Round 12 of the Indy Racing League at Kentucky Speedway
source: Max d'Orsonnens - Scott Sharp Ends Victory Drought With Win at Kentucky Canadian driver Patrick Carpentier's weekend in the State of Kentucky did not end the way he had hope for as he finished 12th overall in Round 12 of the Indy Racing League Indy Car Series race held Sunday at the Kentucky Speedway. Starting 19th for the second consecutive race, the Red Bull Cheever Racing driver was never able to catch up to the leaders as he ran most of the 200-lap race between 10th and 15th place. After the last pit stop on lap 177, he was right on the heels of his teammate when disaster struck. First, his sway bar broke, which prevented him from adjusting his car as the green flag fell for the final restart, and then Danica Patrick, who was 16 laps down, suddenly braked in front of Carpentier who had to do the same to avoid hitting her. Several cars ran full blast past the Canadian driver, who was not able to do anything about it. Despite his 12th place finish, Carpentier is still 10th in the standings with 267 points, 20 points away from 9th place held by South African driver Tomas Scheckter. ''The sway bar (a stabilizing bar that controls the fore and aft rocking motion of the car) broke after the last pit stop,'' Carpentier said. ''To make matters worse, Danica (Patrick, 16 laps down on the leaders) who was ahead of me for the final restart, suddenly slammed on the brakes as the green flag was waved, and I had to do the same to avoid contact. Several cars passed me as they were all on full throttle while I was on the brakes. It's quite disappointing. I was running along well until this happened. The last restart is the most critical one in IRL. When something like this happens, your day is almost over. The Toyota engine was running well today, but we still need more power to challenge the Honda powered cars. As for the next event on the short one-mile Pikes Peak track, I will let you know how things go after the first day of practice.'' Dan Wheldon was dominant in this race leading 104 of the 200-lap AMBER Alert Portal Indy 300, but finished third, half a second behind race winner Scott Sharp. The American driver fended off attacks, during the last 31 laps, from Brazilian driver Vitor Meira of Team Rahal Letterman who finished second, only 0.0779 seconds behind Sharp. Dan Wheldon actually lost the lead and the race during his last pit stop as he overshot his pit box, which led his Andretti-Green crew to lose at least two seconds getting him out of the pits. That was enough for Sharp to come out first, followed by Meira. Sharp hung on for the second consecutive win for Fernandez Racing (Adrian Fernandez won in 2004). For Sharp, it was his first win in 41 IRL races, with his previous victory coming in the 2003 race at Twin Ring Motegi, Japan.
Recent Articles
|
Racing Multimedia
Recommendations |