Briscoe Wins Meijer 300, Takes Points Lead

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Penske’s Ryan Briscoe, after finishing second five times in the last seven races, has finally tasted victory, beating Vision Racing’s Ed Carpenter by .0162 to win the IRL Meijer 300 by the seventh-smallest margin of victory in IndyCar history.

With this win Briscoe moves into the lead in the Championship, edging out defending champion Scott Dixon by eight points.

“Ed Carpenter’s line was getting wider every lap but I knew that every lap I’d get the edge on him across the start-finish. [Team owner Roger Penske] was in my ear saying, ‘Just keep doing what you’re doing, you’re better than him off of Turn Four.’

“That was a fun race.”

Ed Carpenter and Vision Racing showed that there is another team Penske and Ganassi need to worry about, with Carpenter’s best-ever IRL finish. “I’ve always known I could win one of these and getting that close now I absolutely positively know I can win.”

“I was playing with my Push-to-Pass, trying to time it to somehow beat him to the line,” said Carpenter. “I was trying to run him wide, make him go the long way around while he has trying to pinch me down. Neither of us was going to lift. It was close.”

Carpenter gave credit to his pit crew: “The guys did such a good job in the pits for me today. They stayed on pace with Penske and Ganassi on green flag stops. The guys should be very proud of themselves.”

IRL’s Changes Improve Competition

This race saw the debut of the new aerodynamic aids and Push-to-Pass (which IRL is calling "Overtake Assist") function introduced by the IRL to counter complaints of poor racing on ovals. Because of changes to the cars’ aerodynamics introduced this year, drivers found their cars extremely unstable when running close together at high speeds, which made passing impossible.

In response, IRL offered a package of aero aids—side-pod extenders, wheel ramps, and rear-wheel backing plates, plus the removal of rear-wing end-plate wickers—which offered more downforce with less drag and created less turbulence behind the cars. IRL hoped these changes, plus the “Overtake Assist,” which gives the drivers a brief power increase a set number of times throughout the race, would improve the competition.

Apparently, the changes were exactly what were needed as cars were battling wheel-to-wheel all around the course, running side by side at 215 mph, and passing and re-passing throughout the race.

“The [aero] options clearly made for some good racing tonight,” Briscoe said. “There was a lot of racing out there—pretty intense.”

Tight Racing Start to Finish

Target-Ganassi dirvers Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti started one-two, but Franchitti had bad understeer which slowed him for the first half of the race.

Briscoe, who qualified third, moved into second at the start, and fought Target-Chip Ganassi’s Scott Dixon for the lead for the first half of the race.

Ed Carpenter and Mario Moraes, who started 14^th and 16^th respectively, made great early runs. By lap 19, Moraes was fourth and Carpenter, sixth. The pair stayed near the front until lap fifty, when Moraes got caught up in a pit lane collision when Ryan Hunter-Reay spun leaving his pit, forcing Moraes to stand on the brakes. Mike Conway hit him from behind, knocking Moraes out of the race.

Briscoe challenged Dixon for the lead several times, using lapped traffic to try to sneak by, but while he could pull even, Briscoe didn’t have the speed to take the lead. The Penske pit crew came through, turning out an excellent stop on lap 106 to send Briscoe out just ahead of Dixon.

On lap 123 the first yellow flag of the race was waved as Justin Wilson’s car slowed on the course, emitting smoke. Initially he thought it was a fixable electrical problem, but a quick check in the pits showed the bad news: “It turned out to a wheel bearing gave up,” said Wilson. “I was going down into Turn One and it just slowed down. Disappointing end. The car’s balance was good, we could have got some good points but, that’ show it goes, so … we’ll move on to the next one.”

Briscoe had a close call on the restart on lap 129. Ed Carpenter charged underneath Briscoe, driving him up the track and into the marbles. Briscoe nearly lost control but caught the car at the last second; his right rear tire left a streak of rubber along the wall, but Briscoe avoided serious impact.

Side by Side to the Line

Will Power stayed out under yellow, taking the lead and gambling on fuel strategy. Power and Ed Carpenter battled hard for the lead, running side by side around the track, until lap 156 when Power had to stop for fuel. Carpenter inherited the lead and held it through the next round of pits stops starting at lap 175. Carpenter’s crew got him back on the track in the lead, but on lap 192 Briscoe caught Carpenter and pulled up beside him.

For eight laps the two swapped the lead twice each lap. Briscoe could not get past Carpenter, but got a better run out of Turn Four on every lap, and managed to keep his nose ahead crossing the start-finish line. On the final lap Briscoe led where it mattered, beating Carpenter to the line by perhaps five feet.

