IRL - Suntrust Indy Challenge

[DanicaFan]

8 of 17

Race - Suntrust Indy Challenge

Location - Richmond International Raceway

Date - June 27th

TV Schedule - 8pm Eastern - Versus

Course Type - 3/4 Mile Oval

Distance - 300 Laps / 225 Miles

Qualifications - June 26 - 6pm Eastern

2008 Pole Sitter - Tony Kanaan

2008 Winner - Tony Kanaan

[DanicaFan]

Here is the entrant list at this time...

Car # & Driver / Car Name / Team

#2 Raphael Matos / US Marines Luczo Dragon Racing / Luczo Dragon Racing
#3 Helio Castroneves / Team Penske / Team Penske
#4 Dan Wheldon / National Guard Panther Racing / Panther Racing
#5 Mario Moraes / KV Racing Technology-Votorantim / KV Racing Technology
#6 Ryan Briscoe / Team Penske / Team Penske
#7 Danica Patrick / Boost Mobile-Motorola / Andretti Green Racing
#9 Scott Dixon / Target Chip Ganassi Racing / Target Chip Ganassi Racing
#10 Dario Franchitti / Target Chip Ganassi Racing / Target Chip Ganassi Racing
#11 Tony Kanaan / Team 7-Eleven / Andretti Green Racing
#13 EJ Viso / PDVSA HVM Racing / HVM Racing
#14 Ryan Hunter-Reay / ABC Supply Co. - AJ Foyt Racing / AJ Foyt Enterprises
#18 Justin Wilson / Z-Line Designs / Dale Coyne Racing
#20 Ed Carpenter / Menard's -Vision Racing / Vision Racing
#23 Tomas Scheckter / MonaVie- Dreyer & Reinbold Racing / Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
#24 Mike Conway / Charter-Dreyer & Reinbold Racing / Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
#26 Marco Andretti / Team Venom Energy / Andretti Green Racing
#27 Hideki Mutoh / Formula Dream / Andretti Green Racing
#98 Jaques Lazier / CURB-Agajanian-Team 3G - CURB-Agajanian-Team 3G
#02 Graham Rahal / McDonald's Racing Team / Newman-Haas-Lanigan Racing
#06 Robert Doornbos / Newman-Haas-Lanigan Racing / Newman-Haas-Lanigan Racing

[DanicaFan]

Here is the qualification order..

1. #5 Mario Moraes
2. #11 Tony Kanaan
3. #26 Marco Andretti
4. #6 Ryan Briscoe
5. #27 Hideki Mutoh
6. #23 Tomas Scheckter
7. #9 Scott Dixon
8. #02 Graham Rahal
9. #18 Justin Wilson
10. #3 Helio Castroneves
11. #10 Dario Franchitti
12. #24 Mike Conway
13. #98 Jaques Lazier
14. #2 Raphael Matos
15. #4 Dan Wheldon
16. #14 Ryan Hunter-Reay
17. #13 EJ Viso
18. #06 Robert Doornbos
19. #20 Ed Carpenter
20. #7 Danica Patrick

[DanicaFan]

Today's Practice session is over. Dario Franchitti topped the chart in this session. The suprise is Raphael Matos who was 2nd quickest. Danica was 11th.

Here are the results..

Car # & Driver / Time / Speed

1. #10 Dario Franchitti / 00:16.2518 / 166.135
2. #2 Raphael Matos / 00:16.2831 / 165.816
3. #9 Scott Dixon / 00:16.3570 / 165.067
4. #3 Helio Castroneves / 00:16.3618 / 165.019
5. #23 Tomas Scheckter / 00:16.3695 / 164.941
6. #13 EJ Viso / 00:16.3716 / 164.920
7. #4 Dan Wheldon / 00:16.4355 / 164.279
8. #27 Hideki Mutoh / 00:16.4515 / 164.119
9. #6 Ryan Briscoe / 00:16.5035 / 163.602
10. #26 Marco Andretti / 00:16.5134 / 163.504
11. #7 Danica Patrick / 00:16.5388 / 163.252
12. #02 Graham Rahal / 00:16.6002 / 162.649
13. #18 Justin Wilson / 00:16.6295 / 162.362
14. #24 Mike Conway / 00:16.6315 / 162.343
15. #11 Tony Kanaan / 00:16.6526 / 162.137
16. #06 Robert Doornbos / 00:16.6637 / 162.029
17. #5 Mario Moraes / 00:16.7620 / 161.079
18. #14 Ryan Hunter-Reay / 00:16.8310 / 160.418
19. #20 Ed Carpenter / 00:17.0220 / 158.618
20. #98 Jaques Lazier / 00:17.6426 / 153.039

[disko]

RHR Ahead of Ed C. 'satisfaction?', its hot during the day, lets see what happens tonight. Anybody have the weather forecast? I know last year the silver crown cars ran before the indy cars, and the track was a little loose until the indy tire compound started to work its way into the track.

