Current IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) has won for the second time in his career the Indianapolis 500 after dominating the May Classic for most of its duration.
Dan Wheldon (Panther Racing) inherited the runner-up spot from Tony Kanaan (Andretti Autosport) who had to get into the pits for a late splash’n go. Dale Coyne must have been pretty happy with his young driver Alex Lloyd as the Englishman finished in third, with the final standings still in doubt as Marco Andretti claims that he was passed under yellow. It was a tough outing for the Penske crew, considered the favourites, as their race went awry due to pit incidents and strategy miscues, only finishing with eighth and ninth as their best results. Franchitti, who led the majority of the race, was undoubtedly the fastest man on the track today even leading by a margin of more than 10 seconds at times. He moved from third to first within the opening turns of the race, and apart from a brief battle with Penske's Will Power early on, he only lost the lead to strategy vagaries. When polesitter Helio Castroneves (Penske) pitted eight laps from the end, Franchitti was back in command as Kanaan was mounting a charge up the field to second but, unfortunately, he had not conserved sufficient fuel and had to pit with just four laps to go. Meanwhile, Marco Andretti dropped to sixth in the confusion as the late yellow was called. The American claims that he was third when the caution happened and that the results should be amended. Fazzt's Alex Tagliani, who ran in the top four at first, faded later and tumbled to 16th, before recovering to a fine 10th place finish ahead of the unfortunate Kanaan. HVM's Simona de Silvestro was ultimately the highest-placed rookie in 13th, just beating Conquest's Mario Romancini as both all but ran dry on the last lap. Indianapolis 500 results: Pos Driver Team Gap 1. Dario Franchitti Ganassi 200 laps 2. Dan Wheldon Panther + 0.1536s 3. Alex Lloyd Dale Coyne + 20.9876s 4. Scott Dixon Ganassi + 21.4922s 5. Danica Patrick Andretti + 21.7560s 6. Marco Andretti Andretti + 23.5251s 7. Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold + 25.9761s 8. Will Power Penske + 30.2474s 9. Helio Castroneves Penske + 33.0137s 10. Alex Tagliani Fazzt + 34.2482s 11. Tony Kanaan Andretti + 59.5957s 12. Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman + 59.9739s 13. Simona de Silvestro HVM + 1m01.6745s 14. Mario Romancini Conquest + 1m05.0219s 15. Tomas Scheckter Dreyer & Reinbold + 1 lap 16. Townsend Bell Ganassi/Schmidt + 1 lap 17. Ed Carpenter Panther/Vision + 1 lap 18. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti + 2 laps 19. Mike Conway Dreyer & Reinbold + 2 laps 20. Takuma Sato KV + 2 laps 21. Ana Beatriz Dreyer & Reinbold + 4 laps 22. Bertrand Baguette Conquest + 17 laps Retirements: Sebastian Saavedra Herta 159 laps Ryan Briscoe Penske 147 laps EJ Viso KV 139 laps Sarah Fisher Sarah Fisher 125 laps Vitor Meira Foyt 105 laps Hideki Mutoh Newman/Haas 76 laps Raphael Matos De Ferran Dragon 72 laps John Andretti Andretti 62 laps Mario Moraes KV 17 laps Bruno Junqueira Fazzt 7 laps Davey Hamilton De Ferran Dragon 0 lap
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