Wheldon Captures Peak Anti-Freeze 300
Written by George Katinger · September 11, 2005
As has become the norm at Chicagoland Speedway the finish was measured in inches. Dashing Dan Wheldon beat Helio Castroneves to the finish line by a mere .0133 seconds, with Sam Hornish and Tomas Scheckter right behind.
Unfortunately the race will be remembered more for the horrific crash involving Ryan Briscoe (again!) Kosuke Matsuura and Alex Barron. If you ever wondered why they call catch fences by that name, watch a replay of the accident. How Briscoe avoided going totaly upside down and over or through the fence is a miracle. Same said for the fact that Ryan sustained no serious injuries other than a hard knock to his head.
The wreck caused a red flag stoppage until the fence could be repaired and the track cleared of the carnage. Fortunately the Briscoe incident was the only accident of the day. Dixon and Enge DNF’d due to mechanical problems.
Danica recovered nicely to finish in 6th place. Starting from Pole she did her typical race fade, to as low as 11th or so, but managed to work her way back to the front. I believe she should have been penalized for jumping the start at the last caution, but we couldn’t have that could we? Between all the in car camera coverage as well as her Peak commercials I’ve seen enough of the girl to last a life time. Give it a rest already!
And what of Dashing Dan’s drive? You remember Dan Wheldon, he’s also the guy who won the Indy 500 and is the points leader? He drove a great race, including climbing from dead last after recieving a pit lane speeding violation. There will be considerable celebrating at AGR, in as much as Dan sealed the title (He needs only to start the last two races) and Mom and Dad were there to see it all.
Congratulations to Dan Wheldon and AGR on a fine season’s efforts. In spite of the distraction caused by you know who!
9-12-05 UPDATE:
I read in this morning’s paper that the injuries to Briscoe are more serious than initially reported. Besides the concussion, he has broken his left and right clavicles and bruised a lung. It no doubt closes out his season and possibly his career at TCGR. A driver with much promise and little opportunity to shine on ovals. Please Ryan, get to Champ Cars (with or without TCGR!) as fast as you can.
1. Dan Wheldon AGR Dallara-Honda 200 laps
2. Helio Castroneves Penske Dallara-Toyota 200 laps +0.0133secs
3. Sam Hornish Jr Penske Dallara-Toyota 200 laps +0.0673secs
4. Tomas Scheckter Panther Dallara-Chevrolet 200 laps +0.2040secs
5. Tony Kanaan AGR Dallara-Honda 200 laps +0.2244secs
6. Danica Patrick* Rahal Panoz-Honda 200 laps +0.4397secs
7. Vitor Meira Rahal Panoz-Honda 200 laps +0.4524secs
8. Scott Sharp Fernandez Panoz-Honda 200 laps +0.5973secs
9. Patrick Carpentier Cheever Dallara-Toyota 200 laps +0.6512secs
10. Buddy Lazier Panther Dallara-Chevrolet 200 laps +0.9277secs
11. AJ Foyt IV Foyt Dallara-Chevrolet 200 laps +0.9488secs
12. Dario Franchitti AGR Dallara-Honda 200 laps +1.0420secs
13. Buddy Rice Rahal Panoz-Honda 200 laps +1.1535secs
14. Bryan Herta AGR Dallara-Honda 200 laps +1.3620secs
15. Roger Yasukawa Dreyer&Reinbold Dallara-Honda 200 laps +2.1789secs
16. Jaques Lazier Ganassi Panoz-Toyota 200 laps +2.8355secs
17. Ed Carpenter Vision Dallara-Toyota 199 laps
18. Jimmy Kite Hemelgarn Dallara-Toyota 199 laps
19. Scott Dixon Ganassi Dallara-Toyota 169 laps-Gearbox
20. Tomas Enge* Panther Dallara-Chevrolet 140 laps-Suspension
21. Alex Barron Cheever Dallara-Toyota 19 laps-Accident
22. Ryan Briscoe* Ganassi Panoz-Toyota 19 laps-Accident
23. Kosuke Matsuura SAFR Panoz-Honda 19 laps-Accident
* - Denotes Rookie
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Having placed him at TCGR I am assuming Toyota is picking up this seasons repair bill for Briscoe.Not since Thomas Scheckter’s rookie season for Cheever have I seen a driver, with a junior formula pedigree,indulge in such destructive introduction to the oval scene.
Something just occurred to me.Danica is over promoted in the American press in the same way that Button dominates the English papers.Neither of them has won a race……Go Figure.
Another Fosters George?