De Ferran posts first IRL win

June 16, 2002

FOUNTAIN, Colo. -- Gil de Ferran earned his first Indy Racing League victory and put a stop to a string of misfortunes.

Leading all but eight laps will do that.

In a race that was halted for 51 minutes by rain and hail on Sunday, de Ferran and Penske teammate Helio Castroneves repeated their 1-2 finish in qualifying.

De Ferran, one of only four drivers to win back-to-back CART championships, moved to the IRL circuit this season along with Team Penske and showed he is ready to resume his dominance.

"The car was absolutely fantastic today," de Ferran said. "It was perfect over the last three-quarters of the race. It's one of the best oval cars I've ever driven. It was good in traffic. I could drive low or high. The guys did a great job in the pits.

"We've been knocking on the door since the beginning of the year, and I'm glad to get one under my belt."

Team owner Roger Penske said de Ferran "needed that. He's had some good runs, and we've kind of let him down."

De Ferran ran out of fuel on the last lap while leading at Nazareth on April 21, and a wheel came off his car while he was among the leaders late in the Indianapolis 500.

"I wasn't getting frustrated," de Ferran insisted. "Things just weren't really going our way. You saw what happened at Nazareth and Indianapolis. Helio beat me on one of the restarts at Phoenix and I eventually gave the race to him. That's the way racing is.

"We've run strong every time. Helio has run a little bit stronger than me in some races, that's all."

De Ferran finished 1.4 seconds ahead of Castroneves, winner of the last two Indianapolis 500s and this season's IRL points leader, and 2.0 seconds ahead of Sam Hornish Jr.

"Helio and Hornish were very fast," de Ferran said. "I knew my advantage wasn't that great."

Castroneves said second place "is very good. I'm happy for Gil. He was very strong."

Billy Boat led six laps and Castroneves two -- the only laps in the 225-lap event not led by the winner. De Ferran was the front-runner over the final 186 laps on Pikes Peak International Raceway's mile oval.

It was Team Penske's third win in seven IRL races so far this season. Besides winning the Indy 500, Castroneves triumphed at Phoenix on March 17.

Felipe Giaffone finished fourth, followed by Scott Sharp, Al Unser Jr. and rookie Laurent Redon.

De Ferran, who captured his second pole of the season on Saturday, led the first 31 laps until the first of five caution flags.

The race was red-flagged on the 34th lap because of rain and hail that began falling several laps earlier.

Crew members huddled under their pit boards at the edge of track, and many fans sought cover from the hail, which persisted only for a few minutes.

Robbie Buhl, running ninth, was the first mechanical casualty when his engine blew on the 28th lap.

All drivers except for Boat pitted on the yellow, which proved to be a break for de Ferran, whose car suddenly felt "very loose" just before the caution flag. His crew made a wing adjustment to correct the handling problem.

With the cars back on the track and still on the yellow, the race was stopped by the weather, leaving Boat in the lead, Castroneves second and de Ferran third.

Castroneves and de Ferran both overtook Boat on the first lap of the restart, and de Ferran passed his teammate two laps later, reclaiming the lead.

Another yellow came out on the 69th lap when Anthony Lazzaro hit the wall in Turn 2.

Hornish moved ahead of Castroneves into second place on the 90th lap, but Castroneves reclaimed second place on the next lap, moments before Jon Herb brushed the wall, bringing out the third caution light of the race.

De Ferran steadily increased his lead to three seconds over Hornish before Jeff Ward hit the wall on the 160th lap.

Back to racing nine laps later, de Ferran maintained his advantage.

"We had a pretty fast race car," Hornish said.

Referring to de Ferran and Castroneves, Hornish added, "There were times when I could get a little bit of a run on them, but it didn't work out."

Portions of this story were contributed from AP accounts