon in fourth and Franchitti in fifth. The inconsistent Brazilian youngster has shown flashes of brilliance this year, and with more experience, could be a regular threat in the series. Sadly, his third place wouldn’t last long as he attempted to defy gravity and the laws of physics later in the race.
E.J Viso’s desperate attempt to pass Marco Andretti on lap five left the AGR driver with a flat right rear tire, ending his hopes of a solid finish. Andretti wasn’t done though, blocking the leaders as Wilson attempted to pass Marco on lap eight. Once Wilson and Briscoe got by, the lapped driver insisted on holding off Moraes and the Target cars, creating an impossible gap between the top two cars and the runners in third through fifth.
Moraes got by four laps later, but not before he’d lost almost six seconds to Briscoe. AGR’s Tony Kanaan made a lot of progress in the opening laps, moving to seventh after starting ninth.
Dreyer & Reinbold’s Mike Conway held fifth after thirteen laps, ahead of Dario Franchitti and hot on Dixon’s tracks. Kanaan would get by Dario to take 6th on lap seventeen as the Scot dealt with dire understeer.
Bad a#% was able to hold a slight lead over Briscoe – about a second on most laps – up to his first pit stop at the end of lap eighteen. Wilson also switched to Firestone Blacks, as did most of the front runners.
Team 3G’s Richard Antinucchi brought out a caution on lap nineteen when he went off in turn one; Briscoe pitted immediately (despite the pits being closed) to get a splash of fuel to continue (similar to Franchitti’s splash at Richmond that handed the lead and win to Scott Dixon). One the long road course, Briscoe suffered little for the extra stop under yellow.
Briscoe emerged in second behind Moraes but regained his position when the pits opened and the Team Penske crew got the Aussie out ahead of Mario. Marco Andretti stayed out during the yellow and was waved around, regaining his lost lap.
The big winners were Wilson and Conway – both pitted before the yellow and found themselves with an appreciable margin over Briscoe (eleventh), Dixon (thirteenth) and Franchitti (fourteenth) when the green flag waved on lap 23.
Conway was passed by Graham Rahal on the re-start before a yellow flew when Franchitti found himself backwards in the gravel at the Bus Stop, Moraes flying over Ed Carpenter, and Carpenter with a punctured right front tire.
A foolish attempt by Moraes to pass Carpenter at the apex of the first chicane found the KV car airborne and Carpenter with a holed Firestone. As the crash caused a panic for those immediately behind this incident, Franchitti was hit and spun into the sand trap. The #10 Target car wasn’t damaged, but the points leader lost a lap, resuming in nineteenth place.
Despite his collateral damage, Moraes continued unscathed in tenth until the IndyCar Series levied a drive-through penalty for Moraes once the action got back under way on lap 26. Hideki Mutoh re-started in third after Rahal pitted for a splash of fuel. Like Moraes, Mutoh was on a charge early on, but it wouldn’t last.
Paul Tracy had a quiet day on his first trip to Watkins before backing his car into the barriers on lap 29, bringing out the race’s third yellow. PT’s day was over immediately, but the popular Canadian will be back next week at Toronto.
The top-10 runners at the halfway point were Wilson, Conway, Mutoh, Wheldon, Castroneves, Patrick, Briscoe, Dixon, Matos and Kanaan.
None of the leaders pitted during the PT caution, but Franchitti stopping to take fresh Reds and to top up his tank. What was a three-stop race without yellows quickly evolved into a two-stopper. Team owner Coyne was more relived than anything else after his first win. After 25 years of trying, the popular and faithful IndyCar entrant more than deserves his turn in the spotlight.
The re-start on lap 33 would find the lead pack running in order until the final round of pit stops came. Wilson and Conway, both on Blacks, held a two second lead over Mutoh on Reds in third. Hideki and Matos pitted on lap 40, dropping the Brazilian rookie down the order from ninth. Wilson and Conway made their final stops on lap 41, as did Wheldon and Patrick. All but Wheldon bolted on the softer Reds. Castroneves pitted one laps later for Reds, followed by Briscoe and Kanaan one lap after that – Briscoe also resumed on Blacks. Scott Dixon held on the longest, burning down his fuel load even more and posting his fastest lap on lap 43.
