IRL Anticlimax At Texas

The IRL's Alamo 500k at Texas is usually the most anticipated race of the season, because of its history of spectacular sidedraft warfare for the lead, a reputation first begun in 1998 in a huge racelong fight won by Billy Boat over Greg Ray and Kenny Brack, and cemented by June 2000's all-time epic multicar war won by Scott Sharp over Robby McGehee. That reputation continued with Scott Goodyear's spectacular finish over Eddie Cheever in October 2000 and further by Scott Sharp's spectacular win after a 40-lap fight with Cheever and Ray in which Ray tried to blast under a slow car and wrecked himself and Cheever.

Panther Racing had won twice with Goodyear, but with Sam Hornish they triumphed in back-to-back Lone Star 500ks, first in October 2001 in a rollicking three-abreast photo finish, then in September 2002 in a race-long sidedraft showdown over Helio Castroneves.

As IRL cars have gotten slicker the weakening draft has affected ability to pass, and the anticlimatic fuel duel win by Castroneves over Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon in June 2006 is the most galling such anticlimax yet. Sam Hornish had won the pole but took a back seat all race to Wheldon, who pushed Chip Ganassi's #10 into the lead and stayed there unchallenged all night. Late fuel stops necessitated by a dearth of yellows wiped out Wheldon's edge and left Hornish in a particularly frustrated finish after he stalled getting out of his final splash-and-go.

The win is Penske Racing's fourth of the IRL season to two for Ganassi, and this monopoly has left other strong teams fuming and working still harder to steal it. Andretti-Green Racing, Vision Racing, and A.J. Foyt's #14 driven by Felipe Giaffone were the only cars that could get a sniff of the dominant Penske-Ganassi fleets, while Sharp parlayed fuel strategy to put his Adrian Fernandez car into top ten contention.

Giaffone's disappointing finish is doubly galling because of his rally from last after not posting a qualifying time into the top ten, a superb drive coming off his solid top five at Watkins Glen. And further showing how upside down finishes can be from on-track performance, Danica Patrick slogged through the race with a new Dallara chassis yet managed a decent finish, a far cry from the abysmal night the rest of Rahal-Letterman Racing had between Jeff Simmons' slow speeds and Buddy Rice's blown engine.

The IRL teams hit a quick Kansas test before taking this weekend off before hitting Richmond Raceway, which should be a tense affair as Richmond races tend to be.