Carpenter Earns First Win in Kentucky Indy 300
October 02, 2011 | By IndyCar.com
SPARTA, Ky. – Ed Carpenter was thankful he had one Honda push to pass available on the final lap of the Kentucky Indy 300.
The extra horsepower boost was crucial in the Sarah Fisher Racing driver's 22-lap duel with Dario Franchitti, and most important as he exiting Turn 4 of the 1.5-mile oval side-by-side with the IZOD IndyCar Series championship front-runner.
He pushed the button and pushed the No. 67 Dollar General car to the start/finish line to edge Franchitti by 0.0098 of a second -- the sixth-closest race in IZOD IndyCar Series and the closest ever at Kentucky Speedway.
Scott Dixon finish third to wrap up the A.J. Foyt Oval Trophy and rooklie James Hinchcliffe was fourth. Ryan Hunter-Reay, the winner at the last oval race (New Hampshire Motor Speedway in mid-August) finished fifth.
Will Power, who entered the penultimate race of the season with an 11-point lead over Franchitti, started from the pole. But contact with the No. 24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing car driven by Ana Beatriz on pit lane on Lap 49 put a gash in the left sidepod of the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car. Power had to pit twice more and fell back to 23rd -- the last car on the lead lap. He soldiered on and finished 19th, but is 18 points behind Franchitti entering the IZOD INDYCAR World Championships Presented by Honda.
Also on Oct. 2, Josef Newgarden clinched the Firestone Indy Lights championship by taking the green flag in the Kentucky Indy 100 at Kentucky Speedway.
Stefan Wilson still has something to shoot for -- the championship runner-up -- and he took a big step in attaining that goal with a 3.1136-second victory over Newgarden in the 67-lap race on the 1.5-mile oval. Wilson, who earned his first Sunoco Pole Award a day earlier in the No. 5 Andretti Autosport car, overtook Esteban Guerrieri in the standings with one race remaining in the season.
Jorge Goncalvez finished third in the No. 4 Belardi Auto Racing Special and Brandon Wagner was fourth in the No. 22 TMR-Davey Hamilton Racing entry. Bryan Clauson, who started 11th in the No. 77 Mazda Road to Indy/CURB Records/SSM car, finished fifth.
Guerrieri, along with the cars of Gustavo Yacaman, Anders Krohn, David Ostella and Jacob Wilson, was eliminated in a Lap 1 incident in Turn 2.
KENTUCKY INDY 300 RACE RUNNING
At 2:30 p.m., the ambient temperature was 62 degrees, with a relative humidity of 37 percent. Skies were cloudy. The track temperature was 97 degrees.
2:47 p.m. – Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory, the grand marshal of the race gave the command, “Drivers start your engines.” All cars have started and are rolling on the grid.
Lap 1: GREEN. #12 Power leads the field into Turn 1.
Lap 5: #12 Power leads #38 Rahal by .6833 of a second.
Lap 10: #12 Power leads #38 Rahal by .4727 of a second.
Lap 15: #12 Power leads #38 Rahal by .6195 of a second.
Lap 20: #12 Power leads #38 Rahal by .7383 of a second.
Lap 25: #12 Power leads #38 Rahal by .9039 of a second.
Lap 32: #12 Power leads #38 Rahal by 1.3594 seconds.
Lap 33: #3 Castroneves off the pace with a sour engine. Crew reports a water leak.
Lap 35: #12 Power leads #38 Rahal by 1.6137 seconds.
Lap 40: #12 Power leads #38 Rahal by 2.0696 seconds
#3 Castroneves has retired from the event with a mechanical failure.
Lap 45: #12 Power leads #38 Rahal by 2.7924 seconds.
Lap 48: #26 Andretti, #77 Wheldon on pit road for four tires and fuel.
Lap 49: Leader on #12 Power on pit road. Car makes contact with #24 Beatriz. New leader is #4 Hildebrand.
Lap 50: Leader #4 Hildebrand on pit lane for four tires and fuel. New leader is #10 Franchitti.
Lap 51: Leader #10 Franchitti on pit lane for four tires and fuel. He maintains the lead after his stop.
Lap 60: Green flag pit stops complete, #10 Franchitti leads #4 Hildebrand by .0617 of a second. Top-five separated by .4389 of a second.
Lap 65: #10 Franchitti leads #4 Hildebrand by .1030 of a second.
Lap 70: #10 Franchitti leads #4 Hildebrand by .2351 of a second.
Lap 75: #10 Franchitti leads #4 Hildebrand by .3314 of a second.
Lap 79: YELLOW for Debris on the backstretch. Leader is #10 Franchitti followed by #4 Hildebrand, #9 Dixon, #26 Andretti and #28 Hunter-Reay.
Lap 82: Leaders are on pit road for four tires and fuel. #10 Franchitti wins race off pit road followed by #9 Dixon, #26 Andretti, #4 Hildebrand and #38 Rahal. #12 Power is getting repairs to the sidepod following damage on first pit stop.
Lap 92: GREEN. #10 Franchitti leads the field into Turn 1.
Lap 95: #10 Franchitti leads #26 Andretti by .0946 of a second.
Lap 100: #10 Franchitti leads #26 Andretti by .0744 of a second.
Lap 105: #10 Franchitti leads #26 Andretti by .0781 of a second.
Lap 110: #10 Franchitti leads #26 Andretti by .0775 of a second.
Lap 115: #10 Franchitti leads #26 Andretti by .0646 of a second.
Lap 120: #10 Franchitti leads #26 Andretti by .0754 of a second.
Lap 125: #10 Franchitti leads #26 Andretti by .1104 of a second.
Lap 130: #10 Franchitti leads #26 Andretti by .0893 of a second.
