Dave Lewandowski – IndyCar
BALTIMORE — For the seventh consecutive year, the IZOD IndyCar Series championship will be decided in the season finale.
Ryan Hunter-Reay, who switched to Lucky Charms for his breakfast cereal on this particular day, made sure of that with a stirring victory in the second Grand Prix of Baltimore presented by SRT. Driving the No. 28 Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda car, Hunter-Reay started 10th and overtook leader Ryan Briscoe on the front straight of a Lap 70 restart.
A full-course caution on the same lap for a four-car pileup in Turn 4 gave Briscoe, who won a week earlier at Sonoma, another shot. But Hunter-Reay used the last of his 90 seconds of push to pass on the Lap 73 restart and went on to a 1.4391-second win over Briscoe, who started 14th in the No. 2 PPG Automotive Refinishes Team Penske car.
Hunter-Reay made up 20 points on front-runner Will Power, who finished sixth in the 75-lap race on the 2.04-mile, 13-turn temporary street circuit and takes a 17-point lead into the finale Sept. 15 on the 2-mile Auto Club Speedway oval.
“We still have a shot,” a beaming Hunter-Reay said on pit lane. “We all want it bad enough, we can go get this thing. The team deserves it; it’s a matter of if we can put it together.”
Hunter-Reay has four Indy car oval victories, including two this year. Power’s lone oval victory came in 2011 on the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway.
Power, who has been the championship runner-up the past two seasons, led Dario Franchitti by 11 points entering the 2011 finale. He started the race on the 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway oval from the pole but finished 19th and, combined with Franchitti’s runner-up finish, wound up 18 points back.
“I knew it would be a day like this. It never comes easy,” said Power, who earned the three bonus points for earning the pole and leading the most laps (22). “We just have to do our best and fight like a dog till the end. We’ll come out swinging.”
Simon Pagenaud, who a week earlier clinched the Sunoco Rookie of the Year award, finished third and Scott Dixon was fourth in his 200th Indy car start. Rubens Barrichello moved Power to the left in Turn 1 of the final restart to claim fifth. Oriol Servia, who started 16th, finished seventh.
A brief rain started on Lap 17 with Power leading front-row starter Dixon by 1.2184 seconds. A full-course caution two laps later for the No. 26 Team Dr Pepper Ten car of Marco Andretti making contact with the Turn 1 tire barrier brought the top four (Power, Dixon, Sebastien Bourdais and Justin Wilson) onto pit lane to switch to the Firestone moderate rain tires. Hunter-Reay remained out on the Firestone alternate tires and assumed the point until pitting for the first time on Lap 23.
The tire strategy proved effective for the Andretti Autosport driver as the rain ceased and streets dried. Power and others pitted on Lap 27 for the alternate tires, and they also had to make a fuel stop on Lap 57. Hunter-Reay completed the race on two stops (the second on Lap 53).
No comments yet.