Gil de Ferran Wins 87th Indy 500

By Michael F. Hollander, Editor Racing Information Systems INDIANAPOLIS, IN - RIS - Gil de Ferran gave Roger Penske his thirteenth victory and his own first victory in the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, while teammate Helio Castroneves finished second. "Watching those guys together, we had great stops, we had great fuel economy, for Gil, he's tried so hard and we let him down last year and I feel great for our team," said Roger Penske. "What a wonderful day." Penske becomes only the second team owner to win consecutive Indy 500's. Tony Kanaan finished third with Tomas Scheckter fourth. Toyotas finished 1-2 in the race to give Japanese manufacturers their first victory in the 87 runnings of the Race. The cloudy skies kept things calm at the start. The first problem reported was that A.J. Foyt IV had no radio communications with his team. On lap eight, Felipe Giaffone pulled in with a lack of engine power. Billy Boat's engine expired and that brought out the first yellow flag. On the restart, Sarah Fisher's tires were still cold, but that didn't matter as her engine blew and she hit the wall, bringing out the second yellow. That brought the leaders into the pits, and that put Scott Dixon into the lead, since he didn't make a stop. During the caution, Shigeaki Hattori retired to the garage area. "When you're turning into the corner and the motor lets go, there's not much you can do," said Sarah Fisher. The green came out with 22 laps complete and Michael Andretti passed Airton Daré to take second. On lap 33, Andretti took the lead. With 34 laps complete, Scott Dixon pitted for fuel, moving Tony Kanaan into second place. Andretti pitted on lap 50 and Kanaan took the lead. The yellow flag came out on lap 53 as Robbie Buhl spun coming out of the pit lane. During the pit stops, Kenny Brack stalled his Honda/Dallara, but the team was able to re-start the car and get him back into the race. Andretti resumed the lead, with Castroneves second and Scheckter third. As the green flag came out on lap 60, Andretti maintained the lead, but the green came out for only a single lap as Richie Hearn hit the wall at turn two while Jaques Lazier spun out, trying to avoid Lazier. That brought out the third caution. At the end of lap 66, the green came out again, with Andretti Leading. But on lap 67, Scheckter moved into second, passing Castroneves, with de Ferran sneaking up into fourth. Scheckter passed Andretti on lap 68 and Castroneves passed Andretti a moment later. While Scheckter led, race control noted that the cowling over his airbox had started to come loose. Although it didn't affect his aerodynamics much, it did let Castroneves catch up to just 2.1677 seconds behind. With 96 laps complete, Andretti pitted and the cowling came off the engine, and he retired from the race and completed his career as the team rolled the car back to the garage. Meanwhile, Castroneves pitted from the lead and Jimmy Vasser took the lead. "I'm really disappointed," said Andretti. "At least I can say I had a good shot at winning my last race," he said. After the pit stops, Scheckter took the lead with Castroneves second and de Ferran third at the halfway point as a yellow flag came out for the fifth time on lap 103 for smoke coming from Jimmy Vasser's car. "I guess it was the gearbox," said Vasser. "There's a hole this big in the gearbox." The sixth caution came out for Airton Daré's contact in turn two on lap 130. During the pit stops, Castroneves got out of the pits ahead of Scheckter to take the lead. "We lost some grip, and I was trying to get out of the way of the leaders, and I got into the marbles and hit the wall," said Daré. Robbie Buhl's car was pulled back behind the wall, but because it was not on the track, there was no yellow. "The steering rack came out," said Buhl. With 155 laps complete, Scott Dixon entered the pits under green for what appeared to be a routine stop, though out of sequence. With the series of pit stops, Scheckter and then Tora Takagi picked up the lead of the race on lap 168, becoming the first Japanese driver to lead the race. Takagi led only one lap until his pit stop. Unfortunately, Takagi overshot his pit and that caused fuel to come into the tank more slowly. Robby Gordon retired with gearbox failure and immediately left the track to head for Charlotte and the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR Winston Cup race. Buddy Lazier retired in the pits on lap 176, as Gil de Ferran held the lead over his teammate, Castroneves. On lap 183, the seventh caution came out as Sharp hit the wall in the short chute heading into turn two. The restart came on lap 187, but only for one lap as Dan Wheldon had a spectacular flip after an altercation with Sam Hornish, bringing out the eighth caution. Wheldon walked away, but it caused another clean-up. Scott Dixon spun his car on the main straight while warming up the tires and tapped the wall with his left rear tire. That delayed the re-start by two laps. The green came out with only six laps remaining in the race. Sam Hornish blew his engine with four laps remaining, but the yellow didn't come out, as Sam got the car off the track.