Ryan Hunter-Reay won his first race in IndyCar Series race at Watkins Glen, by driving well and by avoiding accidents.
After qualifying third, Hunter-Reay ran third or fourth through most of the race, driving quickly and carefully, while all around him drivers spun, skidded, and collided, leaving Hunter-Reay positioned to seize the lead and hold it until the checkered flag waved.
The IndyCar series came back to the road for the Camping World Watkins Glen Grand Prix, sixty laps of the 3.37 mile, 11-turn road course at Watkins Glen, New York.
The ChampCar drivers were no doubt glad to be back on a road track, but it is doubtful if the had any advantage, as Watkins Glen has been a regular stop IndyCar schedule for several years.
Helio Castroneves, one of the fastest drivers in practice, had to start from the back of the pack, as he missed qualifying due to a broken throttle cable.
Tony Kanaan, last week's winner, was involved in a bad crash when his car's right rear suspension upright broke on a corner, sending him into the barrier and leaving him with a hairline fracture of the left wrist. He was able to start, but in considerable discomfort.
The merger of the two premier American open-wheeled racing series—the Indy Racing League and ChampCar World Series—is succeeding as well as even the most optimistic could have hoped.
The unification was announced early this season and not finalized until after the Long Beach Grand Prix/Twin Motegi Grand Prix (ChampCar teams raced on the road course at Long Beach, while IRL teams went to the Twin Motegi oval in Japan.)
Since unification, every metric has been up—crowds, sponsors, cars on the grid.
"We could not be happier with what we have seen over the first half of the unified IndyCar Series season," Terry Angstadt, president of the commercial division of the Indy Racing League, told IRL.com.
"Key areas like attendance, ratings and sponsorship are all pointed in the right direction, and we anticipate further growth and momentum headed into the second half of the season."
Since unification, the series has attracted some huge sponsors: DIRECTV, Coca-Cola, and this weekend at Watkins Glen a new partnership with IZOD, as the official sportswear of the IndyCar series, was announced.
Television ratings have been well up compared to last year's numbers. ABC, which has the IndyCar broadcast contract, reports a four percent increase, while cable carriers ESPN and ESPN2 have reported 61 and 42 percent increases, respectively.
Along with track attendance being up, merchandise sales is reported to be 70 percent higher than last year, so far.
Grids are also larger by twenty or twenty-five percent. The worries that many ChampCar teams would not want to challenge the entrenched IndyCar teams with their oval track experience, or that they would not be competitive and thus would not be able to keep their sponsors happy, have proved to be groundless.
IRL made efforts to make the transition easier, helping out with IRL-spec Dallara chassis and Honda engines, so the ChampCar teams could afford the switch.
Grids like this week's at Watkins Glen—26 cars starting—show that the ChampCar teams have made the switch.
And this season's races—Graham Rahal's record-setting first IndyCar win, Danica Patrick's first win, and today's race at Watkin's Glen are just a few examples—show that unification is exactly what the series need.
The start was clean at the front but back in the pack, Darren Manning clipped the right rear of Dan Wheldon, knocking him out of the race.
Race leader Scott Briscoe gained almost two seconds over the field by lap three, while behind him Ryan Hunter Reay fought hard to hold second against the attacks of Scott Dixon, has won the last three year's races at the Glen.
Cars were using every inch of the track and then some, with Justin Wilson, notably driving almost entirely on the grass exiting Turn Seven, and Mario Moraes running well wide at Turn Ten.
Helio Castroneves started out charging, gaining seven places in the first three laps. Then on lap five, Helio had an electronic problem with his gearshift mechanism.
The mechanism, which on the steering wheel, seemed to stop working after Castroneves almost ran off the track while working his way through traffic. Possibly the extreme steering input affected an electrical connection.
Castroneves slowed dramatically, bringing out a yellow flag. To make matters worse, Castroneves stalled his car coming into the pits, and couldn't get to his pit. Eventually the Penske crew ran up the road to push him back to the Penske pit, where he got a new steering wheel and was on his way, but now two laps down.
