Kanaan Takes Advantage of Fuel Strategy, Wins Argent Mortgage Indy Grand Prix
Sunday, August 28, 2005

Tony Kanaan claimed the victory at the inaugural Argent Mortgage Indy Grand Prix. (Photo by Clint Graves)

It was Kanaan's second victory of the season, coming after a win at Kansas Speedway earlier, and pulled him to second place behind teammate Dan Wheldon in the race for the series championship. Both drive for Andretti Green Racing.

Buddy Rice (Rahal Letterman Racing), the 2004 Indianapolis 500 winner, was second for his best finish of the 2005 campaign and Alex Barron (Red Bull Cheever Racing) was third, also his best 2005 finish.

Kanaan came to the forefront after a three-car tangle among pole winner Ryan Briscoe (Target Chip Ganassi), fellow front-row starter Helio Castroneves (Marlboro Team Penske) and rookie sensation Danica Patrick (Rahal Letterman Racing) in Turn 7.

The accident knocked all three out, leaving Kanaan's Andretti Green teammate, Bryan Herta, in the lead before Tomas Enge (Panther Racing) took over. Kanaan got the lead on lap 46 of the 80 circuits around the 2.26-mile Infineon Raceway road course.

Kanaan and Barron came to pit road on lap 50 for fuel and tires and the Brazilian driver surged back to the lead on lap 53 as others went to pit road. That gave both drivers enough fuel to go to the finish and Kanaan posted a 1.1826-second margin of victory over Rice at the end.

"I think we raced pretty smart," said Kanaan. "People are racing so hard for the front and I just think we saved a lot of fuel and that was going to help us win the race. I had a very consistent car. The team did a great job."

For Rice, it was a good weekend to break out of a slump.

"It's great to finally have a full-blown solid weekend," Rice said. "The pit stops were excellent like always. The car was good. Tim (Reiter, Rice's engineer) had a good game plan coming into this weekend with the racecar. Overall, I wasn't sure if we could run with Tony at the end since we were conserving fuel. We only had about a gallon of fuel left in the end so we planned the strategy just right."

Barron said he could stay with, but not overtake, the leaders.

"We made a good change there on the second stop," Barron said. "When we went back out, the car was solid and we were able to hang on to third. Didn't have quite enough to try to make a run on the leaders, but I could catch Buddy and sustain it, but wasn't able to be offensive."

Others moved up as strategy played itself out. Dario Franchitti (Andretti Green Racing), who started last in the 21-car field because of a problem during qualifying, passed seven cars on the first lap and wound up eighth. Kosuke Matsuura (Super Aguri Fernandez Racing), who started 15th, claimed sixth place after holding off several drivers charging to the front in the late going.

Kanaan claimed $105,000 of the $1,023,000 purse. The event marked the first major open-wheel race at Infineon Raceway since 1970 and it was the first race on a permanent road course in the 10-year history of the IRL.

Wheldon, who led a lap but finished 18th due to recurring fuel system problems, continues to lead the point standings with 517, followed by Kanaan with 438 and Sam Hornish Jr. (Marlboro Team Penske), at 421. Hornish went in arrears early in the race after going off course and, after repairs were made, he returned 24 laps behind and finished 17th.

Earlier in the day, Marco Andretti motored to victory in the 30-lap Sonoma 100 Menards Infiniti Pro Series™ feature race. It was Andretti's third victory of the year in the series, all coming on road courses. Andretti is the son of Michael Andretti and grandson of legendary driver Mario Andretti.

Argent Mortgage Indy Grand Prix
SUNDAY NOTEBOOK

Danica Patrick (Rahal Letterman Racing) wasn't happy, but had a conciliatory tone after the lap 20 accident that sidelined her, pole-winner Ryan Briscoe (Target Chip Ganassi) and front-row starter Helio Castroneves (Marlboro Team Penske). She was sixth at the time of the mishap through alternate fuel strategy.

"We went into Turn 6 and I gave some room to Helio," Patrick said. "I thought he was going to go by. Then we went into Turn 7, Helio was to the left of me, I broke in my normal spot, where I had every lap, and right up inside came Briscoe. He was fast. Helio was fast. Ryan could've been more patient."

When told that Briscoe had apologized on TV, Patrick was asked if she accepted it.

"Yeah," she said. "Racing accidents happen all the time. I'm glad he owned up to it."

Castroneves also blamed Briscoe, like Patrick, a rookie.

"It was a bad move on Ryan's part, you know," said Castroneves. "He had a great car. He was fast. Both of us were fast. Danica was trying. She noticed that we were really fast and she was trying to give us a way. I don't know what the heck he was thinking. He just decided to pass everybody in one corner and he ended up taking everybody out."

Briscoe apologized.

"When I was going up the hill, I was on the inside going into Turn 7 and whenever I got on the brakes, obviously they were defending their positions and I just got on the brakes a bit late, it looks like. Had to go on the dirt and once I got out there, there was no stopping the car. I'm just really sorry, because we had a great car. It was really fast. I'm just sorry for whoever else is out of the race."

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Tomas Enge (Panther Racing), the driver from the Czech Republic, finished fifth in the Argent Mortgage Indy Grand Prix, the best of his IndyCar® Series career. His previous best was sixth at Pikes Peak last weekend.

"I had two small touches with people I was overtaking," Enge said. "We had a different fuel strategy. Unfortunately, we stopped once more than some of the other guys. I think the car was just great. The guys did a great job. Compared to where we started at the beginning of the weekend on Friday, we improved a lot."

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Jeff Bucknum soldiered to 10th place in his first ride in A.J. Foyt's legendary No. 14.

"We had to stay clean and out of trouble," Bucknum said. "We had a couple incidents, but they didn't hurt us too bad. I could see guys dive-bombing and dust flying. Everyone was running qualifying laps out there. That's what this series is all about and that's what makes it fun."

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At times, the Target Chip Ganassi team of Briscoe, Scott Dixon and newcomer Giorgio Pantano were all near the front. But in addition to Briscoe going out in an accident, Dixon wound up seventh and Pantano 14th at the end.

"It was a tough race but we were much better than a seventh-place finish," Dixon said. "The No. 9 Target Toyota was really easy to drive and while we had some under steer on the first stint, we made the adjustments and it was getting much better. It was just so hard to pass here and the team prepared a much better car than it showed."