Team Penske Reigns Supreme at Mid-Ohio
Traditionally a strong team at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, with 1-2 finishes in CART races using Honda power in both 2000 and 2001, Team Penske's Ryan Briscoe led teammate Helio Castroneves to a third Honda-powered victory sweep in Sunday's Honda Indy 200.
Starting on the outside of the first row alongside pole-qualifier Castroneves, Briscoe was the final driver to change over to dry weather racing slicks after late-morning showers led race officials to declare the event a 'wet' race, requiring the entire 26-car field to start on treaded 'rain' tires on a damp, but rapidly drying, track. Most of the field changed over to slicks on the fourth and fifth laps, but Briscoe didn't make the swap until Lap 6, dropping him to 15th.
But a decision by team owner Roger Penske to go 'off sequence' on pit stops and stay on track during a Lap 25-29 caution period moved Briscoe back up to fourth, and fuel conservation during the next stint got the Australian into the lead and back onto the same pit sequence as the rest of the field. Dale Coyne Racing's Bruno Junqueira attempted a similar strategy, but was forced by low fuel to pit out of second place with just seven laps remaining. He finished 13th.
The 26-car field recorded 10,874 miles in practice, qualifying and racing this weekend at Mid-Ohio, again without a single engine failure for the Honda HI8R Indy V-8 used by all competitors in the IndyCar Series. As a result of the larger fields following reunification with the former Champ Car World Series, IndyCar drivers and teams have run 171,999 miles this season. This equals the total mileage recorded in all of 2007, with five races remaining in the 2008 championship. There has been just one recorded failure this year - on the Vision Racing car of Davey Hamilton during practice for the Indianapolis 500.
Following Junqueira's late pit stop, Castroneves finished second for the fifth time this season, making up five championship points on third-finishing Scott Dixon. KV Racing Technology teammates Will Power and Oriol Servia completed the top five finishers. Panther Racing's Vitor Meira was strong early in the contest. The Brazilian was one of the first drivers to pit for dry rubber, at the end of the first lap, and went on to lead 21 laps in the first half of the race. But he lost ground during the mid-race pit stops to finish sixth.
Next week, the IndyCar Series concludes this stretch of six consecutive race weekends with the Saturday, July 26, Rexall Edmonton Grand Prix, on a 1.973-mile temporary circuit laid out on the grounds of the City Centre Airport.
Source: Honda
Traditionally a strong team at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, with 1-2 finishes in CART races using Honda power in both 2000 and 2001, Team Penske's Ryan Briscoe led teammate Helio Castroneves to a third Honda-powered victory sweep in Sunday's Honda Indy 200.
Starting on the outside of the first row alongside pole-qualifier Castroneves, Briscoe was the final driver to change over to dry weather racing slicks after late-morning showers led race officials to declare the event a 'wet' race, requiring the entire 26-car field to start on treaded 'rain' tires on a damp, but rapidly drying, track. Most of the field changed over to slicks on the fourth and fifth laps, but Briscoe didn't make the swap until Lap 6, dropping him to 15th.
But a decision by team owner Roger Penske to go 'off sequence' on pit stops and stay on track during a Lap 25-29 caution period moved Briscoe back up to fourth, and fuel conservation during the next stint got the Australian into the lead and back onto the same pit sequence as the rest of the field. Dale Coyne Racing's Bruno Junqueira attempted a similar strategy, but was forced by low fuel to pit out of second place with just seven laps remaining. He finished 13th.
The 26-car field recorded 10,874 miles in practice, qualifying and racing this weekend at Mid-Ohio, again without a single engine failure for the Honda HI8R Indy V-8 used by all competitors in the IndyCar Series. As a result of the larger fields following reunification with the former Champ Car World Series, IndyCar drivers and teams have run 171,999 miles this season. This equals the total mileage recorded in all of 2007, with five races remaining in the 2008 championship. There has been just one recorded failure this year - on the Vision Racing car of Davey Hamilton during practice for the Indianapolis 500.
Following Junqueira's late pit stop, Castroneves finished second for the fifth time this season, making up five championship points on third-finishing Scott Dixon. KV Racing Technology teammates Will Power and Oriol Servia completed the top five finishers. Panther Racing's Vitor Meira was strong early in the contest. The Brazilian was one of the first drivers to pit for dry rubber, at the end of the first lap, and went on to lead 21 laps in the first half of the race. But he lost ground during the mid-race pit stops to finish sixth.
Next week, the IndyCar Series concludes this stretch of six consecutive race weekends with the Saturday, July 26, Rexall Edmonton Grand Prix, on a 1.973-mile temporary circuit laid out on the grounds of the City Centre Airport.
Source: Honda
