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Sunday, 19 June 2011 03:41 |
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Page 1 of 2  On Father's Day, Dario Franchitti inherited the race lead on Lap 200 when Helio Castroneves had to guide the #3 Guidepoint Systems Team Penske car into the pits for a quick change of a tire losing pressure and went on to 1.4271 second victory in the Milwaukee 225 at the Milwaukee Mile.
"That was a hell of a run today. The first part of the race I thought I had a bit of an advantage on everybody. Very tough, as usual here. Tough on your own just balancing the car, but then you get in traffic and it gets really difficult. It's the same for everyone," said Franchitti, who ties Rick Mears with 29 victories and is ninth on the all time list.
"Then Tony came marching along and he looked really, really strong, and he gave me a hard time as usual. Great day. To win here at Milwaukee is always special. It's such hard work and a such a hard race. It's a delight for the Target Team and we got the Downy colors in Victory Lane," added the Scotsman.
Graham Rahal finished second and Oriol Servia recorded a season high third place, Will Power advanced from the 17th starting position (a season low) to finish fourth and Danica Patrick posted her first top five of the season.
Franchitti, by virtue of three bonus points for earning the PEAK Performance Pole Award and leading the most laps, tied Power for the IZOD IndyCar Series championship points lead heading into the race under the lights at Iowa Speedway on June 25.
Power said: "A couple double file restarts were good for me, a couple were bad. I'm pretty happy to get the Verizon car up there. I guess we are equal on points now. Good job by Dario. He came back after Texas to teach us a lesson, so I guess we will have to be quick at Iowa. We just have to keep fighting away, keep having good days like this and make no mistakes and we'll be good."
Simona de Silvestro, whose car made rear end contact with the SAFER Barrier in Turn 4 during the second warm-up lap of her qualifying run at the Milwaukee Mile, was cleared to drive this morning by INDYCAR medical director Dr. Michael Olinger.
She started 26th in the Milwaukee 225 in the #78 Nuclear Clean Air Energy car after the HVM Racing crew worked overnight to repair the car.
De Silvestro was taken to the infield care centre and was transfered by ground to Froedert Medical Center for further observation and was released about 22h15 (local time).
It was the second on track incident in a month for de Silvestro, who suffered first and second degree burns to her hands in a practice day crash at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
MILWAUKEE 225 POST RACE NOTES:
- This is Dario Franchitti's third win of 2011 and the 29th win of his Indy car career. He also won at St. Petersburg and Texas1 earlier this year.
- Graham Rahal finished second, matching his season best finish at Sao Paulo. Rahal has finished on the podium three times this season. Rahal's father, Bobby, finished second three times at Milwaukee in his Indy car career.
- Oriol Servia finished third, his best finish of the season. Servia score his first Indy car podium at Milwaukee with Newman/Haas Racing in 2005.
- Will Power finished fourth, his sixth top five finish of the season.
- Danica Patrick finished fifth, her first top five of the season and first top five since she finished second at last season's finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
- James Hinchcliffe finished sixth and was the highest finishing Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate.
MILWAUKEE 225 RACE STATISTICS:
Winners average speed: 117.390
Time of Race: 1h56'43.5877
Margin of victory: 1.4271 seconds.
Cautions: 6 for 62 laps
Lead changes: 5 among 3 drivers
Lap Leaders:
Franchitti 1-115, Kanaan 116-134, Franchitti 135-153, Kanaan 154-167, Castroneves 168-198, Franchitti 199-225
Point Standings:
Power 271, Franchitti 271, Servia 198, Dixon 195, Rahal 176, Kanaan 171, Briscoe 165, Tagliani 147, Sato 142, Patrick 141.
MILWAUKEE 225 RACE RESULTS:
| Pos. |
Started |
Driver |
Car |
Laps |
Status |
| 1. |
1 |
Dario Franchitti |
Dallara-Honda |
225 |
Running |
| 2. |
12 |
Graham Rahal |
Dallara-Honda |
225 |
Running |
| 3. |
10 |
Oriol Servia |
Dallara-Honda |
225 |
Running |
| 4. |
17 |
Will Power |
Dallara-Honda |
225 |
Running |
| 5. |
15 |
Danica Patrick |
Dallara-Honda |
225 |
Running |
| 6. |
16 |
James Hinchcliffe |
Dallara-Honda |
225 |
Running |
| 7. |
3 |
Scott Dixon |
Dallara-Honda |
225 |
Running |
| 8. |
5 |
Takuma Sato |
Dallara-Honda |
225 |
Running |
| 9. |
2 |
Helio Castroneves |
Dallara-Honda |
225 |
Running |
| 10. |
13 |
Justin Wilson |
Dallara-Honda |
225 |
Running |
| 11. |
8 |
Ryan Briscoe |
Dallara-Honda |
225 |
Running |
| 12. |
20 |
Mike Conway |
Dallara-Honda |
225 |
Running |
| 13. |
9 |
Marco Andretti |
Dallara-Honda |
225 |
Running |
| 14. |
21 |
Charlie Kimball |
Dallara-Honda |
224 |
Running |
| 15. |
23 |
James Jakes |
Dallara-Honda |
223 |
Running |
| 16. |
25 |
Ed Carpenter |
Dallara-Honda |
223 |
Running |
| 17. |
11 |
Ana Beatriz |
Dallara-Honda |
222 |
Running |
| 18. |
19 |
Alex Tagliani |
Dallara-Honda |
196 |
Running |
| 19. |
4 |
Tony Kanaan |
Dallara-Honda |
194 |
Contact |
| 20. |
6 |
EJ Viso |
Dallara-Honda |
163 |
Contact |
| 21. |
18 |
JR Hildebrand |
Dallara-Honda |
120 |
Contact |
| 22. |
14 |
Alex Lloyd |
Dallara-Honda |
79 |
Contact |
| 23. |
24 |
Sebastian Saavedra |
Dallara-Honda |
78 |
Contact |
| 24. |
22 |
Vitor Meira |
Dallara-Honda |
69 |
Mechanical |
| 25. |
26 |
Simona de Silvestro |
Dallara-Honda |
11 |
Handling |
| 26. |
7 |
Ryan Hunter-Reay |
Dallara-Honda |
0 |
Contact |
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