Lap 135: #10 Franchitti leads #26 Andretti by .0993 of a second.
Lap 137: #77 Wheldon and #78 De Silvestro on pit lane. YELLOW. Debris on the frontstretch after #78 De Silvestro makes contact with pit equipment and a crew member from #59 Viso.
Lap 140: Leaders on pit road for four tires and fuel. #4 Hildebrand makes contact with a crew member entering his pit. #26 Andretti and #19 Lloyd make contact in the pits. #10 Franchitti wins race off of pit road. #9 Dixon, #38 Rahal, #2 Servia and #28 Hunter-Reay.
Lap 144: #77 Wheldon on pit road for fuel only.
Lap 145: GREEN. #10 Franchitti leads the field into Turn 1.
Lap 151: #10 Franchitti leads #38 Rahal by .1876 of a second. #10 Franchitti has clinced the two bonus points for most laps led.
Lap 160: #10 Franchitti leads #38 Rahal by .0675 of a second.
Lap 165: #10 Franchitti leads #38 Rahal by .0695 of a second.
Lap 167: YELLOW: #24 Beatriz spins and makes contact with the SAFER Barrier in Turn 4. #10 Franchitti is the leader under caution. Beatriz is assisted from her car by the Holmatro Safety Team.
Lap 169: #38 Rahal, running second, pits for four tires and fuel.
Lap 178: GREEN: #10 Franchitti leads the field into Turn 1.
Lap 180: #10 Franchitti leads #67 Carpenter by .1537 of a second.
Lap 185: #10 Franchitti leads #67 Carpenter by .0022 of a second.
Lap 190: #10 Franchitti leads #67 Carpenter by .0094 of a second.
Lap 191: #67 Carpenter leads #10 Franchitti by .0100 of a second.
Lap 192: #67 Carpenter leads #10 Franchitti by .0135 of a second.
Lap 193: #10 Franchitti leads #67 Carpenter by .0071 of a second.
Lap 194: #10 Franchitti leads #67 Carpenter by. 0117 of a second.
Lap 195: #10 Franchitti leads #67 Carpenter by. 0000 of a second.
Lap 196: #67 Carpenter leads #10 Franchitti by .0021 of a second.
Lap 197: #67 Carpenter leads #10 Franchitti by .0085 of a second.
Lap 198: #67 Carpenter leads #10 Franchitti by .0040 of a second.
Lap 199: WHITE: #67 Carpenter leads #10 Franchitti by .0012 of a second.
Lap 200: CHECKERED: #67 Carpenter wins the Kentucky Indy 300 by .0098 of a second over Dario Franchitti.
KENTUCKY INDY 300 POST-RACE NOTES:
This Ed Carpenter’s first Indy car win. He had finished second here at Kentucky in 2009 and 2010. He won the race in his 113th IZOD IndyCar Series start.
This is Sarah Fisher Racing’s first win in Indy car racing. It’s previous best finish was ninth with Graham Rahal at St. Petersburg in 2010.
The margin of victory, .0098 of a second, is the sixth-closest finish in IZOD IndyCar Series history and the closest finish at Kentucky Speedway.
Dario Franchitti finished second, his best finish at Kentucky Speedway. Franchitti regains the IZOD IndyCar Series championship points lead by 17 points heading into the final race of the season.
Scott Dixon finished third. He has finished in the top five in the past five races. Dixon won the A.J. Foyt Oval Trophy by 10 points over Dario, who was the inaugural winner of the award in 2010.
ED CARPENTER (No. 67 Dollar General/Sarah Fisher Racing, winner Kentucky Indy 300): “It felt way better than I ever thought it was going to feel. Dario raced me hard and clean. I knew we had the better car but in the second or third step. It was weird race because my visor was falling off in one of the steps and we had all sorts of stuff going on, the team made changes all day to the car…just an awesome day for the Dollar General, Angie’s List, Fuzzy’s Vodka and everyone involved.” (About visor issues): “I wasn’t going to let a visor coming off stop me from winning the race. I drove 15 or 20 laps with one hand holding on to my helmet til a pit stop, so just so proud to be a part of this team and this organization. Andy, Sarah, and I can’t thank my wife enough for supporting me all these years to get to this point, it’s taken a long time to get our first win, but that’s fine with me.”
SARAH FISHER (Owner, Sarah Fisher Racing): “Just to see Ed drive his tail off is just so amazing. We figured out that next year, Dollar General is not coming back, so maybe they’ll change their mind now. But, you know certainly it was just a great weekend. They guys all worked their tail off, I haven’t been to the shop in three weeks. My baby girl is obviously good luck…I’m just so happy to be here. (Is Kentucky you second home?): Ed’s too. He’s just done an amazing job for us leading laps at Indy. We’ve just put all our effort, 100 percent of our focus on ovals and it’s paid off.”
DARIO FRANCHITTI (No. 10 Downy, finished second): We had a tough day yesterday, really were slow in qualifying and we did what we do—do our best. We made some good places on the first stint, had a good in lap, good pit stop, really good pit stop, really good out lap, and we came up from like fifth or sixth to the lead. And from then on, just tried to stay low there and keep going, and just ran out of overtakes one lap shy there and Ed got me. He drove a great race. The guys told me use an overtake every lap, and I miscounted by one.
SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing, finished third): “It was a frustrating day, really, we were just going slow for some reason. Obviously we finished pretty well in third, but it took three of four laps to get going. I kept trying to jump the restarts to get a bit of an advantage, but as soon as Dario and other guys on the restart just blew on by. Actually we messed p some of the restarts, but great day for the team, huge points swing in the championship for Dario which is much need and is going to make it exciting going into Vegas. All in all, going to take the positives, and obviously winning the A.J. Foyt Oval Championship was definitely a nice end to the season.
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