[DanicaFan]

Qualifications are over. Congrats to Dario Franchitti for winning the pole. Danica got p10.

Here is your starting line-up..

1 #10 Dario Franchitti - 167.315
2. #9 Scott Dixon - 166.638
3. #3 Helio Castroneves - 165.931
4. #6 Ryan Briscoe - 165.749
5. #02 Graham Rahal - 165.218
6. #2 Raphael Matos - 164.928
7. #13 EJ Viso - 164.629
8. #27 Hideki Mutoh - 164.575
9. #23 Tomas Scheckter - 164.441
10. #7 Danica Patrick - 164.197
11. #24 Mike Conway - 164.129
12. #06 Robert Doornbos -164.071
13. #4 Dan Wheldon - 163.843
14. #20 Ed Carpenter - 163.824
15. #18 Justin Wilson -163.506
16. # 26 Marco Andretti - 162.780
17. #11 Tony Kanaan - 162.634
18. #14 Ryan Hunter-Reay - 162.506
19. #5 Mario Moraes - 160.895
20. #98 Jaques Lazier - 153.176

[SarahFan]

How did Danica do?

[harvick#1]

great effort by EJ, hopefully his car will be problem free the whole race

[DanicaFan]

How did Danica do?

She qualified 10th which is outside row 5.

[DanicaFan]

The final practice session has just ended. Poor Mario Moraes made contact with the wall at the end. He is fine. Scott Dixon was the fastest. Poor old Jaques Lazier still way off pace. It was nice to see Dan Wheldon up there. Raphael Matos is having some good runs this weekend and its good to see EJ Viso have a good session. Im suprised Ryan Briscoe didnt do better. Danica in at 12th. Im hoping they can get that car running better tomorrow. Of course these times were all down a little due to it being an evening session.

Here are the results of the 2nd session.

1. #9 Scott Dixon - 161.917
2. #4 Dan Wheldon - 161.368
3. #3 Helio Castroneves - 160.943
4. #10 Dario Franchitti - 160.436
5. #02 Graham Rahal - 159.933
6. #2 Raphael Matos - 159.911
7. #13 EJ Viso - 159.601
8. #14 Ryan Hunter-Reay - 159.410
9. #11 Tony Kanaan - 159.301
10. #23 Tomas Scheckter - 159.275
11. #6 Ryan Briscoe - 159.120
12. #7 Danica Patrick - 157.692
13. #26 Marco Andretti - 157.395
14. #24 Mike Conway - 156.763
15. #20 Ed Carpenter - 156.428
16. #06 Robert Doornbos - 156.309
17. #5 Mario Moraes - 156.276
18. #18 Justin Wilson - 156.075
19. #27 Hideki Mutoh - 155.925
20. #98 Jaques Lazier - 149.988

[NickFalzone]

Why would speeds automatically be down due to it being an evening session? I think you're right, that and they're in race trim instead of qual, but evening doesn't necessarily mean slower conditions. One thing that scares is me how slow Lazier is, he qualified a full 10 mph slower than most of the field. I hate to see 3G get hurt $$ on this race, but Barnhart seriously needs to consider if he should let them on track tomorrow at those speeds. Maybe they'll just black flag 20-30 laps in if it's a problem. On a short track, it's truly a moving chicane.

[FormerFF]

Jacques must be getting frustrated being so much slower than everyone else, and Tony Kanaan must be infuriated with that poor qualifying time. Good to see Graham Rahal and Rafa Matos getting up there, it would be nice to see someone other than Penske or Ganassi in the winners circle - though I still suspect it will be one of the "big four" that wins tomorrow night.

[indycool]

I can't believe how poor Justin Wilson is on the ovals.

[Nikki Katz]

Ah, another middle of the night race. I'll give it a miss, I like sleep.

[NickFalzone]

8 pm ET is "middle of the night"? My nephew goes to bed around 8:30, but I don't know too many others that are trying to sleep at that time.

Justin Wilson is not great on ovals but I'm seen him have some good races. I'd say it's more of a problem with the Coyne equipment, which Goodyear says is undriveable.

[Nikki Katz]

8 pm ET is "middle of the night"? My nephew goes to bed around 8:30, but I don't know too many others that are trying to sleep at that time.

Justin Wilson is not great on ovals but I'm seen him have some good races. I'd say it's more of a problem with the Coyne equipment, which Goodyear says is undriveable.
In the UK it's 1:30 AM.

