Newly crowned IRL IndyCar Series champion Dan Wheldon hopes to run the #1 plate on his Andretti-Green Racing Dallara-Honda in 2006. source: crash.net As champion, Wheldon's team is entitled to the run the number, which has been reserved for champions by the IRL. However only four of the previous 10 champions in the IndyCar Series have run #1 as they defended their championship: Scott Sharp (1997), Tony Stewart (1998), Greg Ray (2000) and Scott Dixon (2004). "In England, if you win the championship, that enables you to run the #1 the following year, and you do it because it somewhat takes the value of winning the championship away if you're not going to use the #1," Wheldon said. "That's how it's perceived certainly with the people I know in Europe. My intention would be to run it if I'm allowed. Certainly that's what I'm going to push for." Though he considers himself extremely superstitious, Wheldon said he doesn't fear any "#1 jinx." "I know it certainly didn't fare well for Scott Dixon, but I don't think that was through any fault of his own," Wheldon said. "That year, things didn't go their way. They had some bad luck. I don't think that was down to Scott." Currently Wheldon runs with the #26 on his Klein Tools/Jim Beam sponsored machine. His predecessor, AGR teammate Tony Kanaan did not run the #1 plate in 2005, instead choosing to continue with the #11 plate he ran in 2004 in deference to his primary sponsors 7-Eleven.
Recent Articles
|
Racing Multimedia
Recommendations |