Briscoe Two-Steps Past Patrick to Win Texas IndyCar Event

Photo Credit: Ron McQueeney


Following the Indy 500, Scot Dario Franchitti is walking on cloud 9 capturing his second Borg-Warner Trophy impression in dominant fashion. On the other side of the fence, the favoured three-car team of Penske Racing faced a surprising meltdown. Suffering a pit road mistakes and a crash to Ryan Briscoe, it was the worst overall Penske performance since the 1995 race where Penske's two-car team of Emerson Fittipaldi and defending race winner Al Unser Jr failed to qualify. With the next 500 mile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway a year less a week away, Penske Racing will use the IZOD IndyCar Series schedule as a measure to reassert their dominance.

The early laps of the Firestone 550k at Texas Motor Speedway was the latest edition in the Penske Racing vs. Target Chip Ganassi Racing bout. With Ryan Briscoe leading the first 7 laps from pole, 2010 Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti took the lead wanting an encore performance of last Sunday. Leading 86 laps total through the night, Franchitti would have a strong follow-up to this Indy win at Texas. The first caution came out on lap 57 for KV Racing Technology's #5 of Takuma Sato who collided with the wall within turn 2.

Just 6 days later the Indy 500 wreck which featured Mike Conway suffering a nasty impact with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway catch fence, another frightening impact occurred when 2010 Indy 500 Rookie of Year Simona de Silvestro slid into the wall on the backstretch on lap 98. While the impact was not severe, her #78 HVM Racing/Team Stargate Worlds car erupted into flames. With fire rapidly rushing to the cockpit, de Silvestro was in a rush to get out of her car. With the aid of some safety crew workers, Simona de Silvestro was hurriedly extracted from her vehicle. Sustaining a burn to her right hand, de Silvestro was expressing more disappointment in the fact she was unable to fight her loose race car through the laps leading to her crash.

The most significant crash in the Firestone 550k occurred on lap 129. Coming out of turn 4, Helio Castroneves had been setting up the KV Racing Technology #32 car of Mario Moraes to pass on the outside. As the #3 Verizon car began to blaze past Moraes on the outside, the #32 edged up and tangled with the Castroneves. As the two race cars of Castroneves and Moraes would slid down the front tri-oval stretch, the Conquest Racing #36 of Bertrand Baguette would become a casualty to the incident as he attempted to duck between the wrecked cars. As the vehicles of Castroneves and Moraes were still in motion, Baguette clipped both cars suffering race-ending suspension damage. Immediately after getting out of his #3 Penske Racing machine, Helio Castroneves quickly approached Moraes expressing some passionate words of displeasure. After the accident, it was reported that the #32 car did not receive radio communication of Castroneves passing him. In the final results for the Firestone 550k, Helio Castroneves would place 20th for what might amount as a costly night for the overall IZOD IndyCar Series points.



Photo Credit: Ron McQueeney

Through a final round of pit stops proceeding under green, pressure was placed on the crew members and drivers in the late stages of the Firestone 550k at Texas Motor Speedway. Appearing as if they could expect another respectable oval finish in 2010 leading a midway portion of the event, the FAZZT Race Team #77 car driven by Alex Tagliani would see their day go sour on pit road. Through the completion of their pit stop, the #77 car left before the refueling hose was disconnected. FAZZT Race Team fueler Phil McRoberts was struck by the fuel hose but was fortunately unhurt thanks to wearing his helmet (a requirement of all over-the-wall crew member in IRL sanctioned events). However, the FAZZT Race Team would be required to bring Tagliani back into pit lane for a drive-through penalty on the miscue.

