No one has to tell Helio Castroneves that cooperation between teammates goes only so far. When a race victory is in the balance, camaraderie goes into the pits.
Castroneves was runner-up to Marlboro Team Penske teammate Gil de Ferran in the 2003 Indianapolis 500, denying him a third consecutive victory. Sunday, it was new teammate Sam Hornish Jr. that deprived Castroneves of the opportunity to climb the fence at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Hornish, making his debut in the No. 6 Dallara/Toyota/Firestone, inched past Castroneves between Turns 1-2 on the final lap and held on to win the season-opening Toyota Indy 300 by .0698 seconds on the reconfigured 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway. The close racing throughout, including the final laps, had fans on their feet.
Dan Wheldon, the 2003 Bombardier Rookie of the Year, was third in the No. 26 Klein Tools/Jim Beam Dallara/Honda/Firestone, followed by Tora Takagi and Tomas Scheckter.
“It definitely was exciting,’’ said Hornish, who has won three of the four races he has competed in at the speedway. “A lot of people had asked me what I thought about the change in the layout of the track. I said I was real partial to the way the old track was, but I really like this new track.
“It’s just a great day to be able to come out here in my debut with Marlboro Team Penske and have a win. Everybody just really welcomed me in, made me feel at home. I’m really excited to start off the year this way and looking forward to a lot of good things down the road.”
It is the sixth time that Marlboro Team Penske has finished 1-2 in an IRL IndyCar® Series event.
“I believe it was a great finish,” said Castroneves, who led a field-high 85 laps after starting 10th. “So let’s keep working hard. People that finish second also win the championship. So that’s what we're looking for. We were racing pretty strong, but were able to race pretty clean. I don’t think it is going to be any different with Sam (than with de Ferran). It’s a long season.”
The two battled over the final 12 laps. Castroneves had taken the front spot from Hornish on Lap 189. They were nose to end, well ahead of Wheldon and the pack. Hornish, a two-time IndyCar® Series champion who has gained notoriety for riding the high line, attempted to pass Castroneves high on the 20-degree banked track. When that failed, he ducked low and they drove side-by-side down the backstretch and through turns 3 and 4.
“Basically, a little bit earlier on in the race, Helio was leading and I just wanted to stay behind him to learn where his car was good at,” Hornish said. “And I tried a couple times just to see spacing so I could see going through Turn 1 where I needed to have my car to be able to gain little bit on him.
“And I couldn’t quite catch up to him and be able to go to the outside at any time. I kept thinking that I was going to be able to get it right and get it timed right. When it came down to it, the last lap, he just wasn’t going to give me that outside line. He gave me enough room to probably get a car in there, but I just knew that I wasn’t going to be able to time it right and it was going to be slower.
“I just want decided I was going to go for the inside at that time. Anybody that tried to pass on the inside, they had a little bit of a hard time keeping it down on the bottom, and usually had to lift. I wasn’t quite sure if I was going to have to. It just seemed to work out, so sometimes you kind of walk into it.”
Castroneves wasn’t about to let Hornish swoop in from the high lane.
“As soon as I got the lead, I knew which line I should be able to go,” Castroneves said. “I said, ‘You know what, this guy’s not going to beat me on the outside.’ If I let him go outside, I will not sleep today. If you beat me ... Unfortunately, he did."
Wheldon led 14 laps but hurt his chances at victory when his car stalled in the pits late in the race.
“We had a few little things going on that kind of set us back a little bit,” he said. “But the guy who called my race did an excellent job. I put him in a difficult predicament having stalled. I don’t think we planned that one. So that made it difficult. And he pulled me out of that along with the guys in the pits.”
There were five caution periods for a total of 45 laps, and four drivers had their days ended early when they made contact with the wall in separate incidents. Defending IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon, who led early in the race, went out on Lap 87 when the rear end of his No. 1 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Panoz G Force/Toyota/Firestone hit the atteniator at the entrance of pit road. “The back end just got away from me,” he said.
Rookie Mark Taylor in the No. 2 Menards/Johns Manville Dallara/Chevrolet/Firestone was the first car to leave when he made contact with the wall in Turn 3 on Lap 39. Dario Franchitti and Alex Barron also were unable to continue after their cars made contact with the wall midway through the race. Barron had started on the front row. No one was injured.
Buddy Rice, who won the MBNA Pole Award with a fast lap of 24.5920 seconds (217.388 mph) on the reconfigured 1.5-mile oval, led the first 35 laps and 49 overall. He finished seventh in the No. 15 team Rahal Pioneer/Argent Mortgage Panoz G Force/Honda/Firestone.
“Everything started off really good,” said Rice, who recorded his first career IndyCar Series pole and the first for Team Rahal. “The car was excellent. We made our first pit stop and I went out and the car went super loose. Then the sensor for the right rear tire came on and we cut the tire on the first green lap. I know I ran over some debris and that really hurt us.”
The IndyCar Series moves to the 1-mile Phoenix International Raceway oval on March 21 for the Copper World Indy 200.
Courtesy Indy Racing League
