A tireless Franchitti wins Motor Oil 300
By Gary Becker
Sports Car Illustrated
Dario Franchitti proved once again pit strategy is sometimes better then overall speed when the IZOD IndyCars returned to the ovals at Chicagoland Speedway for the Peak Antifreeze and Motor Oil Indy 300.
The 200 lap race started under clear skies with Ryan Briscoe leading a field that included a record five female drivers to the green flag. The early laps saw Briscoe lead Franchitti, Castroneves and the rest of the field.
On lap five Will Power got sideways in turn two causing Tomas Scheckter to lift starting a chain reaction collision with Raphael Matos and Alex Lloyd.
The Scheckter and Matos cars were damaged enough to knock them both out of the race.
Briscoe continued to lead as the green waved again this time with Marco Andretti in second ahead of Franchitti. On lap 15 it was Briscoe, Andretti, Franchitti, Helio Castroneves and oval specialist Ed Carpenter.
By lap 25 Briscoe led a field that saw its first ten cars separated by only 1 second.
The field began routine pit stops on lap 55 when Andretti was the first of the leaders to seek service. After all was said and done in pit lane Briscoe was in front of Franchitti, Scott Dixon and Power.
Yellow waved again on lap 78 when rookie Ana Beatriz touched the outside wall. The leaders took advantage of the yellow and pitted. Things got real exciting on pit lane when KV Racing teammates Takuma Sato and EJ Viso make contact and putting each out of the race. Once again KV Racing is its own worst enemy.
Things got worse on the track as Hideki Mutoh was hit by Vito Meira and pushed into a hapless Alex Tagliani during the yellow forcing Tagliani to retire.
The biggest surprise of the night occurred on lap 90 as the green waved again and found Sarah Fisher in the lead. Fisher had pitted earlier in the race and was out of pit sequence with the rest of the field. The halfway point found Briscoe leading Fisher followed by Carpenter and Mario Moraes. To everyone’s delight Fisher managed to stay with the leaders until she was had to pit on lap 113.
Lap 125 had Briscoe in front of Power, Carpenter and Tony Kanaan.
The field began much need pit stops on lap 137. Ed Carpenter’s impressive run was derailed when he was not able to take on enough fuel on his initial stop and was forced to return to the pits for a seond time to top off his tanks. This dropped him from the lead lap which had Wheldon now in the lead followed by Ryan Hunter-Reay and Dixon.
Wheldon, Hunter-Reay and Power fought back and forth for the lead which now had changed a record 24 times.
Alex Lloyd’s day got worse as he spun coming of turn 2 bring out the yellow on lap 170 which also began the final round of pit stops. Franchitti and Wheldon did not take on new tires and where first and second as
the field reformed on the track. More importantly, Will Power’s crew had a problem with the refueling hose and were unsure how much fuel Power’s car had taken on and if Power had enough fuel to finish the race. The decision was made to keep Power on the track and gamble he could go the distance.
When the green flag fell for the final time Franchitti and Wheldon who had not taken on new tires, were leading Power and Dixon.
On lap 192 Briscoe was making a run for the lead when he was pushed out to the wall by Hunter-Reay and had to back off falling to rear of the lead pack.
Three laps later Will Power’s day came to a bitter end when the question of how much fuel he had taken on during his last pit stop was answered when he ran out of fuel on the back straight while battling for the lead.
Franchitti was able to hold off a field you could cover with a blanket for the last five laps and take the checkered followed by great runs by Dan Wheldon, Hunter-Reay, Kanaan and Castroneves.
Franchitti’s win and Power’s bad luck tightens the points battle and Andretti Racing had one of its best days of the season with Hunter-Reay and Kanaan in the top five.
Point Standings
| 1 Will Power 2 Dario Franchitti 3 Scott Dixon 4 Ryan Briscoe 5 Helio Castroneves 6 Ryan Hunter Reay 7 Tony Kanaan 8 Marco Andretti 9 Justin Wilson 10 Dan Wheldon |
461 420 379 352 340 336 304 266 262 259 |
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