Ed Carpenter Delivers Surprise Pole Run for IZOD IndyCar's Kentucky Race

Photo Credit: Ron McQueeney

Competing in the second Saturday night race in a row, the IZOD IndyCar Series drivers are belting into their Dallara-Hondas for a high-speed battle at the Kentucky Speedway. At last week's race at Chicagoland Speedway, Target/Chip Ganassi Racing's Dario Franchitti rose late in the Peak Antifreeze and Motor Oil 300 to win the event scoring maximum points in closing on Penske's Will Power for the overall 2010 IZOD IndyCar championship. As important as the points race is to those two racers, many of the fans enjoyed the close finish at Chicagoland with the #4 Panther Racing car of Dan Wheldon almost able to steal a win on the run to the checkered flag. Perhaps appearing as the ovals could provide a equalization for IZOD IndyCar competition, teams eager flood south to Sparta, Kentucky.

When IZOD IndyCar qualifying concluded for the Kentucky Indy 300, a lesser known face to the 2010 IZOD IndyCar campaign prevailed. Driving his #20 Vision Racing in partnership with Panther Racing, Ed Carpenter used a 217.933 mile per hour run to take the pole position for the Saturday night Kentucky Indy 300. Having run only two races this season due to funding troubles, Carpenter's qualifying run around this 1.5 mile oval is by no means a fluke. This Kentucky Speedway also the scene of Ed Carpenter's best career IZOD IndyCar Series finish of 2nd place last year. In post race, a highly satisfied Carpenter commented on his approach to the limited schedule he was relegated to running after Vision Racing loss of full season funding for 2010. "I'm just having a lot of fun right now; the Panther team is going a great job in addition with the Vision Racing part of it. It's just a lot of fun." he said.

For what will be understood as an interesting top-10 from qualifying led by Ed Carpenter, the #20 car narrowly beat Penske Racing's Will Power by a recordedly slim 23/1000th of a second margin. Fighting low and windy conditions, Power was pleased to start the #12 Verizon Penske Racing car on the front row. Complementing the #20 car, the teammate #4 vehicle will also start well in front of the field. Second place finisher at the Chicagoland Speedway event Dan Wheldon rotated the Kentucky oval for a third fastest effort through the Friday session.

While the #9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car of Scott Dixon returned some IZOD IndyCar season-long norminality to the oval time trial session, 5th for Hideki Mutoh, 6th for Berthard Baguette, 7th for KV Racing Technology's Mario Moraes and 10th for Tomas Scheckter will continue to set a somewhat bizarre tone for the Kentucky Indy 300 race start. Driving for Conquest Racing, Baguette and Scheckter have brought some much needed excitement to the tightly-funded race effort.

Being a beneficial session for some smaller IZOD IndyCar teams, the Friday qualifying would see some normally pace-worthy cars of Andretti Autosport searching for speed. Marco Andretti accomplished the best effort for the team with a 15th best timed lap with Danica Patrick two spots lower. Tony Kanaan and Ryan Hunter-Reay will be starting from the tail end of the pack at Kentucky having the worst time finding competitive lap times. Planning to fight an uphill battle once the green flag drops, Ryan Hunter-Reay will be set last on the starting lineup in the #37 Andretti Autosport after crashing his primary car in a qualifying run.

With the Kentucky Indy 300 presenting another strong field consisting of 27 cars, it's fair to assume the action at Chicagoland Speedway should be replicated for the Kentucky Indy 300 set for television telecast at 8 P.M. Saturday night with the green coming around 8:30.


