  September 4, 2010 |
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IndyCar Series
Round 15: Kentucky |
Castroneves Steals Kentucky Victory |
Qualifying >> |
Staying on track for another half-dozen laps after his competition made its third round of pit stops, Team
Penske’s Helio Castroneves was able to stretch that final tank of ethanol from Lap 147 to the finish
Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway to win the Meijer Indy 300.
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Helio Castroneves(Team Penske) |
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Ed Carpenter(Panther Racing) |
Following the third round of scheduled stops, Castroneves emerged at the tail end of a 10-car lead pack,
headed for much of the night by Panther Racing’s Dan Wheldon, pole qualifier Ed Carpenter and series
points leader Will Power. But all of these potential winners – and everyone else still on the lead lap –
were forced to make one final stop for fuel during the final 10 laps of tonight’s 200-lap event – handing the
lead and a second victory of 2010 to Castroneves.
Following Castroneves to the checkers was Carpenter, runner-up in Kentucky for the second consecutive
year, and his teammate, Wheldon, who led a race-high 93 laps. All 27 drivers and teams completed the
race weekend without a single failure of the Honda Indy V-8 engine. This weekend, drivers logged a total
of 10,506 trouble-free miles around the bumpy, high-speed Kentucky Speedway oval.
Tony Kanaan led a revitalized Andretti Autosport team, clawing his way from 26th on the starting grid to
fourth at the finish, with teammates Marco Andretti, sixth, and Danica Patrick, ninth. In the fourth Andretti
entry, Ryan Hunter-Reay also ran in the lead pack and appeared headed for a top-10 finish until a rear
suspension upright failure ended his race on Lap 174.
Will Power led 83 laps, second only to Wheldon, but a slight delay during his third pit stop dropped him to
eighth, while championship rival Dario Franchitti’s fifth-place finish moved him to within 17 points of Power
with two races remaining. Conquest Racing’s Bertrand Baguette continued his run of strong late-season
performances to round out the top 10 finishers and once again lead the rookie field.
The IZOD IndyCar Series now takes a week off before making its longest trip of the 2010 season – to the
Honda-owned 1.5-mile Twin Ring Motegi oval north of Tokyo for the Japan Indy 300 on Sunday,
September 19.
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Dan Wheldon(Panther Racing) |
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Hideki Mutoh(Newman Haas Racing) |
Helio Castroneves (#3 Team Penske Honda) started 8th, finished 1st, 2nd IndyCar win of 2010, his
first win at Kentucky Speedway:
“You should be interviewing [team vice president] Tim Cindric, not
me! He won the race for us tonight, what a great call [to pit on Lap 147, last of the leaders to pit]. We
didn’t have much to lose, so it was worth the risk. After the [last] pit stop, I just kept making the [fuel
mileage] numbers they asked. We dropped back from the leader [pack], but stayed on the lead lap so
when they all came back in one last time, we were in the clear.”
Ed Carpenter (#20 Panther Racing Honda) started 1st, finished 2nd, also finished 2nd here in 2009:
“This one was definitely more disappointing [than 2009]. Dan [Wheldon] and I both had great cars all
weekend, and Dan was especially fast right from the green. We had to make a pretty big wing change at
the first [pit] stop, but after that the car was great. Our last pit stop was really fast and after we all had
cycled through [the stops] I thought we were in great shape, but when I looked up at the scoring pylon I
saw the number ‘3’ and I knew Helio would try to go the distance. If he made it, there wasn’t going to be
anything we could do about it, and that’s the way it worked out.”
Roger Griffiths (Technical Director, Honda Performance Development) on tonight’s race:
"I think what
we saw in Chicago and what we saw tonight is setting us up for a great finish to the season. Dan
[Wheldon] ran a very strong race, he’s going into Motegi with a lot of confidence and he’s done well there
before. Dario [Franchitti] is putting a lot of pressure on Will [Power], but Helio [Castroneves] is just so
wily. The Penske team are past masters of fuel strategy and they demonstrated that again tonight. It
was really nice to see Ed [Carpenter] turn a strong qualifying effort into a great race performance. I know
that team is really excited heading into [the season finale at] Homestead.”
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IndyCar Series
Round 15: Kentucky
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| 1 |
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Helio Castroneves(Team Penske) |
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| 2 |
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Ed Carpenter(Panther Racing) |
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| 3 |
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Dan Wheldon(Panther Racing) |
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| 4 |
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Tony Kanaan(Andretti Autosport) |
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| 5 |
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Dario Franchitti（Target Chip Ganassi） |
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| 6 |
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Marco Andretti(Andretti Autosport) |
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| 7 |
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Scott Dixon(Target Chip Ganassi) |
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| 8 |
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Will Power(Team Penske) |
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| 9 |
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Danica Patrick(Andretti Autosport) |
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| 10 |
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Bertrand Baguette-R(Conquest Racing) |
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| 11 |
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Justin Wilson(Dreyer & Reinbold Racing) |
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| 12 |
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Paul Tracy(Dreyer & Reinbold Racing) |
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| 13 |
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Alex Lloyd-R(Dale Coyne Racing) |
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| 14 |
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Tomas Scheckter(Conquest Racing) |
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| 15 |
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Alex Tagliani(FAZZT Race Team) |
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| 16 |
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Raphael Matos(De Ferran Dragon Racing) |
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| 17 |
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Hideki Mutoh(Newman Haas Racing) |
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| 18 |
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Mario Moraes(KV Racing Technology) |
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| 19 |
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Milka Duno(Dale Coyne Racing) |
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| 20 |
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Graham Rahal(Sarah Fisher Racing) |
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| 21 |
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Ryan Hunter-Reay(Andretti Autosport) |
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| 22 |
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Sarah Fisher(Sarah Fisher Racing) |
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| 23 |
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Vitor Meira(A.J. Foyt Racing) |
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| 24 |
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Ryan Briscoe(Team Penske) |
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| 25 |
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Simona de Silvestro-R(HVM Racing) |
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| 26 |
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E.J. Viso(KV Racing Technology) |
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| 27 |
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Takuma Sato-R(KV Racing Technology) |
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Helio Castroneves(Team Penske) & Ed Carpenter(Panther Racing) & Dan Wheldon(Panther Racing) |
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Related Links
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