Richmond: Kanaan Survives Richmond

When it comes to short track racing, everything else tends to run short including driver tempers and green flag runs, the SunTrust Indy Challenge at Richmond International Raceway tonight was no exception. On an evening that saw the yellow flag fly early and often, Tony Kanaan was able to survive the high level of attrition to score his first win of the 2008 IndyCar Season.

Kanaan who started the evening on the pole position had to dodge a lot of obstacles for this hard fought win.

The 300-lap race (lengthened 50 laps from '07) under the lights was marred by 102 caution laps over nine yellow flags. Also surviving the grueling night was Helio Castroneves who finished in the second position after qualifying in the seventeenth position. He was followed by Scott Dixon, who still holds onto the point lead, Dan Wheldon and Oriol Servia, who recorded his best IndyCar finish in fifth.

"A lot of action and definitely a lot of yellows," said Kanaan, who led a field-high 166 laps. "We benefited from being in the front. That's just a typical Richmond race -- very difficult, very long. At one point, I looked, it was Lap 245, and I just wondered if it was five laps to go like last year, but I knew we still had 55."

"It was a tough race. I think we had a strong car. Marco did, too. We did split the strategies just to try to cover both bases, and finally the luck was on my side."

Upon taking the green flag Kanaan was fast to take the lead, but first caution flew shortly after as Ryan Hunter-Reay spun off Turn 4, before making it to the start line. The field took the green again on lap 8 , but before a full lap could be ran under green the field was under yellow again after IndyCar rookie Will Power got loose after getting low in Turn 4 and making contact with the wall.

When the green flew again Helio Castroneves was quick to make his way through the field and was in top ten by lap 27. But his efforts were held up a few laps later as A.J. Foyt made contact with the wall in Turn 2. His teammate was also involved as Ed Carpenter ran over some debris from the incident. Kanaan stayed strong through these caution periods and continued to lead until he pitted during yellow for debris on lap 70.

It looked as if it could be a Cinderella night for Conquest Racing’s Jamie Camara as he used pit strategy to inherit the lead when the front runners pulled onto pit road. It was not by chance that the young Brazilian rookie took the lead. He backed up the pit strategy decision his team made by keeping his car up front and led for 44 laps before getting loose and making contact with the wall on Lap 217.

While Camara led the first laps of his young career, trouble ensued behind him. On a restart on lap 80 there was a five car incident that began after Buddy Rice spun near the start/finish line. As a result another incident was triggered in the back of the pack as some reacted to the caution before others, included in the accordion effect were: Bruno Junqueira, Ryan Briscoe, Darren Manning and Victor Meira.

That incident did not damage Meira’s car, but on lap 92 on another restart he touched tires with John Andretti in Turn 2 and both cars were damaged to the point that it ended both of their nights.
On Lap 116 Marco Andretti took the lead from Camara. Shortly after Rookie Graham Rahal got loose in Turn 4 and made contact with the wall brining out the sixth caution of the race. Once again the restart resulted in more car making a trip to the garage as shortly after a restart on Lap 142, Mario Moraes made a bonsai move under Ryan Hunter-Reay in Turn 4 which led to both of them retiring their cars for the rest of the night.

Andretti continued to lead the race until a pit strategy caught up with him. On lap 205 he pulled out of the lead to fill his car with ethanol and as a result found himself the last car on the lead lap. The young American was unable to rebound after the incident.

At the end of the caution marred event, Tony Kanaan made it through to stand with his Andretti Green team in Victory Lane. The next race for the IndyCar Series will be next Sunday as they take on Watkins Glen. Stayed tuned to Openwheelworld.net for all your race coverage.

Full results of the race on Richmond Raceway

Copyright © 2004-2008 OpenWheelWorld.net