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Andretti Ends Win Drought In Iowa

Newton, Iowa, June 25 – Marco Andretti scored the second win of his career and his first in five years at the Iowa Corn Indy 250 IZOD IndyCar Series race at Iowa Speedway tonight.

    Marco Andretti and his father and car owner, Michael Andretti posed with the unique gas pump trophy in victory lane at Iowa Speedway after he won the Iowa Corn Indy 250 on Saturday night. [Russ Lake Photo]


As the green flag dropped to start the race, polesitter Takuma Sato, whose crew had to repair his car after a post-qualifying practice crash yesterday, grabbed the lead.

At the end of the first lap the top five were Sato, Tony Kanaan, Dario Franchitti, Danica Patrick and JR Hildebrand.

Franchitti took the lead from Sato on lap eight as the pair entered Turn 3. Sato continued to pressure Franchitti as, by lap 20, Franchitti had just a .5897 second lead over Sato.

The first yellow of the race came out on lap 23 when James Jakes spun and hit the Turn 2 wall with the rear of the car. The car then spun around and stopped parallel to the wall.

Under the yellow, the field headed for the pits. It was in the pits that the next incident occurred when Will Power, who was coming out of his pit, struck Charlie Kimball, who was entering his pit. Kimball’s car suffered damage to the left rear while the nosecone on Power’s car was damaged and was replaced in a subsequent pit stop. The damage to Kimball’s car was more severe as the crew had to pull the car behind the wall to make repairs.

The green came back out on lap 33 with Franchitti in the lead followed by Kanaan, Ryan Briscoe, Sato and Patrick.

The yellow came back out again on lap 45 when Ana Beatriz and Mike Conway made contact in Turn 2. Both cars hit the SAFER Barrier and came to rest on the backstretch. Both cars hit hard and spread a lot of debris on the track.

Some of the debris hit Vitor Meira’s car and damaged the front wing and suspension. The wing was replaced but the car made numerous pit stops and was no longer competitive.

Due to the amount of debris and marbles on the track it was a lengthy caution and the green did not come back out until lap 64.

As Franchitti continued to lead, Helio Castroneves and Andretti had worked their way through the field and by lap 67, Castroneves was second and Andretti was third.

At lap 75 the top five were Franchitti, Castroneves, Andretti, Kanaan and Sato. However, just two laps later Castroneves was forced to pit due to a puncture in his left rear tire, moving Andretti up to second.

The yellow came out again on lap 90 when Power made hard contact with the SAFER Barrier in Turn 2. The SAFER Barrier was checked after the crash but it did not require repair.

Power was checked out and released from the infield care center but was not cleared to drive due to a mild concussion. He will be re-evaluated prior to the next race.

The leaders pitted under the yellow on lap 96 and when they returned to the track, the top five were Franchitti, Kanaan, Sato, Andretti and Briscoe.

When the green came back out on lap 107 Franchitti continued to lead but Sato got by Kanaan for second.

The green flag conditions did not last long as the yellow banner reappeared on lap 115 when Sebastian Saavedra hit the Turn 2 SAFER barrier.

To this point, all on-track incidents had occurred which fueled speculation that a bump on the track over the track tunnel going into Turn 2 contributed to the incidents in Turn 2.

Beatriz had commented on the bump and felt it contributed to her earlier crash. “We were running a good race and the car was pretty good. We got loose, I hit the bump and the rear snapped on me,” she said.

Following the yellow for Saavedra’s crash, the green came back out on lap 128 with Franchitti on the point followed by Sato, Kanaan, Andretti and Hildebrand.

For a number of the laps the top four cars ran right together and on lap 141 Andretti took the 3rd spot from Kanaan.

A few laps later Andretti set up Sato for a pass by going outside of him and then went under him to pass him on the inside, putting Andretti in second.

Andretti was right up on Franchitti’s rear and took the lead on lap 157. Franchitti re-took the lead on lap 160. The pair ran close lap after lap, separated by about .2 of a second.

