Wilson Gives Dale Coyne Racing first IndyCar Series owner win at The Glen
By Bram • Jul 6th, 2009 • Category: IRL, News, Notes, Results, Your Series. Your Driver.
Justin Wilson celebrates in victory lane at Watkins Glen (Ron McQueeny/IRL)
Wilson, whose only previous top 10 this season was third in the opener at St. Petersburg, also was the last driver other than one from Target Chip Ganassi Racing or Team Penske to win — at Belle Isle last August with Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing. “It feels fantastic,” said Wilson, who started on the outside of the front row and led a field-high 49 laps.
“This is the most important win in my career; winning with Dale and showing what we can do. It’s a fantastic feeling.” Wilson, riding on Firestone alternate tires on that final restart, pulled away and beat Briscoe to the checkers by 4.9906 seconds. Dixon, who took over the championship points lead, finished third. Helio Castroneves advanced nine positions to finish fourth. Marco Andretti overcame contact with E.J. Viso’s car on Lap 5 that put him a lap down, wound his way through the field to overtake Mike Conway on the final lap for fifth.
“It took too long,” said Coyne, who is competing in his 25th year of open-wheel racing as a driver and owner, about the long-awaited victory. “We knew Justin was a strong road racer. We almost showed it at St. Pete, and we showed it here.” Wilson inherited the lead on Lap 45 when Andretti made his final service stop for ethanol and Firestone Firehawks in the No. 26 Team Venom Energy car for Andretti Green Racing.
Briscoe closed to .4743 of a second with 10 laps left before a full-course caution period on Lap 52 when Hideki Mutoh’s car made contact with the barrier in Turn 7. Wilson had two sets of the Firehawk “reds” at his disposal for the race. Briscoe, running on the regular compound tires the final stint, was runner-up for the fourth time this season and is tied for second in the standings with Dario Franchitti (19 points behind).
Franchitti’s No. 10 Polaroid car for Target Chip Ganassi Racing spun and came to rest in the gravel in the Inner Loop on Lap 23. He returned and finished 15th. “Big congrats to Dale Coyne and the whole team and Justin,” said Briscoe, who won the PEAK Performance Pole Award with a record-setting lap in the Firestone Fast Six session. “We went a lap further than him in the first stint. That was going to get us the lead back, but unfortunately the yellow came and we had to make two pit stops. That put us back. We had to work hard to come through the field. We had some great pit stops and it was pretty exciting at the end with everybody on the softer compound. I had my hands full defending them.”
The pole winner has never won the race at The Glen in five visits by the IndyCar Series. Viso finished a season-high seventh in the No. 13 PDVSA HVM Racing car, and Tony Kanaan posted his second consecutive top 10 in the No. 11 Team 7-Eleven car for Andretti Green Racing. “We moved many positions in the pits,” said Viso, who recorded his first top 10 of the season. “And I am very proud of being able to work very hard throughout the championship to achieve, little by little, better results. Now we head to Toronto.” Robert Doornbos, who started 17th in the No. 06 Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing car, equaled his season high with a ninth-place finish. Dan Wheldon, driving the No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing entry, finished 10th and Danica Patrick was 11th in the No. 7 Boost Mobile/Motorola car.
CAMPING WORLD GRAND PRIX AT THE GLEN POST-RACE NOTES:
•This is the second IndyCar Series of Justin Wilson’s career. He won the Detroit Indy Grand Prix presented by Firestone on Aug. 31, 2008 at The Raceway at Belle Isle Park in Detroit when driving for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing.
•Justin Wilson’s previous-best finish this season was third on the street course at St. Petersburg.
•This is the first victory for Dale Coyne in 558 starts as an owner/driver or team owner in major-league open-wheel racing. •This is the first victory for a team other than Team Penske and Target Chip Ganassi Racing since Justin Wilson won Aug. 31, 2008 at Belle Isle in a Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing car, a streak of 10 points races and one non-points race.
•Justin Wilson led 49 of the 60 laps, the most laps led by a winner in the history of this event. The previous record was 25 by Scott Dixon in 2005.
•This is the fifth top-three finish of the season for Ryan Briscoe. He has a victory at St. Petersburg.
