Dan Wheldon celebrated his victory in the season-opening Toyota Indy 300 with doughnuts and champagne.
It’s not such an unusual combination.
Wheldon, runner-up in the IndyCar Series standings to Andretti Green Racing teammate Tony Kanaan last year, has a system for doing doughnuts that he shared with readers in the January issue of Maxim. He produced a crowd-pleasing rendition that left a diagonal 8 on the frontstretch. As for the champagne in Victory Lane, let’s just say his fire suit - along with the attire of many people nearby -- will need dry-cleaning.
Wheldon’s first step in pursuit of the title was emphatic and commanding on the sun-soaked 1.5-mile variably banked oval. After starting 11th in the No. 26 Klein Tools/Jim Beam Dallara/Honda/Firestone, Wheldon led 158 laps and won by 3.6936 seconds. It was the fourth series victory for the 2003 Bombardier Rookie of the Year.
“It was pretty tough,” said Wheldon, who took the lead for good on Lap 151 and steered clear of an incident that eliminated eight cars on Lap 159. “It was a fantastic result for the team. They worked very hard.”
But he didn’t want to highlight one event in a 17-race season that includes a temporary street course and two road courses for the first time in the 10 years of IndyCar Series competition.
“It’s going to be a tough season,” he said. “You could see how competitive it was. I’m very happy with the result, but it’s one race into the championship. One race. If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. I just enjoy winning races.”
He could enjoy this one with relative comfort the final 13 laps after Kanaan passed Sam Hornish Jr. for second. That allowed Wheldon to put a cushion between him and the pack. Kanaan had passed Helio Castroneves for third 10 laps earlier.
With the winner virtually decided, the battle for second place brought fans to their feet. The cars of Sam Hornish Jr., Kanaan and Vitor Meira were three abreast down the frontstretch, with Hornish - the 2004 race winner - grabbing second.
"We got that last restart, and I knew I had to stay with Dan to be able to hopefully have a chance at second," said Hornish, who started eighth. "We had a really good-handling car. We could move it wherever we wanted. But once we got by ourselves, I had a hard time running quickly.
"It was a great finish. Too bad it wasn't for the win."
Kanaan was third, Meira fourth and Castroneves fifth. The difference between second and fourth -- two-thousandths of a second.
“That was incredible,” said Castroneves, a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner. “It wasn’t for the lead, but it was for second through fifth. It was a hell of a race. Everybody seems to respect each other well, and that’s what we need.”
Kanaan upped his consecutive laps completed streak to a series-record 3,505.
“Coming down to the last 10 laps, everyone in the top 10 had a lot of respect for each other,” said Kanaan, who started 14th. “I was racing with Sam throughout the entire race and I knew that he could run a high line and he knew that I could run the low lane. It was good, close racing. I don’t know if we had a car capable of winning today’s race because Dan Wheldon was super fast. But we had a very competitive race car.”
The incident - the seventh yellow flag of the day -- between Turns 1 and 2 on the restart on Lap 159 knocked out the cars of Tomas Scheckter, Bryan Herta, Scott Sharp, Scott Dixon, Danica Patrick, Ed Carpenter, Roger Yasukawa and Kosuke Matsuura.
Scheckter, the pole sitter in the No. 4 Pennzoil Panther Dallara/Chevrolet/Firestone, led the first 13 laps and was running fifth. Matsuura was sixth and Sharp eighth. ESPN replays showed Matsuura, who was attempting to pass Scheckter on the outside, slide sideways and clip Scheckter’s nose. The other cars were collected.
“I think we were three-wide and, at that time, I was driving on the outside and got up into the tire marbles and dust,” Matsuura said. “I spun and hit Scheckter. I am very sorry for the other drivers that crashed. It was a tough day.”
Patrick, the only female in the field, walked into the infield care center but was transported by ambulance to a nearby hospital. She was examined and released in "good" condition with a slight conscussion.