Ed Carpenter and Vision Racing showed that there is another team Penske and Ganassi need to worry about, with Carpenter’s best-ever IRL finish.

“I’ve always known I could win one of these, and getting that close now I absolutely, positively, know I can win.

“I was playing with my Push-to-Pass, trying to time it to somehow beat him to the line,” said Carpenter. “I was trying to run him wide, make him go the long way around while he has trying to pinch me down. Neither of us was going to lift. It was close.”

Carpenter gave credit to his pit crew: “The guys did such a good job in the pits for me today. They stayed on pace with Penske and Ganassi on green flag stops. The guys should be very proud of themselves.”

Andretti Green Racing, which had been lagging the last few races, turned in three top ten finishes, with Tony Kanaan third, Danica Patrick eighth, and Marco Andretti finishing tenth.

“It’s always good [to finish in the top five] for the morale of the team,” Kanaan said. “We’re having a tough season but the way I look at it a really difficult season would be if I was out of the car watching somebody else race. We’re turning it around.”

An unfortunate technical issue prevented Kanaan from contesting the win.

“I chose to go with a taller fifth [gear],” Kanaan explained. “As the night went on and we actually gained some downforce I could only turn ten-one (10,100 engine rpm) so I could not use the Push-to-Pass. Push-to-Pass only works from ten-three on. But I have to say, after the last four races, I am okay with third.”

Graham Rahal, typically considered a better road course driver, finished fifth.

“I am awfully proud of the McDonald’s boys today. In practice the car felt horrible and for us to come back the way we did, it felt great. They did a great job on the pit stops For us to compete with these guys up towards the front—that’s where we need to be and that’s where we want to be and I think we’re getting closer. We gained some points on our competitors and now we’re going to a roads race—Mid-Ohio—where we feel we can gain even more.”

Regarding the changes to the cars, Rahal said, “I don’t think racing can get any better. I passed more guys or got passed by more guys in two stints of this race than I have in my entire oval racing career. I don’t think racing can get any more exciting. The car was much more comfortable running side by side or really close behind people.”

IRL IndyCar goes back to the road courses next week with the Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio on Sunday, August 9. Visit the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Web site for ticket information

Championship Point Standings
	Driver	Pts	Gap			Driver	Pts	Gap
1	Ryan Briscoe	416			6	Marco Andretti	279	-137
2	Scott Dixon	408	-8		7	Dan Wheldon	274	-142
3	Dario Franchitti	405	-11		8	Tony Kanaan	274	-142
4	Helio Castroneves	341	-75		9	Graham Rahal	265	-151
5	Danica Patrick	309	-107		10	Justin Wilson	253	-1

 

 

 

 

 

RL IndyCar Meijer 300 at Kentucky Speedway Final Results
	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Status	Pts
1	6	Ryan Briscoe	Team Penske	200	Running	50
2	20	Ed Carpenter	Vision/William Rast/Lilly Racing	200	Running	40
3	11	Tony Kanaan	Team 7-Eleven/AGR	200	Running	35
4	3	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske	200	Running	32
5	02	Graham Rahal	McDonald's Racing Team/NHL	200	Running	30
6	10	Dario Franchitti	Vaseline/Chip Ganassi	200	Running	28
7	9	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	200	Running	28
8	7	Danica Patrick	Boost Mobile/Motorola/AGR	200	Running	24
9	12	Will Power	Penske Truck Rental	200	Running	22
10	26	Marco Andretti	Meijer/AGR	200	Running	20
11	4	Dan Wheldon	National Guard Panther Racing	200	Running	19
12	67	Sarah Fisher	Dollar General/Sarah Fisher Racing	200	Running	18
13	27	Hideki Mutoh	Formula Dream/AGR	200	Running	17
14	14	Ryan Hunter-Reay	ABC Supply Co. AJ Foyt Racing	197	Running	16
15	13	E.J. Viso	PDVSA HVM Racing	197	Running	15
16	2	Raphael Matos	US Air Force Luczo Dragon Racing	196	Running	14
17	24	Mike Conway	Dad’s Root Beer/Dreyer & Reinbold	192	Running	13
18	5	Mario Moraes	Azul Tequila/Votorantim/KVRT	188	Running	12
19	06	Robert Doornbos	Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing	185	Running	12
20	23	Milka Duno	CITGO/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	165	Running	12
21	18	Justin Wilson	Z-Line Designs	120	Mechanical	12
22	43	Tomas Scheckter	Mona Vie/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	59	Mechanical	12
23	98	Jaques Lazier	Novicomm LED Lighting Technology	43	Mechanical	12