•Scott Dixon took the IndyCar Series points lead from teammate Dario Franchitti with his third-place finish.
•This is the fifth top-three finish of the season for Scott Dixon. He has three victories (Kansas, Milwaukee, Richmond).
•This was the best street/road course finish of the season for Scott Dixon. His previous best was 15th at Long Beach.
•Drivers leading the series championship at the midway point of the season have won the title in six of the last 12 seasons, dating back to the 1996-97 season. This is the midway point of the 2009 season, round nine of 17. Scott Dixon is the points leader.
•Rookie Mike Conway finished a career-best sixth. His previous best finish was eighth at Iowa, an oval.
•EJ Viso finished a season-best seventh. His previous best was 12th at Richmond, an oval.
•Rookie Robert Doornbos equaled his career-best finish of ninth, also recorded at Long Beach, a street circuit, and Richmond, an oval.
•Dario Franchitti finished 15th, just his second finish outside the top 10 this season. He finished 18th at Kansas, an oval.
Watkins Glen International Race Results
Race Date: Sun, 05 Jul 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 Justin Wilson
Z-Line Designs 18 D/H/F 2 135.841 60 3 49 Running 52
2 Ryan Briscoe
Team Penske 6 D/H/F 1 136.935 60 3 7 Running 41
3 Scott Dixon
Target Chip Ganassi Racing 9 D/H/F 3 135.209 60 1 1 Running 35
4 Helio Castroneves
Team Penske 3 D/H/F 13 135.001 60 1 1 Running 32
5 Marco Andretti
Team Venom Energy 26 D/H/F 8 135.775 60 1 2 Running 30
6 Mike Conway
Dad’s Root Beer/Dreyer & Reinbold 24 D/H/F 6 136.052 60 0 0 Running 28
7 E.J. Viso
PDVSA HVM Racing 13 D/H/F 10 135.453 60 0 0 Running 26
8 Tony Kanaan
Team 7-Eleven 11 D/H/F 9 135.685 60 0 0 Running 24
9 Robert Doornbos
Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing 06 D/H/F 17 133.868 60 0 0 Running 22
10 Dan Wheldon
National Guard Panther Racing 4 D/H/F 11 134.929 60 0 0 Running 20
11 Danica Patrick
Boost Mobile/Motorola 7 D/H/F 7 135.997 60 0 0 Running 19
12 Raphael Matos
US Marines Luczo Dragon Racing 2 D/H/F 18 134.058 60 0 0 Running 18
13 Graham Rahal
McDonald’s Racing Team 02 D/H/F 15 0.000 60 0 0 Running 17
14 Mario Moraes
KV Racing Technology/Votorantim 5 D/H/F 4 135.100 60 0 0 Running 16
15 Dario Franchitti
Polaroid 10 D/H/F 5 0.000 59 0 0 Running 15
16 Ed Carpenter
Menards/Vision Racing 20 D/H/F 21 132.322 59 0 0 Running 14
17 Milka Duno
CITGO/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 23 D/H/F 19 129.501 58 0 0 Running 13
18 Hideki Mutoh
Formula Dream 27 D/H/F 12 135.109 51 0 0 Contact 12
19 Richard Antinucci
CURB/Agajanian/Team 3G 98 D/H/F 20 133.039 47 0 0 Running 12
20 Paul Tracy
GEICO/KV Racing Technology 15 D/H/F 14 133.883 29 0 0 Contact 12
21 Ryan Hunter-Reay
ABC Supply Co. AJ Foyt Racing 14 D/H/F 16 134.203 0 0 0 Contact 12
The 2009 IndyCar Series season continues July 12 with the Honda Indy Toronto on the streets of Toronto. The race will be telecast live in High Definition at 1 p.m. (EDT) by ABC. The race will air live on the IMS Radio Network, XM channel 145 and Sirius channel 211. The radio broadcast also will be carried on www.indycar.com. The Firestone Indy Lights Corning 100 will be telecast at 11 p.m. (EDT) on Monday, July 6 by VERSUS. The 2009 Firestone Indy Lights season continues July 11 with the Firestone Indy Lights Grand Prix of Toronto on the streets of Toronto. The race will be telecast at 11 p.m. (EDT) on Monday, July 13 by VERSUS.
