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Running Blog: SunTrust Indy Challenge at Richmond

(Note: Since I am heading out to Loudon, N.H. early tomorrow to help cover the NASCAR Sprint Cup event for the Boston Globe, here’s my observations of tonight’s event. I’ll try to make a normal recap sometime before the race, but I can’t promise anything. — CE)

Lap 1: Ryan Hunter-Reay spins out on start of race, keeps going. Eventually goes to pit road along with Justin Wilson and Enrique Bernoldi. RHR gets four tires and fuel, while Bernoldi is longer than usual on his pit stop at Lap 5 due to suspension problems that may stem from his wreck in practice on Saturday.

Lap 8: Restart.

Lap 9: Will Power destroys the right side of his car after the No. 8 got loose, then snapped to the right and went all the way to the Turn 4 wall. He comes to rest on the front straight.

“It just looked like Helio was coming around the outside,” said Mark Johnson, general manager for Power’s team, KV Racing Technology to ESPN. “…[Power] gave no indication of anything that went wrong.”

We want to re-iterate that Helio was not near Power at the time of his incident. As for Power, he emerged from his car for his trip to the infield care center.

Lap 15: ESPN’s Jack Arute reports that Scott Dixon’s second gear is, in the driver’s words, “mushy.” This could mean trouble for him on re-starts.

Lap 21: Restart.

Lap 25: Helio Castroneves has jumped seven spots to 11th as he gets by A.J. Foyt IV.

Lap 27: “I just got loose,” Will Power says to ESPN’s Brienne Pedigo. “It’s just really unfortunate. I was looking forward to this race. No points.”

Lap 29: John Andretti and A.J. Foyt IV make contact with each other in Turn 2, while Foyt’s teammate Ed Carpenter sustains right-front suspension damage that is terminal. Both Vision cars are out in one shot, while Andretti gets away with the wheel bump.

Lap 32: It appears that the debris that caused Carpenter’s damage was the rear attenuator off of Foyt’s machine. He’s pretty angry about it.

Lap 34: Pit stops begin and Danica Patrick is one of the early ones to hit pit road.

Lap 37: Carpenter tells IMS Radio’s Bob Jenkins that they’re planning to return to the track later in the race. Bernoldi is also out of his car after terminal steering problems.

Lap 40: Restart.

Lap 43: Helio Castroneves is trying to make me look stupid. He’s up to eighth now.

Lap 48: Jaime Camara has jumped 12 spots to 12th position. Meanwhile, Townsend Bell is in 11th, he’s jumped 10 spots.

Lap 51: Camara gets by Bell in Turn 2 for 11th.

Lap 52: Camara gets by Briscoe in Turn 3 for 10th. Somebody’s on a rampage…

Lap 60: Camara has a close call with Servia and saves the car, but drops two spots to 12th as a result of his lost momentum.

Lap 61: Tony Kanaan has a car that’s slightly loose according to ESPN’s Vince Welch.

Lap 65: Here’s your Top 10 so far: Kanaan, Marco Andretti, Rahal, Dixon, Wheldon, Rice, Mutoh, Castroneves, Servia, and Briscoe.

Lap 68: Caution is out for reported debris on the backstretch. Pit road is open.

Lap 71: The leaders pit now. Kanaan gets out first, while Castroneves jumps 6 positions to thanks to his pit crew. Dixon was the big loser, falling five spots after getting caught in a traffic jam. Camara has grabbed the lead and Danica Patrick is in second — they both pitted on Lap 34 following the John Andretti/A.J. Foyt IV incident.

Lap 74: Here’s the Top 10 after the stops: Camara, Patrick, Kanaan, Castroneves, Andretti, Wheldon, Rahal, Rice, Servia, and Mutoh.

Lap 76: Carpenter looks ready to get back to racing after suffering suspension damage in his teammate’s accident.

Lap 79: Caution is back out just on the re-start. Buddy Rice and Bruno Junqueira are in the wall, while Ryan Briscoe has suffered left-front damage. It looks like Marty Roth was very slow on the re-start, jacking up the field somewhat. This is caution number five.

Lap 80: There appears to have been a second incident earlier on the restart in Turn 3, when Darren Manning got spun out by Ryan Briscoe and into Vitor Meira.

Lap 83: “Whoever’s up there starting the race in the car, I don’t know what they’re doing,” says Briscoe to ESPN’s Jack Arute.

Lap 85: Buddy Rice to ESPN’s Brienne Pedigo: “I think I screwed up, that’s what it comes down to.”

Lap 86: Manning is behind the wall. The only one still standing after involvement in the two restart incidents is Meira, who is in 13th.

Lap 92: Patrick is slow on the restart, causing Kanaan and Castroneves to try and split around her in Turn 2. John Andretti and Vitor Meira then crash in Turn 2 for the sixth caution of the night.

Lap 94: Meira appeared to have been slowing into Turn 1 when Andretti tried to go under him and instead tagged him from behind to send them both into the Turn 2 wall.

Lap 97: Nine cars are out of the race.

