Justin Wilson, a great road racer, took to the historic Watkins Glen track as if he lived there. He was fast all weekend, second in qualifying, and led most of the race, passing pole-sitter Ryan Briscoe on the third lap and eventually winning by almost five seconds.
“We have worked at this all year. We put a lot of effort into road courses and we knew that was where we were stronger; to dominate like we did all day was just fantastic,” said Wilson. “I‘ve got to thank the team, Dale Coyne racing, and also the crew. I’ve got to thank Dale for putting me in the car. At the start of the year I didn’t think I was going to be driving, and here I am on Victory Lane.” (Wilson was signed to Dale Coyne Racing only a month before the start of the season.)
Team owner Dale Coyne, who had never won a race in twenty-five years o f driving and owning a team, was smiling widely. “We’ve been trying hard, we put together a good team of people this year, and we knew Justin was a strong road racer. This year we improved out engineering game drastically. We are more prepared this year. We almost showed it as St. Pete, and we showed it here, big time.”
Tire Strategy
Firestone offered two types of tires at Watkins Glen: “red” and “black” (named for their sidewall colors,) and tire choice played an important part in race strategy.
The red tires also got up to operating temperature faster than the black; this meant that a car on reds could run flat-out sooner after a restart or a tire change.
Justin Wilson saved a set of reds for the final stint, as did Scott Dixon; Ryan Briscoe gambled that the reds would go off before the end, so he chose blacks.
The gamble almost paid off. Unfortunately, Hideki Mutoh crashed with eight laps left, which saved the red tires. Briscoe, who had been gaining on Wilson, couldn’t keep up after the restart.
“It looked, as the tires got old, maybe I had the advantage because I was catching him and I was trying to line him up there, for a few laps, to pass him for the lead, but as soon as we got the yellow, and the tires got cold, we saw the big difference in the compounds, and him on the softer tire, just drove away from me.
Briscoe had set up his car with very low downforce for the final stint, so he was fast down the straights, if slower through the turns, Briscoe’s defensive driving kept third–place finisher Scott Dixon at bay, but it took a huge effort. “I had my hands full defending Scott, who was also on the softer tire. It was a great day; it was very hard-fought.
“Huge congrats to Coyne for his first Indycar win, and also to Justin.”
“We started on eight- or ten-lap reds already [Soft-compound red-wall tires, already used for ten laps in qualifying] and they wore out pretty quick so we had to struggle on the first stint,” Dixon said.
“Great job by the Target guys [the crew]; We had a good car, maybe not the best, but a little bit better car than Briscoe at the end, but those guys were trimmed to win and we couldn’t get them down the straights, so that was frustrating.
“Huge congratulations to Justin; the guy drove fantastic all weekend. He was pretty unstoppable at the end; he was in a class of his own.
It’s good when someone else is winning for points, for us at the moment. Today was a good points race. We’d rather Justin win that Ryan, so if we look at it that way, it’s good. But the guys can be tough on any of these road or street courses.”
Helio Castroneves started thirteenth and fought his way through the pack to finish fourth. Rather than being disappointed not to have finished on the podium, he seemed overjoyed to have done as well as he did.
“First of all I have to thank Team Penske, they did an incredible job on the strategy, they gave me a good car, and the y kept me calm—especially at those rough moments,” he said, laughing. “I had the best seat in the house watching Scott and Ryan; they were so close, I knew if Scott couldn’t squeeze one car through there, no way to fit two.
“If you had told me at the start of this race I would finish fourth, I would have said, “Come on, you’re lying,” he said, laughing again.
Marco Andretti finished fifth, doing a great job making up lost time after EJ Viso hit him on lap five, sending Marco off and cutting his tire.
A Big Day for the Small Teams
Michael Conway finished sixth in the Dad’s Root Beer/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing car, after running as high as second in the race. Prior to this race his average finish was eighteenth.
E.J. Viso, driving for PDVSA/HVM Racing, finished seventh, also his best finish ever. His average finish had been seventeenth.