As the field cycles through under pit stops, Ryan Briscoe relinquished his lead position for fuel and tires coming down to his Penske Racing pit crew. However, as Briscoe is released back into competition around the 1.5 mile oval, the #7 Andretti Autosport team preformed a stunning pit work for their driver Danica Patrick which allowed her to come out of pit road ahead of Briscoe. As Dan Wheldon and Hideki Mutoh had pit stops upcoming, this fight for third would end up becoming the battle for the race lead and victory. With Patrick briefly able to use her crew's gain on pit road to keep the #7 car ahead of the Penske Racing machine of Briscoe, the #6 car would be relentless charging back on Danica Patrick's car. After several laps of dicing, Ryan Briscoe was able to emerge with the upper hand.

Holding the lead through the final 35 laps, Ryan Briscoe captured a much-needed first win for 2010 after experience a difficult year so far in the IZOD IndyCar Series. The fourth win for Penske Racing on the 2010 tour, all three team drivers have collected at least one victory for the Verizon-sponsored team.

While Team Penske recovered nicely at Texas, the efforts of Andretti Autosport is worth special consideration. Perhaps running her best race since her 2008 win at the Twin-Ring Motegi race in Japan, Danica Patrick gave a consistently strong run for the Godaddy.com #7 car finishing a little more than 1.4 seconds behind Briscoe. Following up his podium run finish at Indy, Marco Andretti secured another 3rd place finish at Texas. the final two Andretti Autosport drivers also made massive gains from their starting spots with Tony Kanaan going from 13th to 6th and Ryan Hunter-Reay improving 17 positions to finish 7th.

Thanks to three races of oval success, Dario Franchitti has overcome the early season lead that Penske Racing's Will Power gained through the road courses. Standing a slight 3 points ahead of Power, 1st through 6th in the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series overall championship is separated by only 45 points.

The next race is in two weeks at Iowa Speedway on June 20th.


Firestone 550k 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series Final Results
1. 6 Ryan Briscoe/Australia/ Penske Racing
2. 7 Danica Patrick/United States/ Andretti Autosport
3. 26 Marco Andretti/United States/ Andretti Autosport
4. 9 Scott Dixon/New Zealand/ Target/Chip Ganassi Racing
5. 10 Dario Franchitti/Scotland/ Target/Chip Ganassi Racing
6. 11 Tony Kanaan/Brazil/ Andretti Autosport
7. 37 Ryan Hunter-Reay/United States/ Andretti Autosport
8. 19 Alex Lloyd/England/ Dale Coyne Racing
9. 4 Dan Wheldon/England/ Panther Racing
10. 14 Vitor Meira/Brazil/ AJ Foyt Racing Enterprises
11. 8 EJ Viso/Venezuela/ KV Racing Technology
12. 06 Hideki Mutoh/ Japan/ Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
13. 24 Tomas Scheckter/South Africa/ Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
14. 12 Will Power/Australia/ Penske Racing
15. 67 Sarah Fisher/United States/ Sarah Fisher Racing
16. 2 Raphael Matos/Brazil/ Luczo Dragon/de Ferran Motorsports
17. 34 Mario Romancini/Brazil/ Conquest Racing
18. 77 Alex Tagliani/Canada/ FAZZT Race Team
19. 22 Justin Wilson/England/ Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
20. 3 Helio Castroneves/Brazil/ Penske Racing
21. 32 Mario Moraes/Brazil/ KV Racing Technology
22. 36 Bertrand Baguette/Belgium/ Conquest Racing
23. 18 Milka Duno/Venezuela/ Dale Coyne Racing
24. 78 Simona De Silvestro/Switzerland HVM Racing
25. 5 Takuma Sato/Japan/ KV Racing Technology
26. 66 Jay Howard/England/ Sarah Fisher Racing

Todd Bodine Wins #6 race at Texas in Camping World Truck Series

Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images


By John Sturbin

Special to Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

(June 4, 2010)

FORT WORTH, Texas—Todd Bodine added to his resume as the Camping World Truck Series' winningest driver at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday night with an overtime victory in the WinStar World Casino 400k.

