Getting ready for Indy

Dan Wheldon made a mockery of his competition by leading 177 laps at Kansas Speedway on the way to notching his second IndyCar Series win of the season. Distantly chasing Wheldon at the finish were Dario Franchitti, Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon and Tomas Scheckter.

“It was a pure team effort from the Target Chip Ganassi crew,” said Wheldon who now has a 27 point lead over Dixon in the 2007 championship, but immediately looked forward to Indy. “We're gearing up, we're going for the big one now - the Indianapolis 500, that's the big goal for us.”

“I was frustrated since Motegi wanted to prove a point. The car was fantastic.”

Wheldon was almost untouchable for most of what he made a rather dull race. The only driver close to him all day was team-mate Dixon - who actually lead in the final quarter of the race. Unfortunately, Dixon got the lead by pitting off of turn four instead of using the backstretch entry as required by the Indy Racing League.

The quicker in lap put Dixon way out front, but he got a drive through penalty that cost him not only the lead, but three other positions.

Ganassi managing director, Mike Hull, totally disagreed with the penalty as he said Dixon was running out of fuel and it was either pit or potentially cause an accident. Nevertheless, the penalty stood and Wheldon cruised to his second easy victory of the year.

The race ended under yellow when Scott Sharp crashed on lap 198, he was uninjured. This was the third caution of the day, the first being for debris on lap 58 and the second for Ed Carpenter's crash on lap 101.

Besides those cautions, the race was mostly marked by a pit accident that took Tony Kanaan out of contention. Pitting under the green on lap 49, Kanaan turned to entry his pit just as team-mate Danica Patrick was waved out by his crew. They made contact which damaged Kanaan's left front suspension. The repairs took 8 laps to complete.

“I might actually be the worst person to ask,” said Danica of the incident. “When you are sitting in the car, you listen and you look for when to go. I listened to them and they said ‘go'. I feel bad because Tony had a really fast car. But it cost both of us a chance to win a race for AGR - that is never what we want.”

Not having a chance at all was Marco Andretti. Like Homestead he had a car that was so bad he was forced to park it - this time after 43 laps.

“It was so scary for me,” said Andretti. “I don't know what happened. It felt like my wings were upside down. There was no grip on the NYSE car.”

Also parking cars for a lack of handling were Buddy Rice and Marty Roth. Sam Hornish, Jr., had to make major in race changes (including the ride height), but he managed a sixth place - one lap down finish.

Milka Duno managed to finish in her debut and while not incredibly fast, she ran respectable times and came home 14th.

ORS / CAPSIS International