AP News, March 25th, 2007
Winning three in a row at Homestead-Miami Speedway is fine, but Dan Wheldon was barely out of the cockpit after his season-opening victory Saturday night before he was thinking about another race win he wants more.
"This is step one toward the Indianapolis 500," said Wheldon, who won both the 500 and the IndyCar Series championship in 2005. "I'm all about the Indianapolis 500, nothing else matters to me. But to get three consecutive wins on the same speedway is a big deal, too."
The Englishman, who started from the pole, fought off an early challenge from Sam Hornish Jr., another three-time Homestead winner, and easily overcame a bad pit stop to drive away with the 12th victory of his career.
"It's a great way to open up the season," said Wheldon, who won here in 2005 with Andretti Green Racing and then again last year in his first race with current team Target Chip Ganassi Racing. "We worked very hard over the winter to improve on what we started last year. I think I underestimated how difficult the transition would be last year.
"But this is all preparation for the Indianapolis 500. Chip is really determined to win that race this year. I don't know many people as determined as I am to win that race. We even talked about that in our preseason team meetings."
Wheldon has led 345 of the last 600 laps on the 1.5-mile Homestead oval. It's the first time in the 12-year history of the IndyCar Series that a driver has won three straight races at the same track.
A crash involving Jeff Simmons, Kosuke Matsuura and A.J. Foyt IV brought out the last of three caution flags of the night on lap 92 of the 200-lap race. On the ensuing pit stops by the leaders, a crewman on Wheldon's No. 10 Ganassi team dropped a lugnut and the car came down on the speed gun.
By the time Wheldon got back on track, he had fallen from the lead to ninth. Hornish, who stalled during the same pit stop, fell to seventh, but it was Wheldon who knifed through traffic after the green flag waved again on lap 109.
He picked his way past the cars in front of him and regained the lead for good on lap 120, passing teammate Scott Dixon.
Wheldon, who led all but 21 laps, pulled away to beat Dixon by 6.499 seconds _ about a quarter of a lap. It was the biggest margin of victory in two years.
"I would have to say it's maturity and confidence in the car," Wheldon said of his charge to the front. "I think just with experience you understand the circumstances. I knew I had a good car under me and I still had about 90 laps, so I knew we could get over it."
Even Dixon, the 2003 series champion, was impressed by his teammate's charge.
"He was quick, man, no doubt about it," Dixon said. "The car was just very fast. I know our cars are very similar in setup, but I don't know if it was driving style or what. He was just quicker."
Hornish, the reigning series champion, finished third, followed by Vitor Meira and Tony Kanaan, the only other drivers on the lead lap. Ed Carpenter, stepson of series founder and CEO Tony George, ran with the leaders most of the night before finishing a lap down in sixth.
The two Ganassi drivers and Hornish and Penske Racing teammate Helio Castroneves dominated in 2006, winning 14 of 16 races, and Saturday night looked much the same, although Castroneves ran into handling problems at the end and finished a lap down in ninth.
The race was supposed to be a new start for Andretti Green Racing, which struggled all of last season after dominating the series the two previous years. But Kanaan was the only one of the AGR drivers who didn't run into problem.
Marco Andretti, last year's top rookie, finished last after his car had a mystery mechanical problem.
"I've never been so scared in my life in an IndyCar," the 20-year-old Andretti said.
Teammate Dario Franchitti couldn't quite run with the leaders, finishing a lap down in seventh, and Danica Patrick, in her first start with AGR, was running eighth before she spun and hit the wall while entering the pits for what was supposed to be her final stop. She wound up 14th.
The race started nearly an hour late because of a brief rainstorm. Light rain also brought out one of the caution flags.
The series moves to the road course at St. Petersburg next Sunday for the second of 17 races.
