AUTO RACING
Franchitti Holds Off Andretti At Iowa
Published: Jun 25, 2007
Related Links:
ADVERTISEMENT
More from this channel:
Search for more information:
NEWTON, IOWA - IndyCar Series points leader Dario Franchitti survived a slippery short oval and a furious late charge from teammate Marco Andretti to win the inaugural Iowa Corn Indy 250 on Sunday.
Franchitti, whose other victory in 2007 came at the Indy 500, won by 0.0681 seconds. The win helped Franchitti open up a 51-point lead against Tony Kanaan in the points race.
Scott Sharp was third, followed by Buddy Rice and Darren Manning. Eight of the top 10 drivers in the current points standings, including Kanaan and Sam Hornish Jr., were either involved in crashes or had mechanical trouble through the first 100 laps.
Andretti seems to have snapped out of his sophomore slump. It was his best finish of the season, and it came after five races where he didn't crack the top 10.
A multiple-car crash on the 99th lap changed the course of the race, knocking Danica Patrick, Sam Hornish Jr., A.J. Foyt IV and Kosuke Matsuura out of the race. Patrick made contact with Ed Carpenter, and Hornish Jr. and Foyt IV got tangled up in the mess. Carpenter's car spun around completely, but he continued.
"It's a cold day and the tires are really hard," Patrick said. "Unfortunately, this is just a lost race."
The first caution came out after Tomas Scheckter collided with St. Petersburg's Dan Wheldon when the back end of Wheldon's car flew open on the first lap. The accident knocked Scheckter out of the race and put Wheldon hopelessly behind.
Wheldon finished 11th.
CLEVELAND GRAND PRIX: Paul Tracy held off rookie Robert Doornbos on a frantic final lap to win his third Grand Prix of Cleveland, ending a three-race winning streak by St. Petersburg resident Sebastien Bourdais.
Tracy's 31st career victory, and first in the series since winning here in 2005, came after he was involved in two early accidents, mishaps that forced his pit crew to change his front wing twice in the first seven laps.
"It was by no means a nice, comfortable, easy, pretty win," Tracy said. "It was ugly. It was messy. It's not the way I would have liked to have won a race."
Rookie Graham Rahal, trying to win on the same track where his dad, Bobby, finished first in 1982, was critical of Tracy's tactics. Rahal was clipped from behind by Tracy on the 10-turn airport layout.
"He tried to put me in the grass," the 18-year-old driver said. "Tracy just punted me. ... He's wild and he'll put you in the fence and doesn't care about it."
After starting seventh and falling back in the pack because of the wrecks, Tracy worked his way through the field and finished .513 seconds ahead of Doornbos and another rookie, Neel Jani, who was 5.405 seconds back in third.
The victory made Tracy the third three-time winner in Cleveland, joining Danny Sullivan and Emerson Fittipaldi.
NHRA: Drag racing legend Don "the Snake" Prudhomme celebrated a double win Sunday as his two drivers - Larry Dixon in Top Fuel and Tommy Johnson Jr. in Funny Car - pulled off a pair of wins at the 38th annual ProCare Rx NHRA SuperNationals at Englishtown, N.J. Pro Stock winner Greg Anderson tallied his 49th career victory, which ties him with Prudhomme on the all-time winner's list.
COT CRACKDOWN: With a new system of templates and sensors to measure the parameters of the taller, wider and reputedly safer Car of Tomorrow, NASCAR chairman Brian France said the sanctioning organization wants to leave no doubts that it will come down hard on infractions.
"We have to lay down the law," France said Sunday at Infineon Raceway, where the Nextel Cup cars raced in the Toyota/Save Mart 350.
That doesn't bode well for the teams of Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, who were parked for Friday's practice and qualifying after NASCAR inspectors found front fenders on their COT Chevrolets had been illegally modified.
The two Hendrick Motorsports drivers were allowed to race Sunday, starting from the rear of the field, but it is expected that NASCAR will follow up with more severe penalties.