Bodine drove away from four-time and reigning series champion Ron Hornaday Jr. and Timothy Peters on a green-white-checkered flag restart to notch his sixth career victory on TMS' 1.5-mile oval, and third in the summer event here. Bodine snapped a 24-race winless streak dating to June 5, 2009.

Johnny Sauter finished second, followed by rookie polesitter Austin Dillon, former series champion Mike Skinner and super-sub Ken Schrader. Bodine's margin of victory after 169 laps was 1.007-seconds.

Bodine, 46, scored his 18th career series victory and 11th in 53 starts on a 1.5-mile layout. Bodine and Kyle Busch each have scored six wins at TMS, with Busch working on a five-race Nationwide Series streak. The Sprint Cup regular also has one truck series win.

"It's an honor anywhere to say you've won the most races at a track. It's pretty awesome," said Bodine, nicknamed "The Onion" for his bald pate. "We're proud of the fact we can come to Texas and run this well every time. It's someplace we enjoy and being the only six-time (truck series) winner … it was a goal when Kyle won five to come back and win another one. To get that done, I'm pretty proud of that."

Bodine led a race-high 106 laps en route to his first victory and seventh top-five finish in eight 2010 races.

"We've been struggling all year to make the trucks drive good, and this truck was driving fast and wide open. It was fun to drive," Bodine said. "We had a great Tundra. It was an awesome night all around."

Crew chief Mike Hillman Jr. said his Germain Racing crew tries to treat all the series' 1.5-mile layouts the same.

"But it seems we get our stuff figured out this time of the year," Hillman said. "I'm really proud of our guys. We went to work this winter making our trucks lighter and better. I can't say enough about how hard everyone at Germain works. I'm the lucky guy who gets called the crew chief."

Dillon, the grandson of team owner Richard Childress, capped his first series pole with his first top-five finish.

"What a phenomenal job," said Dillon. "I started off really good and lost it in the middle but at the end I raced hard and got us a good finish. I just had a little trouble on the restarts."

Bodine, driver of the No. 30 Toyota, was leading Peters and a pack of only nine trucks on the lead lap when the night's fifth caution waved to remove the slowing truck of Jason White from the field. None of the leaders chose to pit, setting up a seven-lap shootout.

Bodine easily drove away from Peters, who faltered badly on the start from his spot on the outside lane. But Hornaday, who swept both races here in 2008, barged underneath Bodine from third in an attempt to take the lead. Bodine never lifted and had cleared Hornaday's No. 33 Chevrolet when Matt Crafton and David Starr tangled down the backstretch, bringing out the sixth caution on Lap 164 of the scheduled 167.

"That next-to-last restart, Ron got underneath me," Bodine said. "I've not always been the best at restarts, just OK. But when you got Hornaday on the outside you got to get it right. That last one, I didn't spin the tires until I got into third (gear). And they got racing hard and ended up giving us a good lead."

Bodine leaves Texas with a 65-point lead over Aric Almirola, who finished 12th.

Briscoe Starts on Pole for Saturday's IndyCar Race at Texas

Photo Credit: Steve Swope

The week after Indianapolis race has long been a mainstay event at the Milwaukee Mile oval. Of course, because of issues surrounding promotional rights and financial tie-ups, this traditional stop was stricken from the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series schedule. Instead, the open wheel tour has proceeded to the popular IZOD IndyCar Series at Texas Motor Speedway for the Firestone 550k.

26 cars join the 7th event on the 2010 schedule around the ultra-fast 1.5 mile speedway expanded by the presence of a two-car team from Sarah Fisher Racing. Owner/driver Sarah Fisher is joined by Jay Howard what will be the third race of 2010 (this race will actually be Howard's second start since his car failed to qualify into the Indy 500). Also in the lineup is South Africa's Tomas Scheckter rejoining Dreyer & Reinbold Racing as a substitute for regular Mike Conway. Experiencing a dramatic last lap crash in the Indy 500, the British driver Conway was taken to Methodist hospital following the accident for evaluation. Mike Conway could be out of the race car for 3 months as injury to his thoracic vetebrae was discovered. In a back brace, Conway was thankful to the physicians and medical staff confident he will be back to the track.

