On the tail end of a frustrating first half of the IndyCar Series season, Tony Kanaan found relief on a steamy night at Richmond International Raceway.
"I'm going to enjoy my win for sure," said Kanaan of his 13th victory in the IndyCar Series, which included five in 2007. "I knew that I had to keep fighting. There's nothing else I can do. If you're going to have the season you expect every year, then it's going to be pretty boring I would say."
Team Penske's Helio Castroneves finished in the runner-up spot at a caution-filled Saturday night race at Richmond International Raceway with an impressive on-track performance. Castroneves went from an 18th place starting spot to second in the 300-lap SunTrust Indy Challenge, eventually finishing one position ahead of Scott Dixon, the only driver ahead of Castroneves in the 2008 IndyCar Series championship standings.
"I was driving the wheels off it," Castroneves said about his run in the No. 3 Team Penske Dallara/Honda. "I was trying everything I could to make up spots and we were able to have a good showing today."
Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon started fourth and sixth and survived 102 caution laps. Wheldon finished fourth in the 300-lap SunTrust Indy Challenge at Richmond.
"It was a tough night." Dixon said. "We had a very good car. Once again it was very tough to pass here. Even when the tires got old it was very hard to get close to people. If we were out front, I think we had a car to win. Kanaan definitely looked pretty strong tonight but I think the Target car still had a chance."
"I was trying to be aggressive while trying to finish the race and it was difficult behind the other cars." Wheldon added. " We knew there would be more than a few wrecks tonight, and that proved to be the case. The car shut off on the last lap for some reason and that's not what we need when we're trying to close the point gap."
ALthough I do enjoy watching the IRL races...I was getting a bit frustrated during the first half with all the cautions. Glad Kanaan finally got to victory lane this year though!
And yeah...while it was neat to see Castroneves comes back thru the field for a top 5...it was more impressive to see Oriol Servia with a 5th place finish for his first time at the track.
The fastest car did win. Even with a crash fest behind him. Wow. Never rember that many wrecks for indy race. Like seeing almost 30 cars on the track. That was nice.
I was at this snooze-fest, and Dixon nailed it on the head about the difficulty in passing; it doesn't happen much. I bet the top seven didn't change positions for the last 50 laps at least. Same thing last year. IRL needs to figure out a way to improve the racing at RIR!!
I think the fact that they race at Richmond at all is amazing. Surprisingly, to me anyway, a second groove opened up at the track in Iowa this year. As the Richmond track changes, the IRL racing may get better also. Is the surface fairly new or is it an older one? Racing might improve as the surface wears.
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