Penske Back on Track
Written by Douglas Brown · March 20, 2005
Just as all the talk surrounded Andretti Green Racing, “The Capitan” made a big impressioin and set the table for yet another IRL rivalry. Last year, we saw the emergence of the Rahal-Andretti battle heat up in the form of Kanaan vs. Rice. This year, after two races, the AGR-Penske duel seems to be brewing.
That’s Racin.Com: IRL Phoenix Notebook
Motorsport.Com Phoenix: Round two race report
Penske Racing: Penske scores 1-2 finish in Valley of the Sun
In the season opener at Homestead, Penske ran strong finishing both cars in the Top 5, while Dan Wheldon and AGR ran away with the race. Yesterday in Phoenix, the red and while Marlboro cars dominated on the one-mile oval. Castroneves ran fastest in practice while Hornish Jr. ran strong and in the top 10 all weekend.
Typical of the Penske stable, a solid race strategy combined with powerful cars and smart drivers, the team led and ruled the race. Given the similarity of the Phoenix International Raceway to the bullring of once Penske-owned Nazareth Speedway (R.I.P.), its no surprise that both drivers had a great day.
Not that AGR was absent by any means. Tonya Kanaan made an amazing run from last to finish third and the brilliant restart by Hornish Jr. with three laps remaining kept Dario Franchitti out of first and off the podium. (I think he fell victim to the “let’s talk to the wife” syndrome. Granted, Ashley Judd is cute and knows racing by now, but do we have to?) With Dan Wheldon in sixth and pole-sitter Bryan Herta in seventh, Andretti Green put all four of their cars in the top ten. Match that with Penske’s one-two sweep, and we have a real battle brewing in a series that grows more competitive with each and every race.
Of the top seven finishers only one was not Andretti-Green or Penske owned. Scott Sharp made his 100th IRL start and finished eighth. After a disappointing race in Miami, Sharp made up for it with a strong showing for the Delphi Fernandez Racing and gained some much neededpoints for anyone hoping to stay close to the two dominant teams.
TOP 10 INDYCAR SERIES POINT STANDINGS
1. Sam Hornish Jr. 90
2. Dan Wheldon 84
3. Tony Kanaan 70
4. Helio Castroneves 70
5. Darren Manning 52
6. Vitor Meira 51
7. Patrick Carpentier 48
8. Scott Sharp 47
9. Dario Franchitti 44
10. Bryan Herta 42
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I am not much of an Irl fan but since they were pretty much giving the tickets away at the Phoenix race I thought I would go check it out.The racing was decent but the crowd was pathetic,especially being that alot of the tickets were freebies.When will Tony George pull his head out & do something positive for open-wheel racing & help unify the sport.I will be going to LongBeach in a couple weeks where the people pay alot of money for a ticket & the stands are always full.I think you will see the shift of power back towards ChampCar again this year.Sponsors have to hate going to all the Irl races but Indy all but to see empty grandstands.
The one thing OWRS needs to do, desperately, is start the season sooner. With NASCAR, IRL, sports cars, and F1 in full swing for weeks, it’s as if Champ Car were dead. The other series gain invaluable exposure while all we read about Champ Cars is negative comments about how many paying drivers there are.
To paraphrase my man Larry the Cable Guy,
“Git ‘er on”!!
Found this tidbit about Saturday’s crowd (or lack thereof): Unseasonably cool weather with threatening rain in the forecast had a detrimental effect on the attendance as under 15,000 people were in the grandstands. Last year’s race on a Sunday drew an estimated 30,000.
Robin Miller of SPEED TV estimated the crowd at 5,000. But the best line in the press room came from Marlo Klain of ESPN who said, “I had more people at my wedding.”
Wow…that is pathetic. I just don’t get it…it’s good racing…it’s a good product.
The stands are full at Long Beach but did you know 2 years ago they shortened the number of rows in grandstands to keep the full look.
Ive been sitting at the same seat for 12 years and the grandstand I sit in was not shortened.Im sure fridays practice will have twice as many fans as an Irl raceday.The few fans they have I guess wont even take the free tickets Honda and Toyota try dumping on the public.
Long Beach has certainly become Champ Car’s premiere event. Given it is now the season opener adds to its prestige (being close to Hollywood doesn’t hurt either).However, they have similar attendance woes at every other event, and I believe that was the main cause for the demise of Vancouver.
….and Laguna Seca, and Road America, and Mid Ohio.