Road courses are the great equalizer in IndyCar racing. Oval racing is the province of the wealthy. Big, rich teams can spend days in the wind tunnel, fine-tuning the aerodynamics, and generally have multiple cars collecting data, so they get more from their testing.
Road tracks can be won with a decent engineer and a decent set-up. The small teams have as much chance to run well as the giants.
There is a saying in racing; “Nothing beats cubic dollars.” But you can’t buy a win on a road, and if the driver and the crew are talented, any team—say, one which has not won in two-and-a-half decades—can fell the giants.
The race for the championship got shook up a bit, with Scott Dixon moved into first pushing Dario Franchitti to second. Marco Andretti passed teammate Tony Kanaan for seventh, and Justin Wilson moved into the top ten, bumping Hideki Mutoh.
Championship Points | ||||||||
|
| Driver | Points | Gap |
|
| Driver | Points | Gap |
| 1 | Scott Dixon | 313 pts | 0 |
| 6 | Dan Wheldon | 224 pts | -89 |
| 2 | Dario Franchitti | 294 pts | -19 |
| 7 | Marco Andretti | 215 pts | -98 |
| 3 | Ryan Briscoe | 294 pts | 19 |
| 8 | Tony Kanaan | 214 pts | -99 |
| 4 | Helio Castroneves | 257 pts | -56 |
| 9 | Graham Rahal | 197 pts | -116 |
| 5 | Danica Patrick | 238 pts | -75 |
| 10 | Justin Wilson | 187 pts | -126 |
IRL IndyCar racing stays on the road and street courses for the next few races. Next up is Honda Indy Toronto, with cars racing through the streets of the city. Please visit the Honda Indy Toronto Web site for ticket information.
| Camping World Grand Prix at the Glen Final Results | ||||||
| Pos. | No | Driver | Car | Laps | Status | Pts |
| 1 | 18 | Justin Wilson | Z-Line Designs | 60 | Running | 52 |
| 2 | 6 | Ryan Briscoe | Team Penske | 60 | Running | 41 |
| 3 | 9 | Scott Dixon | Target Chip Ganassi Racing | 60 | Running | 35 |
| 4 | 3 | Helio Castroneves | Team Penske | 60 | Running | 32 |
| 5 | 26 | Marco Andretti | Team Venom Energy | 60 | Running | 30 |
| 6 | 24 | Mike Conway | Dad’s Root Beer/Dreyer & Reinbold | 60 | Running | 28 |
| 7 | 13 | E.J. Viso | PDVSA HVM Racing | 60 | Running | 26 |
| 8 | 11 | Tony Kanaan | Team 7-Eleven | 60 | Running | 24 |
| 9 | 06 | Robert Doornbos | Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing | 60 | Running | 22 |
| 10 | 4 | Dan Wheldon | National Guard Panther Racing | 60 | Running | 20 |
| 11 | 7 | Danica Patrick | Boost Mobile/Motorola | 60 | Running | 19 |
| 12 | 2 | Raphael Matos | US Marines Luczo Dragon Racing | 60 | Running | 18 |
| 13 | 02 | Graham Rahal | McDonald’s Racing Team | 60 | Running | 17 |
| 14 | 5 | Mario Moraes | KV Racing Technology/Votorantim | 60 | Running | 16 |
| 15 | 10 | Dario Franchitti | Polaroid | 59 | Running | 15 |
| 16 | 20 | Ed Carpenter | Menards/Vision Racing | 59 | Running | 14 |
| 17 | 23 | Milka Duno | CITGO/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | 58 | Running | 13 |
| 18 | 27 | Hideki Mutoh | Formula Dream | 51 | Contact | 12 |
| 19 | 98 | Richard Antinucci | CURB/Agajanian/Team 3G | 47 | Running | 12 |
| 20 | 15 | Paul Tracy | GEICO/KV Racing Technology | 29 | Contact | 12 |
| 21 | 14 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | ABC Supply Co. AJ Foyt Racing | 0 | Contact | 12 |
