Subscription

Car Racing

Motorcycle Racing

Racing in Oz

Shop

2005 INDYCAR IRL - KENTUCKY

2005 INDYCAR - Aug. 14, 2005 Kentucky Speedway, Sparta, 1 1/2 mile oval

COURSE:

• KENTUCKY Speedway, Sparta, Kentucky
• 1.5 mile asphalt tri-oval
• LAST YEAR'S RESULT: 2004
• 1 Adrian Fernandez 200 laps
• 2 Buddy Rice +0.058
• 3 Dan Wheldon
• 4 Kosuke Matsuura
• 5 Tony Kanaan
• 6 Dario Franchitti

RACE RESULT

• 1 Scott Sharp , 200 laps
  "Wow! What an awesome day. I don't even know where to really begin. I am just so thankful to Delphi, Adrian (Fernandez), Tom (Anderson), my engineering staff and the entire team. This is just a team that never quits. The guys worked so hard between Michigan and Kentucky to get us stronger. We made a lot of changes between the warm-up and the race that made the car faster, and the guys gave me great pit stops today. Everything came together. I am just so appreciative for the opportunity that I have been given here, and thankful that I was able to show everybody what I could do."
• 2 Vitor Meira +0.07
  "A Honda one-two finish is great. The Menards Johns Manville car kicked butt again. That's what it's all about. This team wants to win and deserves to win. We give ourselves chances to win, and as long as we are doing that, we are fine. There was no way I could get him (Scott Sharp) on the outside. I would have had to catch him on the restarts which I didn't, or pass him on the inside on the last lap. I was waiting for that to happen, trying sixth gear, but couldn't do it. The important thing is that the Menards Johns Manville car was up there again."
• 3 Dan Wheldon +0.51
  "I think it was a good result for the Klein Tools/Jim Beam car today, but it was a real shame that my three teammates didn't finish the race. That's disappointing. I felt kind of lonely out there. It was a real shame. Overall, it was a good result. I think everyone did the job that they could do, and we came up a little short. But everybody should be commended for the job they did. I think from a championship standpoint, it doesn't look too bad."
• 4 Alex Barron
• 5 Helio Castroneves
• 6 Buddy Lazier
• 7 Sam Hornish Jr.
• 8 Kosuke Matsuura
• 9 A.J. Foyt IV
• 10 Jimmy Kite
• 11 Tomas Enge
• 12 Patrick Carpentier
• 13 Ryan Briscoe
• 14 Buddy Rice
• 15 Jaques Lazier
• 16 Danica Patrick
• DNF: Franchitti, Herta, Kanaan, Scheckter, Carpenter, Dixon

QUALIFYING

GRID, AUG 13, 2005 (afternoon qualifying session rained out)

• 1 Danica Patrick, Rahal Letterman Racing, 24.4947s, 217.516 mph
  "Most of the tracks on the IRL circuit are ovals with pretty simple themes. But a place like here at Kentucky, with its bumps, makes for a lot of different setups. Even though it is an oval, the characteristics are different from the other 1.5-mile ovals. Every track is a battle into its own. My engineer Ray (Leto) came up with a good plan for this weekend. The pole is the pole in any situation. I think we would have had a car for the pole in qualifying, plus it is always to our advantage to have a Honda engine. It was clear in the afternoon practice when we were preparing for qualifying then I looked up and there were several black clouds. Next thing I knew it was raining hard. I thought it would blow over and we would get in qualifying. I never thought qualifying would be rained out today. It feels good to win a pole with this field."
• 2 Dan Wheldon
  "I'm pretty happy to be starting up front. Every time we come back here I feel the bumps a little bit more. Quite frankly I don't think you'll see the same kind of side-by-side racing like in the past because of that. I try to stay away from them; drive around them, but in the race I may have to go over them,"
• 3 Sam Hornish Jr.
• 4 Scott Dixon
  "We had a pretty good day and the no.9 Target Toyota was quick from the start. We actually didn't work very much on qualifying set up so it worked out quite well. It might have been fun to see where we might have ended up in qualifying but a fifth place starting position is respectable. We still need to do some full tank run as we have too much understeer in traffic but things look good for the race"
• 5 Tony Kanaan
• 6 Vitor Meira
• 7 Scott Sharp
• 8 Buddy Lazier
• 9 Dario Franchitti
• 10 Buddy Rice
• 11 Herta 12 Foyt IV 13 Briscoe 14 Matsuura 15 Castroneves 16 Yasukawa 17 Lazier 18 Barron 19 Carpentier 20 Kite 21 Carpenter 22 Scheckter 23 Enge

RACE PREVIEW

• WHELDON: "Kentucky is a very important race for me because it is the base for one of my co-primary sponsors, Jim Beam. Kentucky is a difficult track, for sure, but it's also a track where the Klein Tools/Jim Beam team has had some success in the past. I hope to build on my championship lead and see if we can continue to win races."
• FRANCHITTI: "I'm looking forward to racing at Kentucky. There is always a great crowd on hand for the event. The ArcaEx team has been very strong over the past five outings and, hopefully, we will have another strong performance, as we did on the 1.5-mile oval at Kansas."
• KANAAN: "The Team 7-Eleven car has been very strong on the 1.5-mile ovals this year; we finished third at both Homestead and Texas and won at Kansas. We are going to Kentucky with the idea of having another victory lane celebration."