Wheldon's maturation source: indycar.com / Dave Lewandowski In 2002, Sam Hornish Jr. led 166 of the 200 laps in winning at Homestead-Miami Speedway. So the distant third-place finisher in the XM Satellite Radio Indy 300 on March 24 relayed to the late-night news conference crowd what winner Dan Wheldon was experiencing. "That was one of the nicest days I had in the car," Hornish said, referring to the second of his three IndyCar Series victories on the 1.5-mile oval. "When the car handles that well, the race just can't go by fast enough." Aside from a few anxious moments during a mid-race pit stop, the XM Satellite Radio Indy 300 was a Sunday drive for Wheldon. He led 179 of the 200 laps in becoming the first IndyCar Series driver to win three consecutive years at the same racetrack. "You always want to dominate," said Wheldon, who left Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon 6.4993 seconds in his wake. "And I knew at the (Feb. 21-22) test that I had something that was very competitive. But, no, I guess I didn't think I would dominate like that. "I think everything kind of went my way to a certain degree. And with the situation that we had in the pits, we were able to not lose too much time because I could get to the front quickly and really not work the tires too much in doing so." The extended pit stop, caused when an air gun briefly got caught under a tire, dropped Wheldon to ninth. It might have rattled him in the past. Maybe it's synergy with the team entering their second season together or growth from the season-long championship battle in which he tied Hornish in points after 14 rounds but was rendered the runner-up based on a tiebreaker (four victories to two), but Wheldon quickly was on the radio to encourage crew members.
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