Indy Japan 300 Win Gives Kanaan, AGR Boost Toward May
Written by Allan Brewer · April 21, 2007
Kanaan Uses Guile and Good Luck to Advantage at Twin-Ring Motegi
by Allan Brewer
allan@fastmachines.com
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Kanaan Wins Motegi. Photo: ShawnPayneIRL
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Andretti/Green Racing’s Tony Kanaan used savvy pit strategy and driving tactics to outfox Chip Ganassi’s Dan Wheldon and win at the Indy Racing League’s Japan Indy 300-mile race on Saturday (April 21st).
Kanaan took advantage of a yellow flag (when teammate Marco Andretti hit the wall on lap 135) to pit just within his last fuel-mileage window to set up an uninterrupted racing stint to the finish line.
Wheldon required fuel on lap 192 and left the leader’s position for pitlane, paving the way for Kanaan to take his eighth career IndyCar series victory.
“Dan (Wheldon) was really, really strong, so I’m pretty happy,” said Tony Kanaan. “I’m very happy. It was fun to have a battle with a friend. It’s great to fight clean the way we did throughout the entire race. We passed each other with no problems at all. The crew did a great job today.”
Kanaan’s strategy was successful in overcoming a slight disadvantage in speed. He relinquished the race lead to Wheldon mid-race when the Englishman drove around him, and again on lap 191 as Penske Racing’s Sam Hornish moved past as well.
However, neither of Tony’s rivals had enough fuel to remain on-track for the last ten laps to complete the two hundred lap distance of the race on the 1.5 mile banked oval northeast of Tokyo.
Win Ties AGR with Penske for IRL’s Most
Kanaan’s margin of victory stood at 0.4828 of a second over Wheldon on the final timesheets. The win was AGR’s first since Marco Andretti took the Grand Prix of Sonoma at Infineon raceway in August of 2006, and its first oval-track win in nearly two years. It also tied the team with Team Penske for most wins in the IRL’s ten-plus year history with twenty-four.
Kanaan’s teammate, Scot Dario Franchitti, finished the race in third place, while Scott Dixon was fourth and Sam Hornish Jr. (a lap down) was fifth.
“It was a race that I had to be very patient,” Kanaan said afterwards. “I think when we started, the car wasn’t that good and I knew the track was going to get better towards the end of the race. So I just waited. I knew that I could stop later than Dan because my car had better fuel mileage.”
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Race Start at Motegi. Photo: DanaGarrettIRL
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Scott Sharp finished a season-high sixth for Rahal/Letterman Racing, while pole sitter and 2006 Motegi-winner Helio Castroneves placed seventh. Tomas Scheckter posted his third consecutive top-10 finish (ninth), followed by Buddy Rice in tenth and Danica Patrick eleventh.
Separate crashes involving Marco Andretti (lap 135) and Kosuke Matsuura (lap one) brought out caution flags. Both were uninjured.
“I had a big understeer, and I turned into it,” when the car got loose, said Marco. “I got out of the throttle, and the front hooked, and it overcorrected into the wall. The inside retaining wall was the big hit for me. The x-rays were good, but I am a bit banged up. I will feel it in the morning.”
Dan Wheldon lost radio communication with his team during the race, a mistake he said cost him during the race.
“It was unfortunate,” he said. “We lost radio communication pretty early on. We were being very conservative with the time that we had to pit. I think that was basically what hindered us; not so much the fact that we didn’t have the radio, but just the times that we had to pit because of that.”
“I think I have to say when you consider the pace of our car, I think even Tony would agree it was probably the best out there,” he concluded.
The win for Kanaan leapfrogged the Brazilian past Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves into second place in the season-long championship point standings. Wheldon retains a slim three-point lead by virtue of his win at Homestead and a ninth-place finish at St. Petersburg.
INDYCAR SERIES POINT STANDINGS
(After 3 of 17 races):
1. Dan Wheldon 118
2. Tony Kanaan 115
3. Scott Dixon 112
4. Helio Castroneves 101
5. Dario Franchitti 91
(tie) Sam Hornish Jr. 91
7. Tomas Scheckter 74
8. Scott Sharp 65
9. Buddy Rice 60
10. Vitor Meira 59
The next IndyCar Series event is the Kansas Lottery Indy 300 at 4:30 PM (EDT) on April 29th at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas. The race will be telecast live by ESPN2 and broadcast live by the IMS Radio Network. The next Indy Pro Series event is the Freedom 100 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 25th.The race will be telecast as part of ESPN2’s coverage of Carb Day at 4 PM on May 25th.
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