Helio Wins in Texas, Briscoe Leads in Points

Helio Castroneves leads his teammate Ryan Briscoe around Texas Motor Speedwat in the IRL IndyCar Series Bombardier Learjet 550k. (Chris Trotman/Getty Images)

Helio Castroneves won his second race of the season in a one-two finish for Penske, beating out teammate Penske Ryan Briscoe by .39 seconds in the IRL Bombardier LearJet 550 at Texas Motor Speedway for the third time in his career. Briscoe led most of the race, at one point opening up a ten-second lead, but a mid-race yellow flag and excellent an pit crew gave Castroneves the chance to win.

Briscoe finished second, earning enough points to take the lead in the series championship.  

“It was an incredible day for Team Penske,” said Castroneves. “Having first and second at Texas is not easy, so that’s a compliment for everyone.”

The race started with an unfortunate second-lap accident involving Graham Rahal, Milka Duno and EJ Viso. Rahal could be seen fishtailing into Turn Two, and going into Turn Four, he lost the back end completely and spun into the wall, collecting Duno and Viso as he did.

“You can see it in the first couple corners the car was already going away,” Rahal explained. “I got into One and Two and it just stepped out big; I tried to catch it, and around I went. I don’t know if something’s broken or what happened, but it’s really frustrating.”

E.J. Viso decribed the incident this way: “We were no more than a half-lap into the race and I was right behind Rahal in Turns One and Two and he suddenly was sideways and I had nowhere to go.”

“It was Graham who spun and Viso had nowhere to go,’ said Milka Duno. “I went to the left but at the very last moment my car was caught in the right rear.”

Ryan Briscoe passed pole-sitter Dario Franchitti on lap eleven to take the lead, which he would not relinquish until lap 172.

Ryan Briscoe ran away with the first half of the race, opening a ten-second lead, but behind him the battles were fierce. Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves fought back and forth for second for lap after lap, until Helio began to slow a bit around lap 137. Then Marco Andretti stormed by on the outside and went on to pass Scott Dixon for second. Only a few seconds separated places two through fourth, with fifth-place Dario Franchitti two seconds back.

On lap 150, race stewards called a full-course caution for debris on track. This erased the advantage Ryan Briscoe had spent so long developing, and gave his pursuers a chance to stay on his tail after the restart.

When the race went green on lap 160, Briscoe held onto the lead, but Castroneves was able to stay with him, challenging his Penske teammate for the lead. Scott Dixon Marco Andretti and Dario Franchitti rounded out the top five.

On lap 172, AJ Foyt IV hit the wall, bringing out yet another yellow flag. Everyone came in for a full load of fuel and fresh rubber, planning to finish the race without another stop.

Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves came into the pits one after the other. Both Penske pit crews are amazing, but Helio’s crew is the best in the business; “It’s not for nothing that they won the pit crew competition at Indianapolis,” Helio explained. Castroveves’ crew got him out just before Briscoe, and Helio got back onto the track ahead of Briscoe, in first place. I just couldn’t pass Helio,” said a disappointed Ryan Briscoe after the race. “The cars are so evenly matched, it’s just really hard to pass. It was frustrating knowing that unless something drastic happened, which I didn’t want to have happen to Helio, that I was going to finish second, after dominating the race.”

With 200 laps gone, the top four—Castroneves, Briscoe, Dixon, and Franchitti—were within three quarters of a second of each other, with Danica Patrick another three quarters of a second back, in fifth. Marco Andretti, running very fast in his favored outside groove, passed his teammate, sending her to sixth, where she finished.In the closing laps, Marco Andretti roared by Dario Franchitti on the outside, taking fourth.

Helio Castroneves had too much speed for Briscoe or Dixon. He opened a .4 second gap, and maintained it until the end. Briscoe pushed hard, gaining a few tenths, only to lose them on the next lap as Helio drove smoothly and flawlessly to take his second win this season, and to move into fourth place in championship points, despite missing one race this season.

Ryan Briscoe’s second-place finish gave him the lead in Championship points, while Castroneves’ win moved him into fourth.

Scott Dixon commiserated with Ryan Briscoe:“I felt bad for Ryan to dominate the race and then lose it like he did, in the pits. I felt he had the car to beat. We were going flat out all night, just barely hanging on to the Penskes. But we scored some very valuable points for the Target team tonight, and hopefully it will keep us in the championship.”

The next IRL IndyCar Series event is the Iowa Corn Indy 250 on June 21 at Iowa Speedway. Please visit http://www.iowaspeedway.com for tickets and more information.

 

Pos.	Driver	Car
1	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske
2	Ryan Briscoe	Team Penske
3	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi Racing
4	Marco Andretti	Team Venom Energy
5	Dario Franchitti	Energizer
6	Danica Patrick	Boost Mobile/Motorola
7	Dan Wheldon	National Guard Panther Racing
8	Tony Kanaan	Team 7-Eleven 11
9	Ed Carpenter	Menards/Vision Racing
10	Mario Moraes	KV Racing Technology/Votorantim

 

Total Championship Points:
	Driver	Team	Points	Gap
1	Ryan Briscoe	Penske	199 pts
2	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi	196 pts	-3
3	Dario Franchitti	Target Chip Ganassi	188 pts	-11
4	Helio Castroneves	Penske	186 pts	-13
5	Danica Patrick	Andretti Green	167 pts	-32
6	Dan Wheldon	Panther	152 pts	-47
7	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Green	146 pts	-53
8	Marco Andretti	Andretti Green	141 pts	-58
9	Graham Rahal	Newman Hass Lanigan	126 pts	-73
10	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Vision	116 pts	-83