Dixon Wins at Richmond, ties Hornish for most IndyCar Series wins
By Bram • Jun 27th, 2009 • Category: IRL, News, Notes, Results, Your Series. Your Driver.
Scott Dixon with the SunTrust Indy Challenge trophy (Shawn Payne/IRL)
Scott Dixon, who started next to pole sitter Dario Franchitti, won the SunTrust Indy Challenge at Richmond International Raceway by 0.3109 of a second over his Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate.
The victory - his third of the season and second at Richmond - was the 19th of Dixon’s career to tie Hornish for the most in IndyCar Series history. Dixon, driving the No. 9 entry, matched the record in his 104th race - one less than Hornish, who totaled 116 starts.
“Fantastic night for Team Target,” said Dixon, who led a field-high 161 of 300 laps. “Obviously 1-2 in points, too. And to gain over the Penske cars was a big night for us.”
Franchitti assumes the IndyCar Series championship points lead by one point over Dixon, who picked up two bonus points for leading the most laps in addition to the 50 for winning the race. The open-wheelers are headed next to Watkins Glen.
Dixon claimed the lead for good after Franchitti had to pit for a splash of fuel on Lap 139 under yellow (brought out by the No. 24 Charter/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing car of Mike Conway bouncing off the Turn 4 SAFER Barrier).
“Ultimately, I was trying to put some gap between Scott and I (at that point) in the race, trying to put some cars between us.” said Franchitti, last week’s Iowa Speedway winner. “And ultimately that hurt us, because we had to pit when the pits were closed on that yellow. Literally had come off the track just about to go into the pit lane and the yellow came out, so pit lane was closed. And that was really all there was.
“Once Scott got ahead, we did our best. And we were pushing like hell to pass him, but we couldn’t get it done.”
Third and final podium spot belonged to NHLR’s Graham Rahal, who started fifth, and had a previous best oval finish of fourth at Milwaukee on May 31.
“It shows how hard the McDonald’s guys worked because honestly at the start of this weekend we weren’t where we wanted to be and we were struggling,” he said. “We just kept working through it. It’s great to be on the podium. We’ve been good on the short ovals but we just need to find some more speed on the mile-and-a-halfs. This was like a win for us.”
Andretti Green Racing’s Hideki Mutoh finished in fourth place, backing up his career high third-place podium finish at Iowa.
We had a great car tonight.” said the driver of the No. 27 Formula Dream D/H/F. “We worked really hard to make some changes to the car after practice yesterday and our hard work paid off. The Formula Dream guys did a fantastic job in the pits and I’m really pleased with our finish. I think we could’ve been in position to win if the last yellow hadn’t come out. I’m looking forward to Watkins Glen and hope to have a keep the momentum going.”
Penske’s Ryan Briscoe was running in the top five when the No. 6 Team Penske car did a half-spin exiting Turn 2 of the 14-degree banked racetrack and made left-side contact with the SAFER Barrier.
“Wow, it was totally unexpected,” he said. “The car just snapped on me and caught me by surprise. It’s obviously very disappointing and hopefully we can start catching back up next week in Watkins Glen. I feel bad for the Team Penske guys, they worked hard all weekend and it’s a shame we ended the race they way we did.”
It’s going to be tougher for Briscoe, who suffered his first DNF since July at Nashville Superspeedway (mechanical; finishing 23rd) and dropped to third in the standings. He was the only driver to complete every lap this season, and was far and away the lap leader (paced the field in the past three oval events in laps led).
Briscoe was credited with 19th place and enters the Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen with 253 points. That’s 26 points behind Dario Franchitti, who finished second at Richmond. Franchitti has a one-point lead over teammate Scott Dixon (278), who picked up two bonus points for leading the most laps in addition to the 50 for winning the race.
Richmond International Raceway Race Results
Race Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2009
Key:
No: Car Number C/E/T: Chassis/Engine/Tire
S: Starting Position F: Finishing Position
XL: Times Led LL: Laps Led
Pts: Points
Pos. Driver/Car No C/E/T S Qual
Speed Laps XL LL Status Pts
1 Scott Dixon
Target Chip Ganassi Racing 9 D/H/F 2 166.638 300 1 161 Running 52
2 Dario Franchitti
Target Chip Ganassi Racing 10 D/H/F 1 167.315 300 2 65 Running 41
3 Graham Rahal
McDonald’s Racing Team 02 D/H/F 5 165.218 300 0 0 Running 35
4 Hideki Mutoh
Formula Dream 27 D/H/F 8 164.575 300 1 74 Running 32
5 Danica Patrick
Boost Mobile/Motorola 7 D/H/F 10 164.197 300 0 0 Running 30
6 Tony Kanaan
Team 7-Eleven 11 D/H/F 17 162.634 299 0 0 Running 28
7 Marco Andretti
Team Venom Energy 26 D/H/F 16 162.780 299 0 0 Running 26
8 Raphael Matos
US Marines Luczo Dragon Racing 2 D/H/F 6 164.928 299 0 0 Running 24
9 Robert Doornbos
Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing 06 D/H/F 12 164.071 299 0 0 Running 22
10 Dan Wheldon
National Guard Panther Racing 4 D/H/F 13 163.843 299 0 0 Running 20
11 Tomas Scheckter
Mona Vie/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 23 D/H/F 9 164.441 299 0 0 Running 19
12 E.J. Viso
PDVSA HVM Racing 13 D/H/F 7 164.629 299 0 0 Running 18
13 Ed Carpenter
Menards/Vision Racing 20 D/H/F 14 163.824 299 0 0 Running 17
14 Justin Wilson
Z-Line Designs 18 D/H/F 15 163.506 298 0 0 Running 16
15 Ryan Hunter-Reay
ABC Supply Co. AJ Foyt Racing 14 D/H/F 18 162.506 298 0 0 Running 15
16 Mario Moraes
KV Racing Technology/Votorantim 5 D/H/F 19 160.895 297 0 0 Running 14
17 Helio Castroneves
Team Penske 3 D/H/F 3 165.931 245 0 0 Contact 13
18 Mike Conway
Charter/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 24 D/H/F 11 164.129 135 0 0 Contact 12
19 Ryan Briscoe
Team Penske 6 D/H/F 4 165.749 26 0 0 Running 12
20 Jaques Lazier
Novicomm LED Light Technology 98 D/H/F 20 153.176 0 0 0 Contact 12
