Sun Apr 27 19:47:33 2008

Comment | Email | Print

Wheldon strategy beats Dixon

---

Kansas City, KS (Sports Network) - Dan Wheldon wasn't as fast as his teammate Scott Dixon, but he saved fuel by following his Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate for most of the day and it paid off with a win.

The key point of the race came when Dixon pitted from the lead on lap 152. Wheldon stayed out because he had more fuel and when Dixon got caught on pit lane by a caution flag, his chance to win was essentially over.

Wheldon captured Sunday afternoon's Road Runner Turbo Indy 300 at the Kansas Speedway crossing the finish line 2.1778 seconds ahead of Tony Kanaan.

The victory was Wheldon's first of the season and 14th of his IndyCar career. Dixon, Helio Castroneves and Marco Andretti completed the top-five.

This one started out like it was going to be a Dixon romp. He led 94 of the first 100 laps. Just before the mid-point of the 200-lap event it was teammates Dixon and Wheldon dominating. They were just four lengths apart, but more than eight seconds ahead of third place Ed Carpenter.

But an Ernesto Viso-Tomas Scheckter accident brought out the caution flag and erased the big lead.

On the restart, Dixon and Wheldon's plan was to keep the lead, but try to stretch their fuel so that they would only need one more stop to reach the checkered flag. The only problem with the strategy was that third place Tony Kanaan wanted no part of it and immediately pressured the two leaders.

The No.11 AGR driver was just half-a-second behind the leaders with 80 laps remaining. The trio was still one-two-three with 50 laps to go. Then Dixon caught the bad break while refueling.

Buddy Rice spun and crashed bringing out a caution flag. Kanaan and Wheldon were able to pit under caution while Dixon's stop had come under green flag conditions. The Penske cars of Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe also pitted with Wheldon. Patrick pitted too, but they found the right-rear suspension bent and her chance to win back-to-back races was over.

Having gotten caught on pit lane when the caution flag came out, left Dixon in seventh place on the restart, with 27 laps to go. He was fifth with 20 laps to go, but was almost four seconds behind his teammate. One more lap and he caught both Briscoe and Castroneves - he was third.

Up front Wheldon was still leading Kanaan by 0.350 seconds and it was apparent that Dixon could not catch the leaders. After dominating, Dixon would have to settle for third place.

Ten laps remained and Wheldon was holding off Kanaan. The margin was staying the same, not shrinking, not growing. Then Wheldon lapped Jay Howard, but Kanaan was caught behind him and Wheldon's lead jumped to almost two seconds.

From there the No.10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver cruised to his first win of the season.

Castroneves' fourth place finish keeps him at the top of the standings, but the margin to second place Dixon has been cut to six points. Wheldon also cut into the lead as is third overall, just nine points back.

The IndyCar Series moves to Indianapolis for the month of May ending with the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, May 25th.