The weather at the Kansas Speedway was the toughest competition, as 25-mph gusts blew cars off the line through turns Three and Four. The gusts made the cars dangerously unstable all the way around the track, upsetting the delicate aerodynamic balance needed to run at maximum speed. Then, two-thirds through the race, the wind dropped by half, leaving many drivers with the wrong setup.
Helio Castroneves and Dario Franchitti had to start at the back of the pack because their qualifying runs were disallowed when they crossed the boundary line at the bottom of the track. Vitor Meira was also relegated to the rear, as his car failed tech inspection.
Helio drove an amazing race, working his way through traffic to finish second. His race nearly ended on lap 13, when Hideki Mutoh cut sharply in front of Vitor Meira, causing Meira to brake hard. Helio rammed Meira, putting Meira out of the race and breaking Helio’s right front wing completely off. Luckily for Helio, his pit crew was able to replace the entire nosecone without losing a lap, allowing Helio to continue his charge towards the front.
Robert Doornbos made a great pit stop while the safety crew cleaned up the debris from the collision. He left the pits ahead of the field and could have taken the lead, but he got a little too eager and fishtailed a bit leaving his pit box, hitting one of the replacement tires on the ground in teammate Graham Rahal’s adjacent pit. Doornbos was sent to last place for the safety infraction.
Tony Kanaan passed Rahal for second place on lap 56; shortly after Ryan Briscoe also passed Rahal. Dixon kept a comfortable half-second lead. On lap 96, Briscoe passed Kanaan to take second.
On Lap 96, Raphael Matos lost downforce when he hit the headwind and the wash off of Mario Moraes’ car coming through turn Four. Ryan Briscoe emerged from the pits with the lead, followed by Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon.
Briscoe held the lead, while behind him, Helio Castroneves worked his way up, eventually taking second on lap 127. Kanaan and Dixon followed, while behind them Franchitti in seventh chased Danica Patrick in sixth who was chasing Rahal in fifth. Danica brushed off Dario on a slower car at lap 140, and opened a gap. Her car seemed to be running better as the race went on; by lap 144 she was almost onto Rahal.
On lap 152 race leader Ryan Briscoe headed for the pits. At the same time, Rahal dropped down towards pit lane and slowed abruptly. Dario Franchitti also decided to pit, but came in too fast; he nearly hit Rahal, but in avoiding him, careened across the track and slammed into the safety barrier. This put an end to Dario’s drive—he had come from the back to as high as seventh, a fine effort. The accident also brought out a full-course yellow.
This proved to be terrible timing for Briscoe. When the yellow flag was waved, he was a tenth of a second from crossing the official pit entry timing line—well past the yellow line demarking the entry to the pits, but a few yards shy of the electronic timer. He was judged not to have actually entered the pits, which automatically close for one lap after a full-course caution. Briscoe was forced to drive through the pits and reenter on the next lap. This unfortunate break cost him a lot of time and arguably cost him the race.
“It’s one of those deals,” Ryan Briscoe said. “I knew we had the car to win today, and we had the track position until that happened. It’s really unfortunate. We’ll take the points and go forward.”
The green flag waved on lap 159, and for the rest of the race, everyone drove flat out to win. Fuel conservation was no longer an issue, and everyone had fresh tires; plus the wind had dropped, allowing cars to run three wide through the turns. Graham Rahal took advantage of finally having a good-handling car to move up from tenth to seventh, occasionally challenging Michael Andretti in sixth.
The top five: Dixon, Castroneves, Kanaan, Briscoe, and Patrick—held their positions for the final forty laps. Tony Kanaan had too much downforce to get by Castroneves. “We needed the downforce to get to the end,” he said later, “but in the end we had too much downforce.” Though he could only manage third, Kanaan moved to the lead in the championship.
Graham Rahal said, “My car was pretty good in One and Two but down in Three and Four I had a lot of understeer. I got passed by three guys today and that’s how all of them got me.”
Danica Patrick praised her pit crew: “They did a great job on that last stop. I was behind that lead pack, and they got me a couple places.” She mentioned that even at the end, she couldn’t pass Ryan Briscoe because the wind in turns Three and Four would push her car right off the track.
“We made improvements every single session, and again, from this morning I really look forward to the next one [the Indianapolis 500].”
Final Results: Road Runner Turbo Indy 300 | ||||
Place | Driver | No | Difference | Status |
1 | Scott Dixon | 9 | --.---- | Running |
2 | Helio Castroneves | 3 | 0.7104 | Running |
3 | Tony Kanaan | 11 | 1.5022 | Running |
4 | Ryan Briscoe | 6 | 1.8872 | Running |
5 | Danica Patrick | 7 | 2.6502 | Running |
6 | Marco Andretti | 26 | 3.8013 | Running |
7 | Graham Rahal | 2 | 7.8233 | Running |
8 | Hideki Mutoh | 27 | 8.543 | Running |
9 | Ed Carpenter | 20 | 8.9871 | Running |
10 | Dan Wheldon | 4 | 9.7681 | Running |
11 | Mario Moraes | 5 | 20.9048 | Running |
12 | Robert Doornbos | 6 | 1 lap | Running |
13 | Sarah Fisher | 67 | 6.9935 | Running |
14 | Justin Wilson | 18 | 7.0478 | Running |
15 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 21 | 4 laps | Running |
16 | Milka Duno | 23 | 5 laps | Running |
17 | Stanton Barrett | 98 | 19 laps | Running |
18 | Dario Franchitti | 10 | 49 laps | Contact |
19 | Mike Conway | 24 | 91 laps | Mechanical |
20 | Raphael Matos | 2 | 105 laps | Contact |
21 | EJ Viso | 13 | 163 laps | Mechanical |
22 | Vitor Meira | 14 | 186 laps | Contact |
Championship Points | |||
1 | Tony Kanaan | 100 pts |
|
2 | Ryan Briscoe | 99 pts | -1 |
3 | Dario Franchitti | 96 pts | -4 |
4 | Scott Dixon | 81 pts | -19 |
5 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 74 pts | -26 |