Taking the Peak Pole Award, Ryan Briscoe driving the Penske Racing #6 set an average fast lap of 215.273 miles per hour. Briscoe was able to nick the #10 Target/Chip Ganassi Racing's Dario Franchitti. With Briscoe's Texas pole in 2010, all three Team Penske drivers have taken poles in this season's IZOD IndyCar Series.

The top-5 starting positions have all been claimed by the IndyCar superteam cars belonging to Penske Racing and Target/Chip Ganassi Racing. 3rd to 5th through Texas qualifying were Will Power, Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves suggesting that the Saturday night race is geared to be another all-out war between the two dominant operations. While Team Penske, propelled by their new star Will Power, was able to claim three of the four road races that started to the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series schedule, the complexion of team dominance has shifted to the red cars of recent races. The collective efforts of Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti within the Target/Chip Ganassi Racing team have snake-bitten the Verizon Penske machines. With Penske's Helio Castroneves the defending winner, the team intends to use the Firestone 550k as an atonement to their oval racing efforts.

Outside of the Team Penske vs. Target/Chip Ganassi Racing feud, Dale Coyne Racing rookie Alex Lloyd found momentum to break into the Firestone Fast Six with a speed of 214.408 miles per hour for an average lap in the #19 car. In fact, Lloyd wasn't the only surprise in the top 10. Behind the #19 Dale Coyne Racing car, Hideki Mutoh delivered another strong start on an oval for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing with 7th place. Running near the front for much of the Kansas race last month, Mutoh has ambition of finishing prominently at Texas Motor Speedway. Danica Patrick starts a season-high 8th fastest effort in the #7 Godaddy.com car. Patrick leads the Andretti Autosport race effort which sees Marco Andretti in 10th, Tony Kanaan in 13th and Ryan Hunter-Reay starting deep in the field in a 22rd place starting spot.


Firestone 550k
2010 IZOD IndyCar Series
Starting Positions


1. 6 Ryan Briscoe/Australia/ Penske Racing
2. 10 Dario Franchitti/Scotland/ Target/Chip Ganassi Racing
3. 12 Will Power/Australia/ Penske Racing
4. 9 Scott Dixon/New Zealand/ Target/Chip Ganassi Racing
5. 3 Helio Castroneves/Brazil/ Penske Racing
6. 19 Alex Lloyd/England/ Dale Coyne Racing
7. 06 Hideki Mutoh/ Japan/ Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
8. 7 Danica Patrick/United States/ Andretti Autosport
9. 32 Mario Moraes/Brazil/ KV Racing Technology
10. 26 Marco Andretti/United States/ Andretti Autosport
11. 5 Takuma Sato/Japan/ KV Racing Technology
12. 22 Justin Wilson/England/ Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
13. 11 Tony Kanaan/Brazil/ Andretti Autosport
14. 8 EJ Viso/Venezuela/ KV Racing Technology
15. 4 Dan Wheldon/England/ Panther Racing
16. 67 Sarah Fisher/United States/ Sarah Fisher Racing
17. 18 Milka Duno/Venezuela/ Dale Coyne Racing
18. 24 Tomas Scheckter/South Africa/ Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
19. 14 Vitor Meira/Brazil/ AJ Foyt Racing Enterprises
20. 77 Alex Tagliani/Canada/ FAZZT Race Team
21. 66 Jay Howard/England/ Sarah Fisher Racing
22. 36 Bertrand Baguette/Belgium/ Conquest Racing
23. 2 Raphael Matos/Brazil/ Luczo Dragon/de Ferran Motorsports
24. 37 Ryan Hunter-Reay/United States/ Andretti Autosport
25. 34 Mario Romancini/Brazil/ Conquest Racing
26. 78 Simona De Silvestro/Switzerland HVM Racing