Losing the race, but winning the title
JOLIET, Ill. – Sam Hornish Jr.’s strategy was simple: Stay out of trouble and avoid mistakes.
He did just that Sunday and claimed his third IRL series championship.
While Dan Wheldon beat Target Chip Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon by 0.1897 seconds to win the PEAK Antifreeze Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway, Hornish finished third, 0.2323 seconds behind. But he celebrated a championship.
“I can’t think of how next year could be any better, but hopefully, it is,” said Hornish, the series winner in 2001 and 2002 for Panther Racing.
Hornish and Wheldon finished the season with 475 points, but Hornish had four victories – two more than Wheldon. And he did enough Sunday to give Marlboro Team Penske owner Roger Penske his first title and claim a $1 million bonus.
“When we came over to the IRL, our goal was to win a championship,” Penske said. “The guy sitting on my right (Hornish) beat us the first two years – beat us like a drum. To get him on the team and then deliver here is pretty special. … This is another one for the record books. But we’ve got to do it next year.”
The day began with Penske driver Helio Castroneves holding a one-point lead over Hornish with 431, with Wheldon and Dixon 19 and 21 points back, respectively.
Castroneves was fourth on Sunday and finished the season with 473 points, while Dixon was fourth at 460.
With about 30 laps left, Wheldon and Dixon began trading leads, one refusing to yield to the other. Not with the championship at stake – and not with Hornish right behind.
Wheldon felt he needed the three bonus points for leading the most laps, so he was aggressive from the start. The same goes for Dixon.
Wheldon led with 10 to go and stayed in front, while Dixon and Hornish volleyed the second and third spots over the final laps.
The way the season went, it was fitting that things ended this way – a tight race, with Ganassi and Penske drivers jockeying for position.
The two teams dominated most of the year, winning 11 of 13 races.
Schumacher wins, will retire
Michael Schumacher climbed to the top of the podium, where he has been so many times. He took a long look at the sea of red-clad Ferrari fans below, and told them what they didn’t want to hear.
He was retiring from Formula One after the season, ending one of the great careers in sports, let alone auto racing. Fittingly enough, his announcement came after he won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Italy.
“The day has to come, and I felt this was the moment,” the 37-year-old German said. “After the checkered flag I came on the radio and told all my friends in the team what I was about to announce, and it was really difficult to keep my emotions under control.”
He will leave the sport following the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix on Oct. 22.
On Sunday, Schumacher won in 1 hour, 14 minutes, 51.975 seconds. Raikkonen was 8.046 seconds behind and Kubica of BMW-Sauber was 26.414 back.