Andretti Green Racing's hopes of a second straight IndyCar Series victory were halved when two of its contenders clashed in pit-lane, ending any chance either had of taking the chequer in the Kansas Lottery Indy 300. source: crash.net While Danica Patrick was unlikely to have challenged eventual winner Dan Wheldon, team-mate Tony Kanaan had started on pole and run ahead of the Briton in the opening laps. However, contact between the two AGR cars during an early round of pit-stops restricted the Brazilian to 15th place, while Patrick recovered to seventh. Kanaan fended Wheldon off for eight laps while attempting to fine-tuning the Team 7-Eleven car and dealing with a slight understeer condition. Having been demoted by the Ganassi entry, he pitted under green flag conditions for the first time on lap 49, only to be hit by the Motorola car of Patrick as she exited her stall. Kanaan spent several laps in the pits for repairs to the inside front of his car before returning to the race. "This is an extremely disappointing day," was all the Brazilian would say afterwards, "The Team 7-Eleven car was capable of winning." Race strategist George Klotz was a little more forthcoming, admitting that the incident had been one of those things. "I don't know what to say - it is definitely unfortunate," he sighed, "Tony is mad, and I feel bad for Danica too. It is just something that happened." Patrick, for her part, said that she was unaware of Kanaan's whereabouts, having been told to go after her stop. "Seventh is our best result of the year, but it is not what we want," she admitted, "We had an alright day on the track, but we obviously had a problem in the pits. I might actually be the worst person to ask [about the clash] because, when you're sitting in the car, you listen and you look for when to go. Kim [Green] is on the radio and 'Poppy' [crew chief Dave Popielarz], on my right front, he tells me when to go too. I listened to them and they said 'go.' "Obviously, TK was there, and I feel bad because Tony had a really fast car, for sure. But it cost both of us a chance to win a race for AGR. That is never what we want."
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