Dan Wheldon can commiserate with Vitor Meira. Kansas Speedway is a heartbreaker.
Last year, it was Meira coming up short to Rahal Letterman Racing teammate Buddy Rice by 0.0051 of a second - the second-closest finish in IndyCar Series history -- in the Argent Mortgage Indy 300. On this Independence Day weekend, Wheldon was 0.0120 of a second behind Andretti Green Racing teammate Tony Kanaan at the finish line.
The packed house enjoyed the fireworks - more than the IndyCar Series points leader.
“Losing by that much is very, very difficult,” said Wheldon, who nonetheless continues to hold a healthy advantage over Kanaan (76 points) in the standings after eight of 17 events. “But that’s Kansas for you.”
It was the sixth-closest finish in the 10 years of series competition, and the 50th margin of victory of less than a second. The crowd on a warm and breezy day in the heartland was on its feet for most of the race - especially the climactic shootout.
Meira was third - 0.0242 of a second behind -- in the No. 17 Menards Johns Manville Panoz/Honda/Firestone, producing the second-closest 1-2-3 finish in series history. Dario Franchitti, runner-up at Richmond International Raceway the previous week, finished fourth. Tomas Scheckter garnered his third consecutive top-5 finish, which included a victory at Texas Motor Speedway, with a fifth place.
“I have lost the last two races (at Kansas) by about four feet and under three-hundredths of a second,” Meira said. “Man, that is pretty close. I would like to win one of these (races) pretty soon.”
Wheldon and Kanaan have been on both ends at the finish. In this race, which had 19 lead changes among six drivers, they hooked up for a duel reminiscent of last year. It was Rahal Letterman Racing (first and third) and Andretti Green Racing (second and fourth) on Lap 194. Rice, the leader, relinquished the lead to Wheldon when he pitted on Lap 196.
On Lap 197, Wheldon held off Kanaan (on the outside) and Meira. Kanaan nosed ahead of Wheldon at the line of Lap 198, and they were side by side coming out of Turn 4 and headed for the checkered flag. Meira ducked low, but Kanaan won by inches.
“It’s been awhile since I’ve won a race, so I’m very happy,” said Kanaan, who led 10 laps. “I’m happy for the team. I think Dan has extended his lead. I’m solid in second place. That’s all we need for Andretti Green Racing to win this championship again. Let’s keep the momentum up. It was a hard race, a really hard race.”
Wheldon, who led a race-high 111 laps, recorded his 15th consecutive top-10 finish. He started 13th, and has only two top-5 qualifying efforts. It’s been a source of frustration.
“It’s just a situation that we can’t resurrect,” he said. “We don’t know why. But come the race, we’re able to turn that situation around to some extent. But I would still say I think Scheckter has a very fast car. To be honest, Sam Hornish is very quick on his own when he’s not in traffic. We definitely have to improve our performance in qualifying on superspeedways.”
IndyCar Series rookie Danica Patrick, who became the second woman in series history to start from the pole with a lap of 214.668 mph in the No. 16 Argent Pioneer Panoz/Honda/Firestone, finished ninth. After fighting traffic most of the race, she overcame poor pit stops to rise to fifth on Lap 182. Patrick had to take a final splash of fuel on Lap 187 that curtailed her drive to the front.
“It felt good to lead on that first lap but I think our fifth gear wasn’t quite fast enough,” said Patrick, who had her second consecutive top 10. “So I moved into the middle of the pack and tried to stay with the leaders. Overall, we made the car fastest through the day but it was frustrating when we dropped back a couple of times. The wind was problem from everybody out there today and that caused my car to develop a push. But the car was pretty good in most cases and we were able to come back towards the leaders late in the race.
“Then we had to make a quick fuel stop at the end. We might have been a little better with the gears today. It was a little frustrating at times but we are a young team that is still leaning to work together. There were all kinds of little things that hampered us today. But we finished again. I think that is seven straight finishes for us and we are leading the rookie points.”
