Kansas race recap
photo: Shawn Payne
This was definitely a crazy weekend at Kansas Speedway. The Camping World Truck Series, Firestone Indy Lights and the IndyCar Series all took to the track over the past three days. Saturday night the track fell victim to tornadoes. Nobody was said to be injured but some small structures were damaged.
The IndyCar Series Kansas Road Runner Turbo Indy 300 went the distance today despite the threat of rain all afternoon. At first race control was concerned about the race making it to at least lap 101 where it would have been official. With the threat of rain immenent, different strategies were tossed around in pit lane.
Strategies did pay off for the big 3. Andretti Green Racing, Target Chip Ganassi racing, and Penske Racing all had at least one car that finished in the top 5. Dario Franchitti was one of a few drivers that had on track incidents that ended their race day early. Dario locked up the brakes behind Graham Rahal on lap 153 as they were both dropping to the low side of the track to enter pit lane. Dario went up the banking into the wall to avoid Rahal. Raphael Matos had a rear end wiggle from dirty air that was significant enough to take him into the safer barrier towards the exit of turn 4 on lap 97.
All of the Andretti Green cars ran well finishing in the top 10. Kanaan finished in P3, Danica in P5, Marco in P6 and Mutoh in P8. AGR looks to carry this momentum into the month of May. Danica qualified well in P3as well. The team has turned it around at Long Beach and Kansas after a rough start to the season on the Streets of St. Petersburg. Tony Kanaan is now leading the IndyCar Series championship point standings.
Helio worked his way up the field to to finish 2nd after starting in the back of the field with Franchitti due to being dis-qualified during the qualifying session on Saturday. Helio has proved to be one of the best when it comes to improving positions. Last year he went from last to first at Chicagoland winning the last points race of the 2008 season.
We are off to Indy! Month of May coverage starts on Saturday May 9th at noon on Versus and Versus HD