On lap 180 green flag pit stops began with Sato, who was running third, pitting for four tires and fuel. On lap 184 the rest of the leaders, including Franchitti, Andretti, Kanaan and Servia pitted for four tires and fuel. Franchitti’s crew had a problem changing the left front tire causing a slow pit stop, which took Franchitti out of contention for the win after he had led 172 laps of the 250-lap event.

On the same lap, the yellow came out after Sato hit the Turn 2 wall and came to a stop on the backstretch. He also felt the Turn 2 bump contributed to his accident.

“I lost (it) at the bump in Turn 2. The tires weren’t up to temperature,” he stated.

Under the yellow, several of the leaders returned to pit road for times and fuel however, Andretti elected to stay on the track.

Andretti led the field into the first turn when the green once again flew on lap 199.

Kanaan took the lead from Andretti on lap 203 but could not pull away from Andretti as the pair ran virtually side by side for a number of laps with Andretti powering by Kanaan for the lead on lap 232.

However, Kanaan continued to fight for the front position until lap 242 when the pair lapped Kanaan’s teammate, E.J. Viso, who was running slowly on the track, and apparently down on power.

Viso was not holding a consistent line on the track and while Andretti was able to get by without trouble, Kanaan had to go high to get around Viso, allowing Andretti to open up a lead that Kanaan could not overcome in the final laps of the race.

Andretti took the checkered flag of the 250-lap race with a .7932 margin of victory over Kanaan.
Scott Dixon, who started 23rd, worked his was through the field to finish third while rookie JR Hildebrand was fourth and Dario Franchitti, who dominated the first 180 laps of the race, was fifth.

Following his victory, a number of drivers, including Kanaan, congratulated Andretti on his victory.

“Congratulations to him (Andretti). He did a great job. It was a great battle, a great race. We didn’t quite have the car. I think towards the end we got a little stronger. I’m happy for our team,” Kanaan said.

Following his victory, Andretti also commented on his battle with Kanaan. “We had some good racing with T.K. (Tony Kanaan). It was good fun,” he said.

“Knowing TK (Kanaan), I knew he would do exactly what I did to him. He’d make his car very wide. I didn’t want to wait until two to go because he was just going to chop me and I would have been done. I knew I had to get it done earlier and actually make my car wide,” he added.

Iowa Corn Indy 250 Finish
1. (17) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 250, Running
2. (3) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 250, Running
3. (23) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 250, Running
4. (4) JR Hildebrand, Dallara-Honda, 250, Running
5. (6) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 250, Running
6. (10) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 250, Running
7. (13) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 250, Running
8. (8) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 250, Running
9. (7) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Honda, 250, Running
10. (2) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 250, Running
11. (14) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 250, Running
12. (12) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 250, Running
13. (22) Alex Lloyd, Dallara-Honda, 250, Running
14. (11) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Honda, 249, Running
15. (20) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 249, Running
16. (15) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 249, Running
17. (19) EJ Viso, Dallara-Honda, 239, Handling
18. (16) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 227, Handling
19. (1) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 182, Contact
20. (25) Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Honda, 114, Contact
21. (5) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 89, Contact
22. (21) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Honda, 62, Mechanical

23. (18) Ana Beatriz, Dallara-Honda, 44, Contact

24. (9) Mike Conway, Dallara-Honda, 44, Contact

25. (24) James Jakes, Dallara-Honda, 22, Contact
26. (26) Simona de Silvestro, Dallara-Honda, DNS

Iowa Indy Car victory photo captions

#0424 – Marco Andretti took the checkered flag to score his first oval IZOD IndyCar Series win at the Iowa Corn Indy 250 at Iowa Speedway Saturday night. [Russ Lake Photo]

#0606 – Marco Andretti and his father and car owner, Michael Andretti posed with the unique gas pump trophy in victory lane at Iowa Speedway after he won the Iowa Corn Indy 250 on Saturday night. [Russ Lake Photo]

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