[FormerFF]

Well, I guess we didn't have to worry about Jacques Lazier being in the way.

[FormerFF]

Quote of the day -

"I'd like to apologize to the fans. That was a dreadful race tonight."

- Dario Franchitti

[DanicaFan]

Congratulations to Scott Dixon for the win!

[DanicaFan]

After Scott Dixon's win, he now ties Sam Hornish Jr. on the most wins by a driver in the Indy Car Series with 19. Danica ran a solid race and finished 5th.

Here are the final results..

1. #9 Scott Dixon
2. #10 Dario Franchitti
3. #02 Graham Rahal
4. #27 Hideki Mutoh
5. #7 Danica Patrick
6. #11 Tony Kanaan
7. #26 Marco Andretti
8. #2 Raphael Matos
9. #06 Robert Doornbos
10. #4 Dan Wheldon
11. #23 Tomas Scheckter
12. #13 EJ Viso
13. #20 Ed Carpenter
14. #18 Justin Wilson
15. #14 Ryan Hunter-Reay
16. #5 Mario Moreas
17. #3 Helio Castroneves
18. #24 Mike Conway
19. #6 Ryan Briscoe
20. #98 Jaques Lazier

[harvick#1]

what a horrible race, the IRL needs to fix the aero package NOW!!!!

[DanicaFan]

what a horrible race, the IRL needs to fix the aero package NOW!!!!

They will most likely have changes by the time they go to Kentucky which is the next oval on the track. Be looking at tire ramps, rear wing flap angles, fence wickers, etc.

[harvick#1]

its about time, there were about 5 passes total on the track tonight, it was pathetic

[NickFalzone]

That was literally the most boring race I have ever watched. And as dull as it was on TV, I am so thankful I wasn't at the track. NASCAR shows up here and it's action from start to finish, IRL it's 300 strung out parade laps with a few order changes in the pits. Wow.

[jimispeed]

Ya know it could have been done the right way............

Not even close to what CART/Champcar was.

By the time the new engine/chassis arrives, it may be too late.

This so called unification should have been done correctly!!!

Extremely boring! No excuse other than lousy cars/aero package/whatever!!!!!

[ChicagocrewIRL]

What a GREAT crowd.... too bad the race was a snore. SAD SAD SAD

[NickFalzone]

Some post-race comments from Dario and Dixon:

Q Dario, you were apologizing after the race to the fans. Do you think this was kind of like a fuel efficiency race, that it looked like you were able to ‑‑ you were trying to make a run at the end but just didn't?
DARIO FRANCHITTI: I apologized to the fans because they came out to see good racing and traditionally the IndyCar Series put on fantastic races, especially at Richmond. I didn't feel tonight was that.
It was a track position race. And to a degree it became a fuel mileage race. As I say, I think Scott and I had very, very equal cars, but nobody could pass.
I don't know what Graham's thoughts are, but from the people at the very front, whether it was Scott or myself, we were hanging on all night, pushing it as hard as possible. I know I was pushing as hard as I could to pass him and look at how much oversteer he had coming out of the corners. He was pushing.
The guys who were trying to lap were pushing. Everybody's pushing. It's not that we're just cruising around, but we cannot get close enough to make those passes. And we need to look at that and fix it.
Do you agree with that?
GRAHAM RAHAL: Yeah. Definitely felt similar to me.


Q Also, there's been a lot of drivers that have been complaining about the fact that the cars are difficult to pass. You keep waiting for some decisions to be made with maybe some rules changes here and there. Are you beginning to run out of patience that there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of movement in that direction?
SCOTT DIXON: Fortunately for us, I'm just the driver. I get put in it and told to go fast. I'll do that no matter what. And I'll complain as much as the person next to me about what we need to fix. It's fine for a situation, say, for me tonight, when I'm out front, it's pretty cool because you're not going to get too much pressure.
The only guy that kind of got close is my teammate and, to be honest, I don't think there was any way he was going to pass me even if I went a half second or second slower. It's not one thing. It's not going to be one thing. There are many things we've changed over the last two years that have maybe stopped the amount of passing that we have had. But we've got to keep in mind what we're here to do.
And we're here to race. We're here to put on a show. Without our fans, we don't exist. I definitely want to keep on racing for many years. I want to put on a show because I want the fans to come and watch and love what we do.

[call_me_andrew]

I wouldn't call it a dreadful race. A dreadful race doesn't have green flag pit stops.

[markabilly]

Quote of the day -

"I'd like to apologize to the fans. That was a dreadful race tonight."

- Dario Franchitti
In F1, that would have been an exciting race.....

