IRL: A tight victory for Briscoe at Chicagoland

Penske’s Ryan Briscoe was able to fend off attacks from his opponents to finally win at Chicagoland in a breathtaking finish with a mere lead of 0.077seconds.

The polesitter was followed at the finish line by 13 cars that managed to be within eight tenths of a second off the leader.

Mario Moraes (KV Racing) claimed his first podium while Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) was third. Graham Rahal (NHLR) and Ed Carpenter (Vision) completed the top 5.

Briscoe had dominated the first half of the race, even tough Helio Castroneves (Penske) and current champion Scott Dixon (Ganassi) were never far behind.; Dixon even managing to lead for a few laps after the first round of pitstop.

But, on a circuit like Chicagoland, traffic was bound to be a factor and when the four-car Ganassi and Penske lead pack got glued into it, Briscoe had his share of problems, even falling to fourth place at one time.

Moreover, a parking miscue cost Briscoe more ground at the second stops, the Australian having stopped too far from his crew, leaving Castroneves and Dixon to battle for the lead.

Following a yellow caused by Marco Andretti (AGR) brush with the wall, Castroneves lost ground in the pits and then struggled to get back out of the midfield and, later, a problem at the rear of his car sent the Brazilian into the wall with 16 laps to go.

Briscoe attacked Dixon throughout the remaining nine laps of green flag racing while Moraes and Rahal managed to get involved in the battle.

On the last lap, Briscoe again moved in front out of the final corner, doing just enough to pip Dixon to the line, as Moraes did likewise to Franchitti right behind them.

Next round will be the Japan Indy 300 on September 19th presented at the Motegi circuit.


IndyCar Chicagoland - Results

Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1. Ryan Briscoe Penske 1h42m34.3051s
2. Scott Dixon Ganassi + 0.0077s
3. Mario Moraes KV + 0.0699s
4. Dario Franchitti Ganassi + 0.0997s
5. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan + 0.1295s


IndyCar Standings – After Chicagoland

Pos. Driver Points
1. Ryan Briscoe 550
2. Dario Franchitti 525
3. Scott Dixon 517
4. H. Castroneves 383
5. D. Patrick 353