The finish of the Firestone 600 at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth was a long tine in coming, but it was definitely worth the wait. You may recall that the race was supposed to start on June 11 but was washed out because of rain. The race did start on June 12 and ran 72 of 248 laps. On the 72nd lap Connor Daley tangled with Josef Newgarden and they both crashed into the outside retaining wall. Newgarden was seriously injured. This brought out the red flag and the race was stopped to clean the track up. However, the skies opened up and the rain came down in torrents. The race had not run long enough to be called as it would have been at 175 laps. The decision was made to schedule a restart at a later date. The only open date was Saturday, August 27th. The race would be restarted on lap 73. The cars were lined up in the running order they were in when the red flag was waved. James Hinchcliffe in the Schmidt Peterson #5 Dallara Honda would head the field, with Ryan Hunter-Reay behind him in the Andretti Autosports #28 Dallara Honda. The Canadian driver took off but was soon challenged by Hunter-Reay. Hunter-Reay led for a few laps but Hinchcliffe regained the lead and kept it for almost the entire race.
Scott Dixon’s bad luck continued. Dixon attempted to unlap himself on Lap 213 when he touched Ed Carpenter’s left rear tire and spun out, ending his night. Carpenter was giving Hinchcliffe a real run for the lead. On lap 222, Carpenter’s left rear tire flattened, sending him into the infield. On lap 231, Mikhail Aleshin tangled with Jack Hawksworth, bringing out a final yellow light. On lap 240, with 8 laps to go, the green came out and there were 4 cars vying for the lead: Hinchcliffe, Kanaan, Pagenand, and Graham Rahal. They all made their moves, but Hinchcliffe seemed to be able to hold them off. On the last lap Rahal got beside Hinchcliffe in the third turn and they barreled down the main stretch to the finish line. Rahal took the win by .0008 of a second, the fifth closest win in IndyCar history. It was the most exciting race of the season with the most thrilling finish. It was only the second time this season that a Honda powered car has won an IndyCar race, the other being the Indy 500.
You really have to feel for Hinchcliffe. To lead most of the race and fight off most of challengers and then lose by an .00008 of a second has to be a real gut punch. Rahal only led by a 20th of an inch but it was the most important 20th of an inch. However, all is not lost for James Hinchcliffe. It’s just been announced that he will be paired with Sharna Burgess on the upcoming season 23 of Dancing With the Stars. One of the perks!
Indy Car Championship and Other Musings
There are two races left in the 2016 IndyCar Championship series. The Watkins Glen Grand Prix on Sept. 4 at Watkins Glen New York and The GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma at Sears Point California on Sept.18. Both are road courses. The IndyCars haven’t raced at the Glen since 2010. Will Power won that one. Simon Pagenand holds on to a 28 point lead for the championship over Power. Until the Texas race Power was charging hard. The championship may come down to Sonoma. Double points are awarded to the winner of that race. Scott Dixon was able to pass Juan Pablo Montoya for the championship last year by winning at Sonoma in the last race. Power may be able to pull it off with a couple of wins, particularly if Pagenand finishes out of the top four in both races. I’m still betting on Pagenand, however.
The 2017 IndyCar racing schedule has been announced. The only addition to the series will be at Gateway Motor Speedway in St. Louis on August 26 for a 250 mile event. The IndyCar boys haven’t raced there since 2003 when Helio Castroneves won in a Dallara Toyota. It will be a new track experience for just about all the drivers. All the other venues remain the same.
There is quite a bit of speculation about where Josef Newgarden will be driving next year. The budding superstar’s contract with Ed Carpenter expires at the end of the season. The 26-year-old Tennessean has scored three wins in the last two years. According to the rumor mill Andretti Autosports won’t be resigning Carlos Munoz and will make a big play to sign Newgarden to their team. They also may be losing rookie Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi to Formula 1. There are whisperings that Juan Pablo Montoya and Tony Kanaan may not be with their current teams. After winning the first race of the season at St. Petersburg, Montoya has been the odd man out for Team Penske. He says he wants to stay with the team but the numbers may be against him. Kanaan, likewise, is in the hot seat at Team Ganassi. He hasn’t won a race in over two years. He has been the soul of consistency this season with two podium finishes and ten top ten finishes. He’s third in points right now. But the team wants wins. This hasn’t been a good year for Ganassi Racing. Dixon’s win at Phoenix is their only victory and they have only five podium finishes between them. To make matters worse is that Dixon is losing his Target sponsorship. Word is that there will be a major shakeup at Chip Ganassi racing in the off season. Newgarden seems to be the X factor. Where he winds up could start a domino effect. Russian born Mikhail Alishin’s contract is up with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and he’s been mum on what he’s gong to do. Sam Schmidt says he expects Alshin to be with the team in 2017.
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