That made Saturday’s race the last chance to win the first and last race on the new course.
Target-Ganassi driver Scott Dixon quickly mastered the new track and won the race with ease.
The New Zealander started from the pole and led all but one lap (while he was pitting) of the 63-lap contest, using unbeatable technique on the restarts and smooth fast driving all night to eliminate any contender who even hoped to come close.
“I’ve gotta give a lot of credit to Team Target; they gave me a fantastic car,” Dixon told Versus in Victory Lane. “In some sections of the race it was sort of just cruising trying to save fuel, The Firestone tires lasted brilliantly for my car—maybe not for some of the others, but it was fantastic.
“Huge credit to the team—great pit stops, great fuel strategy, everything was flawless, and that’s what we needed here.”
The race was the former IndyCar champion’s second win of the season and 27th of his career.
Finishing behind Dixon was Penske driver Will Power, who is locked in a battle for the points lead with Dixon’s teammate Dario Franchitti.
Power came into the race five points behind; he drove a flawless race, his pit crew made nary a slip, his fuel strategy was perfect (with a little help from Race Control’s oddly-timed first caution.) Still nothing he could do got him within striking range of Dixon; the Target-Ganassi driver was simply too good that night.
“I think the only opportunity [to pass] was one of the restarts—we raced pretty hard down to [Turn] One—obviously that was for the win so we both pushed pretty hard but Scott was just solid all day,” Power said. “The team and the driver did a perfect job.
“I have to thank my sponsors, because it’s a great day. We gained more points on Dario; we can’t be disappointed with second.”
As for Dario, he fared well enough thanks to protection from on high—from the top of the scoring tower where Race Control is located.
Franchitti made an insane, impossible passing attempt on the first restart, ramming Ryan Briscoe into two of Franchitti’s teammates, Charlie Kimball and Graham Rahal. Rahal’s race was ruined, Kimball’s day was shot, but Franchitti, despite obviously being at fault, was not assessed a drive-through penalty, the prescribed response for that offense.
Instead, Race Control ordered Franchitti to the back of the field—handy, since that was where he ended up once he got out of the gravel and back on the track. Of course, that was in effect the same penalty imposed on the drivers whose races he ruined; he was judged guilty, all ended up at the back.
Franchitti was eventually able to work his way back to ninth—the same position from which he had started. This gave Power a 13-point lead … but had Franchitti been penalized according to the rulebook, he would have earned far fewer points, and Power would have a much greater advantage over the next two races.
“It could have been a lot worse today but it could have been a lot better—I hold my hand up for that one," Fracnhitti concluded. "If I want to win this championship I’m going to have to stop making mistakes.
"We’ll shrug this one off and go forward and see if we can do better next week.”
Almost as a consolation prize, Power was awarded the Mario Andretti Road Race Championship for scoring more points on street- and road courses than anyone else. Power won the award last year also.
While an honor, it is purely symbolic. Power needs to beat Franchitti on the Scot’s home turf—oval tracks—twice if Power wants to win the overall championship.
"It’s a real honor to win the award with Mario’s name on it," Power told Versus. "To me he was the ultimate driver—even still, at his age, he still gets out there and wrings the car’s neck, so—very good to accomplish that but we really want the big one.”
IndyCar races on 1.5-mile oval of Kentucky Speedway next,in the Kentucky Indy 300. Tickets for the October 2 race can be purchased through the Kentucky Speedway website.
The Kentucky Indy 300 will be televised live on Versus, starting at 2 p.m. ET October 2, 2011.
