Tony Kanaan held off protégé Marco Andretti for the final 27 laps Sunday and won the Firestone Indy 400 in Brooklyn, Mich., a race marred by a spectacular wreck in which Andretti Green Racing teammate Dario Franchitti took a wild, upside- down ride.
“We did not have the fast car, and the kid was my wingman,” Kanaan said after crossing the finish line less than a car-length ahead of Andretti, who recently moved to Miami to live and work out with the Brazilian driver. “He protected me, but he was also trying, believe me. I said, ‘OK, let’s play it to the end.”‘
The race began 4 1/2 hours late because of rain. Only eight of 20 cars that started the 200-lap event were running at the end.
There were a couple of crashes early in the race, including one that took out defending winner Helio Castroneves and Vitor Meira, but the big one came on lap 144 when Dan Wheldon, trying to overtake Franchitti, appeared to drive his right front tire into Franchitti’s left rear tire.
Suddenly, Franchitti’s car soared high in the air, backward and upside down. He came down on top of the car driven by Scott Dixon. Before it was over, cars driven by A.J. Foyt IV, former Michigan winner Tomas Scheckter, three-time series champion Sam Hornish Jr. and Ed Carpenter also were involved.
“I’m a lucky guy,” Franchitti said.
Both Dixon and Hornish were able to return to the race, looking for points, after their crews scrambled to fix their cars.
Hornish wound up ninth and Dixon 10th, while Franchitti, who dominated the race before his crash, was 13th.
Andretti was able to move alongside Kanaan’s green No. 11 on each of the last 10 laps, but he couldn’t get past.
Scott Sharp wound up third, followed by Kosuke Matsuura, Buddy Rice and Ryan Hunter-Reay, the last car on the lead lap. Danica Patrick finished seventh, a lap down.
Formula One: Lewis Hamilton of McLaren won his third Formula One race of the year at the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest, beating Kimi Raik- konen of Ferrari and Nick Heidfeld of BMW-Sauber.
Defending F1 champion Fernando Alonso was fourth.
With six races to go, Hamilton extended his lead over Alonso in the standings to 80-73.