Dixon pitted with 16 laps to go and the strategy worked perfectly, jumping to third behind Briscoe and ahead of Castroneves and Conway. Wilson held a 1.4 second lead over Briscoe once Marco Andretti pitted from the lead.
Marco’s move to mimic Dixon and run on a light load for as long as possible promoted the American to sixth place ahead of Viso.
Hideki Mutoh crashed in the same spot as Paul Tracy on lap 52, destroying the rear of his AGR Dallara and bringing out the fourth caution of the event. This set the stage for a flat-out race to the finish and with Wilson’s Firestone Reds needing to cool, the yellow came at the perfect time for the former F1 racer.
Wilson streaked to a lead as the green flag waved with six laps to go, catching the Aussie sleeping. Briscoe’s Blacks took too long to come up to temperature, giving Bad a#% a 2.8 second gap with 5 laps left to go. Wilson made it 3.7 seconds with 4 laps to go and stamped his authority on the race as Briscoe, Dixon, Castroneves, Conway and Andretti ran in a tight pack behind him.
Wilson drew away even more on the final lap, crossing the line 4.99 seconds ahead of Briscoe and signaling a new threat in the series (at least for the next two rounds) on road/street courses. Wilson came close at St. Pete, but at Watkins Glen, no one had an answer for the lanky Brit. The win also moved Bad a#% inside the top-10 in points.
Dixon’s third place finish moved the 2008 series champion back to the top of the points table, 19 ahead of Briscoe and teammate Franchitti. “It was definitely pretty tough," said Dixon. "We lost a spot at the start when I didn’t shift down enough gears and (Mario) Moraes got by us. It was a tough first stint. We had about eight to 10 laps on them from qualifying, and they wore out pretty quick. We got caught out on strategy, and we didn’t have enough. Congratulations to Justin (Wilson). He drove a fantastic race and was unstoppable today. Ryan (Briscoe) and I had a great race at the end, and thanks to the Target boys we had a good day.”
Castroneves was pleased with taking fourth, a big jump from his start in thirteenth. “The goal is not to start in the middle of the pack," the 3-time Indy 500 winner said. "We definitely had a fantastic day. I knew the car was much better than 13th. On the second pit stop, those guys (Dale Coyne Racing) definitely had red tires and made a great, clean lap. But at the end of the day, we finished fourth. If you would have told me at the beginning of the race that we would finish fourth, I would have told you, ‘No way, you don’t know what you’re talking about,’ but it turned out to be a great day.”
Conway’s dream run in the top-5 suffered a setback on the last lap when Andretti got by the English rookie as his front tires gave up the fight, dropping him to sixth. “It was a great result for everybody. We ran strong all day. It was a shame that we couldn’t quite get the result in the end. It was a case of me coming out of the box, and I lost a couple of seconds and gave me the gap to Justin Wilson, and everyone came in between us. We were running top five and saving fuel. I struggled with the balance in the end, but we still brought the Dad’s Root Beer car home in sixth place. I just have to thank the Dad’s Root Beer crew; they did a great job all weekend, and I’m looking forward to Toronto.”
Kanaan pushed hard to draw Viso in for seventh, but the Venezuelan kept the 2004 IndyCar champion behind him in eighth to the finish. “I really thought the Team 7-Eleven car was going to have a better finish today. We are working really hard to improve our race results, and it’s frustrating when we finish lower than we expected. I’m headed to Indy tonight to work with my engineers this week, so hopefully we can figure out what we can do to make us more competitive moving forward. I’m looking forward to getting to Toronto since it’s a track I have been to many times.”
Robert Doornbos survived an early pit stop to replace a damaged front wing to take ninth, and Panther’s Dan Wheldon took tenth in his National Guard Dallara-Honda. “Unfortunately it might have just been one of those days for the National Guard Panther Racing team. The car was very competitive; we just had a little bit of a slower pit stop on the last stop. But that happens. With our tire choice today we just got unlucky; when our red tires were on there were some sporadic yellows and when
we had the blacks on it stayed green. It was just one of those days, but everybody at Panther continues to work very hard and did a good job this weekend, and we’ll bounce back in Toronto.”
