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.”