Briscoe apparently had the best car on the track, as he opened up a two second lead again after the restart. Dixon dove under Hunter Reay to take second, and Tony Kanaan, driving with a fractured wrist, stayed securely in fourth place.
Dixon set up his car to be fast on the straightaways, while Hunter-Reay set up with more downforce to be fast through the corners.
At the halfway point, the order was Briscoe, Dixon and Ryan Hunter-Reay, followed by Tony Kanaan, Bruno Junquiera, and Marco Andretti.
Almost the Last Dash
On lap 39 EJ Viso pushed Vitor Meira off the track and into the tire barrier, doing tremendous damage to Meria's car. The subsequent yellow flag gave every driver a chance to come in for a full load of fuel, fresh tires, and whatever last minute adjustments. After the green, the whole field would be able to run flat-out all the way to the end.
When questioned by a reporter about the incident, Meira said, "EJ Viso just took me out. He's a driver everyone has been complaining about it since the first race of the season, and the IRL should do something about it."
Danica Patrick accelerated too vigorously collision on pit lane, spinning the car violently into the pit wall and tearing the front wing off her car. The Andretti-Green team sent her back out as the pack came by to keep her from going a lap down, and she came back in on the next lap under yellow for the rest of her repairs.
Although she got her car repaired without losing a lap, she was penalized for hitting equipment in the pits.
Darren Manning took the lead by dint of a fast pit stop, with Dixon and Briscoe right behind.
Cars that gambled with high-downforce, low-horsepower setups were at a disadvantage for the last 18-lap dash, as fuel conservation would no longer be an issue. Speed was king, as getting to the first corner ahead of the pack would
Racing on the restart was tremendous, with everyone vying for position. Darren Manning got a huge jump off the green, and opened a big lead before Enrique Bernoldi entered Turn One much too fast, crashing and bringing out another yellow.
The order at this point was Darren Manning, followed by Scott Dixon, Ryan Briscoe, and Ryan Hunter-Reay, with Tony Kanaan in fifth.
The Next Last Dash
Just before the restart on lap 47, Milka Duno anticipated the green, accelerated early, had to brake, and rammed AJ Foyt IV. The accident knocked the both out and brought out another yellow.
This helped Darren Manning, as he had fewer laps to try to hold onto the lead.
Then amazingly, veteran drivers Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe somehow collided under yellow. Ryan Briscoe said over his radio, "Dixon spun in front of me and I hit him." Judging from video and audio replays, Dixon accelerated strongly for no particular reason.
Dixon told his team on the radio, "Tell Briscoe I'm sorry."
Dixon later said he was trying to heat up his front tires and simply hit the gas too hard.
The accident left Dixon in 14th, and Briscoe in 15th.
Both cars were able to continue, but the loss of concentration involved in skilled drivers having accidents under yellow is unfathomable.
The Next Last Dash
Finally with nine laps to go, the green came out, and Ryan Hunter-Reay made a perfect start and grabbed the lead.
Then, before the lap was even finished, Jaime Camara lost the back end in a corner and spun into the wall, bringing out yet another full-course yellow.
The Last Last Dash
On lap 46 the green came out yet again, and Hunter-Reay quickly opened up a 1.7 second lead.
Marco Andretti, in fifth, was fighting hard to get past Buddy Rice. Andretti had been complaining of mechanical problems early in the race, and his team told him to try to ride it out; he replied that he didn't think he'd be able to. Luckily for him, he was wrong.
Hunter-Reay drove calmly and carefully through the final laps, showing the composure of a veteran, though inside he must have holding back the exultation as he took his first checkered flag in the IndyCar series.
The top four points leaders were not affected by the Watkins Glen results. Danica Patrick dropped to seventh, Oriol Servia dropped to tenth, displacing Ed Carpenter; Marco Andretti improved from seventh to fifth, and Ryan Hunter-Reay jumped up to ninth.
Next week's race at the Nashville Superspeedway should give some of the oval specialists a chance to move up again.
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