Lap 101: 58 of 100 laps complete have ran under the yellow flag tonight.

Lap 103: Danica Patrick takes four tires, fuel, and gets a wing adjustment to try and correct an understeer problem on her No. 7 machine.

Lap 106: Vitor Meira to IMS Radio: “Everybody was having a really tough time on the restarts until when the tires came up to temp…[John Andretti] just pushed a little too hard.”

Lap 108: Restart. Kanaan tries to get by Camara on the restart but is unable to do so.

Lap 114: Marco Andretti gets by Kanaan for second place in Turn 2.

Lap 116: Marco gets to the inside of Camara and takes the lead, but Camara isn’t done with the American yet.

Lap 118: A failed pass for the lead by Camara causes Marco to open up his lead by multiple car lengths.

Lap 125: Marco’s opened up a two-second edge on Camara. Marty Roth is on pit road.

Lap 129: Marco is checking out. The lead is now four seconds.

Lap 133: Graham Rahal has crashed in Turn 4 after losing the back end of his machine in the middle of the corner. The mayhem continues as we go under caution numero siete.

Lap 136: Leaders hit the pits and Kanaan comes out first.

Lap 142: Restart. Castroneves and Camara are able to get by Patrick.

Lap 143: Caution again. Ryan Hunter-Reay and Mario Moraes’ cars are now stuck together in a busted mess.

Lap 145: Moraes got underneath RHR, but ended up T-boning him into the wall. Both drivers emerge unscathed but the American has some words for the Brazilian rookie as they both head into the Safety Crew’s medical car.

Lap 149: Dixon hits the pits in order to try and get him back up from ninth position on the track.

Lap 150: Halfway home, half the field gone. Just a nasty night.

Lap 153: RHR to Pedigo: “We were gonna salvage something tonight and we didn’t do that…It is what it is at the moment.”

Lap 156: Darren Manning has returned to the track.

Lap 158: Mutoh, Patrick and Dixon are in the pits for fuel top-offs.

Lap 165: Restart.

Lap 166: Dicey racing involving E.J. Viso and the leaders.

Lap 170: Your Top 5: Marco Andretti, Kanaan, Castroneves, Camara and Servia.

Lap 179: Wheldon has a moment coming out of Turn 2, but keeps the car off the wall. Briscoe is getting ready to head back out onto the track.

Lap 182: Briscoe returns to action. There are now 15 of 26 starters on the track.

Lap 185: Marco Andretti has gone over 110 laps on fuel; unless he gets a yellow shortly, he’ll have to make a green flag stop.

Lap 196: Marco will have to come in around Lap 204. Meanwhile, Mutoh and Patrick are about to go a lap down to Marco and Kanaan.

Lap 202: Patrick voices his displeasure at Mutoh over the radio.

Lap 205: Tires are out in Marco’s pit box.

Lap 206: Marco goes to pit road, but he needs to make sure that the race stays green or he’s toast. Four tires and fuel in 8.1 seconds. Kanaan inherits the lead.

Lap 209: Kanaan is probably going to hit the pits in about 20 laps…he’s gonna be close to 100 laps on this fuel load by then.

Lap 212: Kanaan, Castroneves, Camara, Servia and Wheldon make up the top five.

Lap 217: Camara’s stellar run is over after he crashes his No. 34 machine. The car got loose from him coming out of Turn 4 and his machine ended up at rest by the start/finish line.

Lap 220: Leaders come into the pits. Mutoh is out of the race after breaking the in his pit box and the team has told him to shut down the No. 27.

Lap 223: Kanaan, Castroneves, Wheldon, Servia and Dixon are your Top 5.

Lap 229: Restart. Kanaan gets a good jump on the green, while Dixon gets by Servia for fourth place.

Lap 243: Kanaan has stretched his lead over Castroneves to 1.47 seconds.

50 to go: Your Top Five is Kanaan, Castroneves, Wheldon, Dixon and Servia.  Danica Patrick is in sixth.

44 to go: Briscoe is making laps, but he’s also a bit slower than the leaders.

40 to go: Briscoe is coming back into pit lane. Meanwhile, rain is in the area but it’s moving to the north of Richmond International Raceway.

34 to go: Kanaan’s lead has dropped from four seconds to 3.4 seconds over Castroneves.

29 to go: The lead has jumped to over four seconds again for Kanaan. Of course, ESPN shows his incident at Homestead in March where he led by a comfortable margin only to sustain suspension damage in the last ten laps. Was that a jinx? Guess we’ll see…

20 to go: Castroneves continues to fade; he’s now six seconds behind Kanaan.

14 to go: This is Kanaan’s race to lose. Will luck finally be on his side tonight?

8 to go: Carpenter hits the pits and parks it for the night after salvaging as many points as he can following his early-race incident.

4 to go: Patrick is trying to get by Servia for the fifth spot, but can’t do it.

CHECKERED: Tony Kanaan wins the SunTrust Indy Challenge over Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon and Oriol Servia!

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 9:17 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.