[Spiderman]

In F1, that would have been an exciting race.....
In F1 this race wouldn't have happened...

[cobre]

They have ruined these cars so much ; it might be time to raid the museum and pull the old roadsters out of moth balls.

[Andrewmcm]

I went to bed when the yellow caused by Conway effectively ended the race. It was 2:30am UK time and I wouldn't have needed the rest of the race to fall asleep....

[Easy Drifter]

That was not what Iwould call a race.
It was a lapping session in front of some specatators.
And a lot of empty grandstands.

[DanicaFan]

In F1, that would have been an exciting race.....

F1 is all over road/street courses, that isnt exciting.

[harvick#1]

F1 is all over road/street courses, that isnt exciting.

alot more exciting than the crap last night

[DanicaFan]

alot more exciting than the crap last night

How? All F1 practically is this year is watching Jensen Button lead a parade of cars down a curvy track for the win. ;)

[harvick#1]

been alot more passing in F1 than IRL this year, and although maybe not up front the field, they have still been better races than nearly all the IRL races

[SarahFan]

Ya know it could have been done the right way............

Not even close to what CART/Champcar was.

By the time the new engine/chassis arrives, it may be too late.

This so called unification should have been done correctly!!!

Extremely boring! No excuse other than lousy cars/aero package/whatever!!!!!

what does unification have to do with underpowered over engineered dallaras?

[maxmach]

That was a bad race, didn't start out as a bad race, but as the cars kept droning around in a parade with the occasional wall banging because of marbles, and a few passes in the pits, it turned into a bad race when for 20 laps Dario couldn't pass and didn't even try to pass Scott, for the win. This is a bad show, not the product we want to show people.
I can't wait for the road courses, at least it's an exciting parade. Oh, and if you have watched any F1 races, you can see the cars slipping around, and there have been many passes this year. It's more excitng to watch then Indycars right now.

[Jag_Warrior]

Hideki Mutoh finished 4th?! Wow!

[markabilly]

if you guys want to add excitement well last time i made a serious suggestion i got banned but u can always check out the signature

[Jag_Warrior]

if you guys want to add excitement well last time i made a serious suggestion i got banned but u can always check out the signature

Considering how low the ratings are now, I think she'd have to go hardcore. Maybe even B&D or S&M. It's too late to be saved by the soft stuff. She's already playing with the drag queen pitcrew, so she's apparently getting the message. :p

[markabilly]

Considering how low the ratings are now, I think she'd have to go hardcore. Maybe even B&D or S&M. It's too late to be saved by the soft stuff. She's already playing with the drag queen pitcrew, so she's apparently getting the message. :p
Lord, i miss the good ole days before the split.....now I am trying to figure out who is the best and most well known active "american" OW racer....and alas, she is it, and her only competition seems to be the two youngsters, andretti and rahal..... :(

[jimispeed]

what does unification have to do with underpowered over engineered dallaras?

Unification should have started with an all new series from the ground up. Using the best of both series.

It was a buyout, not a unification. And it's extremely lame, compared to the CART/Champcar era.

There have been some really good races! But, not enough.

KK, and Champcar should have designed this with the Indycar series years ago, and spent the time building a series that would remain the greatest fans would ever see. Instead both series let the timer almost run completely out and now try to succeed on a series that was already a failure, "except for Indy, and even that race is a shell of its former self"....

Could've been, Should've been.

It is what it is.......which isn't enough IMO
It's an embarassment to all of those legendary drivers from long ago.

But, here we are. Let's hope for the best!!

[FormerFF]

Hideki Mutoh finished 4th?! Wow!

He and Danica skipped an early pitstop that everyone else made, and that ultimately got them the track position to stay on the lead lap. Later, Rahal, Franchitti, and Dixon benefitted by staying out a little longer and being able to pit under a yellow when nearly everyone else had pitted under a green. Now, Franchitti and Dixon were the class of the field, and they earned their 1-2, but Rahal, Patrick, and Mutoh mostly were beneficiaries of the yellow flags.

[garyshell]

Later, Rahal, Franchitti, and Dixon benefitted by staying out a little longer and being able to pit under a yellow when nearly everyone else had pitted under a green. Now, Franchitti and Dixon were the class of the field, and they earned their 1-2, but Rahal, Patrick, and Mutoh mostly were beneficiaries of the yellow flags.

If Rahal followed the same strategy as the two Target boys, how is it that they are the class of the field and Graham was one of the, as you put it, "beneficiaries of the yellow flags"?

Gary

[indycool]

Good point, Gary.....Rahal benefited the same as the Target guys under the same caution.

[nigelred5]

Sounds like I made a good call going to see my brother in law's blue's band play instead of staying home to watch the race.