2010 IZOD IndyCar Series

Kentucky Indy 300
Kentucky Speedway
Starting Lineup


1. 20 Ed Carpenter/United States/ Panther/Vision Racing
2. 12 Will Power/Australia/ Penske Racing
3. 4 Dan Wheldon/England/ Panther Racing
4. 9 Scott Dixon/New Zealand/ Target/Chip Ganassi Racing
5. 06 Hideki Mutoh/ Japan/ Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
6. 36 Bertrand Baguette/Belgium/ Conquest Racing
7. 32 Mario Moraes/Brazil/ KV Racing Technology
8. 3 Helio Castroneves/Brazil/ Penske Racing
9. 6 Ryan Briscoe/Australia/ Penske Racing
10. 34 Tomas Scheckter/South Africa/ Conquest Racing
11. 10 Dario Franchitti/Scotland/ Target/Chip Ganassi Racing
12. 14 Vitor Meira/Brazil/ AJ Foyt Racing Enterprises
13. 77 Alex Tagliani/Canada/ FAZZT Race Team
14. 5 Takuma Sato/Japan/ KV Racing Technology
15. 26 Marco Andretti/United States/ Andretti Autosport
16. 22 Justin Wilson/England/ Dreyer and Reinbold Racing
17. 7 Danica Patrick/United States/ Andretti Autosport
18. 19 Alex Lloyd/England/ Dale Coyne Racing
19. 78 Simona De Silvestro/Switzerland HVM Racing
20. 2 Raphael Matos/Brazil/ de Ferran Dragon Racing
21. 67 Sarah Fisher/United States/ Sarah Fisher Racing
22. 8 EJ Viso/Venezuela/ KV Racing Technology
23. 24 Paul Tracy/Canada/ Dreyer and Reinbold Racing
24. 18 Milka Duno/Venezuela/ Dale Coyne Racing
25. 02 Graham Rahal/United States/ Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
26. 11 Tony Kanaan/Brazil/ Andretti Autosport
27. 37 Ryan Hunter-Reay/United States/ Andretti Autosport

IndyCar: Vision Racing Loses Sight of 2010 Season

Photo Credit: Shawn Payne


In a letter to fans on their website, Vision Racing expresses "..Profound regret and heavy hearts.." as the team fell due to lack of sponsorship for the upcoming 2010. The shuttering of Vision Racing leads to a further fall from grace of Tony George, a man who started and ended the 13 year old conflict resulting in two open wheel series vying for acceptance in North America. The closure of the team also risks removing George's stepson and driver Ed Carpenter from the series' full-time roster for the first time since 2003.


Photo Credit: Ron McQueeney

Founded on the assets of Kelly Racing, the Tony George-owned IndyCar team never found victory lane in his own series. However, 2009 saw Vision Racing drivers Ryan Hunter-Reay score a 2nd place finish on season opening street course round in St Petersburg. Long time team driver Ed Carpenter was able to match the team's best finish at Kentucky, a career-best run for the 6 seasons in competition.

Ryan Hunter-Reay Officially Racing For Andretti Autosport for 2010

Photo from IRL/IndyCar

Completing the lineup for IndyCar racing's largest team, the four-car effort of Andretti Autosport declared American open wheel driver Ryan Hunter-Reay the newest teammate to Danica Patrick, Tony Kanaan and Marco Andretti. The 30 year-old Hunter-Reay's place with Andretti Autosport's #37 team had all-but been officially announced since 2009 team driver Hideki Mutoh was released at the conclusion of the season.

Starting his racing career through the Skip Barber Racing School and Barber Dodge Series, Ryan Hunter-Reay first step into the big-time open wheel racing resulted in 2003 when he drove for the short-lived American Spirit Team Johansson in the Champ Car series. Paired by the seasoned past champion Jimmy Vasser, Hunter-Reay ended his rookie campaign with a victory at the Surfers Paradise round in Australia. Also winning a 2004 win at the Milwaukee Mile on the Champ Car tour, his talent has also translated to the IRL IndyCar Series. After Ryan Hunter-Reay locked a full-time ride Rahal Letterman Racing, he took the Indy 500 rookie of the Year honours as well as his first IndyCar series victory at Waltkins Glen.

Competing in the entire 2009 IndyCar series schedule, Ryan Hunter-Reay's year started behind the wheel of the Vision Racing team with a season's best 2nd place run in the maiden race at St Petersburg. However, while the season started well with Vision Racing, the following rounds in the 2009 IndyCar Series failed to net even top-10 results through to Texas Motor Speedway race in June. For the next race in Iowa, Hunter-Reay was granted leave of Vision Racing to replace the injured Vitor Meira at AJ Foyt Racing. A 7th place at the Honda Indy of Toronto in July and the 4th at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car course in August were positive improvements but could not alter a 15th place finish in the 2009 IndyCar Series points standings.

With Andretti Autosport (last year known as Andretti-Green Racing) going winless for 2009, the team's entire driver lineup has to break the Penske and Chip Ganassi brigade going into 2010. Ryan Hunter-Reay has a habit of being the unexpected underdog who has allowed has talent to show at just the right time to catch even the most established teams off-guard.